Sitting Duck

Day Six: on the Cheshire Canals

We set off from Blake Mere just past Ellesmere & our target was to make a return visit back to Grindley Brook & the scene of the sinking some nights before. We pootled along in the morning, doing nothing overly extravagant. We watched a couple of Golden Girls, Season 2, & I began finally getting into Peter James's new Roy Grace book, Not Dead Yet, it's getting quite exciting now. I'm also trying to re-master (ha) the Rubiks Cube & beat my best time of 1min 40secs (if my memory serves me correctly). A few lift bridges provided some light physical exercise every now & then too.

We stopped for a little picnic lunch on the barge roof at some random spot along the canal (they all seem rather random & in the middle of nowhere if you're not lucky enough to pull up beside a pub!) Beautiful weather again today, that's more like it.

In the afternoon we began encountering locks again & eventually reached a string of 6 locks, more or less in a row, with the 3 Staircase Locks at Grindley Brook for starters. Shortly before we reached them, we did happen to spy a certain barge now moored up with an engine that was seemingly running ok, the Bar Headed Goose was back above water & where it should be; no more the sitting (or sinking) duck. Thankfully we had no troubles navigating the Locks & the Lock Keeper was there to lend a hand as well. We all had an ice cream for our well deserved efforts.

The ducks were out in full force & were hand feeding from Jenny again, which was funny to watch. I thought this would make for a quirky little Blip. They seem to bicker & squawk quite a bit but then they do love the bread!

We finally got some TV reception & so much of this evening after dinner was spent ogling the Olympics & specifically the relay finals. Team GB still on top form, despite a slight wane in Gold Medals today, still a few days left.

Last full day tomorrow, so let's hope for some more of this sunshine & some easy cruising.