We knew that we were not going far until 12pm today.. as the locks would not be open.. so we set off about 11:30 – plenty of time to get to the locks before noon and hopefully be the first down..
Were we the first down.. no chance..
There were 5 waiting to go down.. and 3 coming up.. in all.. it took an hour and a half to go down 4 locks.. 2 of which were a staircase :
The 5th lock on this stretch though (The Graham Palmer Lock), whilst its a lock.. only drops a foot..
Its a very “rural” canal – not as wide as you would expect a canal to be.. and there is a reduced speed limit – which is fair enough as I’m sure they don’t want the banks eroding away narrowing the already reduced width.. but its not that narrow that you cant get two boats past each other!
The section between Perry Aqueduct and Keepers Bridge is overgrown on the offside – and there was a boat coming the other way.. so I backed it up to a clear section and let them through.. as I didn’t want to force them into the trees taking out chunks of paintwork and possibly skin along with it!..
There are some very interesting bridge combinations on this stretch..
And eventually to Queens Head.
We did moor the other side of the Queens Head bridge.. where there are a few car parking spaces right next to the boat – however: its on the B5009, and this is a feeder road for the A5 – which means lots of fast moving traffic..
And Shaemus.. being a dopey sod.. was sitting in the middle of the road when a car came down it at 60mph.. screech of brakes and a quivering driver later.. he was scooped up and promptly put in the boat for the rest of the night.. the following morning.. we moved to the other side of the A5 bridge where its more open and no traffic within 20ft of the boat!
This is a bit better.. and quiet to considering the A5 bridge behind us.. and the road running along the canal.. is actually someones driveway! a 1 mile driveway.. but it only leads to one house!
