Canal to Waterloo

Another late posting, this, as the signal here is terrible. I did a few boat jobs this morning, including draining water out of the agglomerator- hardly any came out - and checking the gearbox oil. For this latter job I managed to get a spanner from a junk shop/tea room in Ellesmere for 50p. The filler/dipstick nut was just too big for my 17mm spanner and just too small for the 19mm one, and 18mm spanners don't seem to exist. Anyway the old rusty spanner is marked 3/4 (Whitworth?) and fits perfectly.

I also cleaned the engine drip tray again. There was - again - an amount of golden oil and some water. The oil looked new, but the levels in the engine and gearbox hadn't gone down. I don't know where it can possibly be coming from.

We left Ellesmere Basin after lunch and made our way to Whixall Junction where we turned right onto the Prees Branch. This is the first lift bridge, Allman's.

The second lift bridge was broken and partially dismantled - I'll try to get a shot of it on our return. We were soon on a narrow and apparently little used section.

But before long we emerged into Whixall Marina.

We tied up on the piling at the edge of the marina and went for a walk along the remains of the Prees Branch.

It was a surprise to find Bridge 4 with new-looking numbers each side. Here a bund separates the unnavigable but watered canal from a purely wildlife "pond" the other side.

In another surprise (I hadn't looked at the map) we found we'd arrived at Waterloo.