Retirement with No Problem

Weekend and Today – Audlem to Market Drayton, Shropshire Union Canal, 7.25 miles 20 locks

Here is the pic I promised you..

This was my view from the windows of No Problem on Friday. This must be one of the best back gardens on the whole system!

By Saturday No Problem was moored outside the Shroppie Fly, and with that the obvious photo..

I wonder how many people have got this photo with their boat in that little alcove.  Well we had a reason to be in that alcove you see.. maintenance time for our front fender..

It is an ideal place to re-tighten the protective tyre that we have protecting our fender!  While Vic was doing that, I nipped into the canalside mill which is now a very interesting shop to see if Paul Balmer’s Waterway Routes DVDs had arrived.  I had read on his blog that they were to have a delivery of the Four Counties Ring and the Llangollen Canals.. Sure enough, here they are on a good display..

“We only got them in yesterday” said the lady “And already we have sold one!”  Well I am sure you will sell many more Paul, they are, in my opinion, the best DVDs on the market at the moment.

We had already done three of the fifteen locks of the Audlem flight, the weather was wonderful, and hooray I got my turn at locking while Vic brought No Problem under the bridge at Audlem into the lock..

A vicious shove of water as you can see from the left to right, but there is some heavy wood to protect the boats from the stone walls, but it is almost impossible not to bang the boats.  On up the flight and Vic gets bored and takes over my job sending me back to No Problem..

But I don’t mind.. tis good to see Vic getting some exercise in, and in any case, I will step off the boat as she goes into the lock and walk up those steps on the right to shut the gate and open the front paddles to raise the boat crewless to the next pound (a stretch of water between two locks).  So I get some exercise too!

Heh, Meg is the only crew member at one of the locks.. she looks a bit worried wondering if I am going to board No Problem!..

On Sunday we moored for the day at the bottom of the Adderley flight of locks.. An invite for lunch aboard Moore2Life was followed by watching England win their game against France at Twickenham.. thank goodness for that too!

We very much enjoyed the Audlem and Adderley flights of locks…

These paddles that open to let the water fill the lock to raise NP are well maintained and are very easy to raise.  It is no wonder I like this canal so much.