Ellesmere Festival

4 Locks 4 Miles. Now moored at Ellesmere just West of the BW works yard.

Staircase Frankton Locks

Our time on the Montgomery has come to an end and we were booked to exit through the Frankton flight at noon. When we made contact with the lock keeper he told us that 12 boats were leaving the Monty and only 2 were booked to enter. This of course created a problem with the water level in the pounds between locks 2 and 3. While we were waiting in this pound we finished up high and dry with more of the rudder showing than usual. The lock keeper let an extra lock full of water down before he brought the next boat down so as to keep us all afloat.

4 Locks drop the canal on to the Montgomery Canal nearly 31 foot below

Once back out on the mainline we met up with plenty of hire boats which there has been a conspicuous absence of on the Monty. It was a good cruising day, warm and slightly overcast but we were in no hurry as we were not going far. It was good to see that most of the grain crops we had seen earlier had finally been harvested.

We had been given some tips on where we might find a mooring near the festival site at Ellesmere but the first one proved to be too shallow, typical! However we found one about 100 yards further on which is just outside the reserved moorings for the festival.

After getting our selves organised we walked into town past all the 50 odd boats that were being decorated for the best decorated boat competition. Some of them are real works of art so when they are complete we will put some piccies of the best ones on the blog. Tonight there is to be a fireworks display so that's something to look forward to.

1440 locks, 2096 miles, 50 Tunnels, 42 swing bridges and 30 lift bridges since Nov 2006