Water boatmen

At the bottom of Frankton Locks we waited for 1200 to come round. And we waited some more. No sign of CRT. At about 1300 the Aussie on the hire boat behind us found he had a signal and phoned CRT to see what was going on. There was some story of a "minor emergency" and a promise of action. At 1335 a lockie turned up and apologised for the late start. I think the person who should have been on duty hadn't been told - or something.

At 1345 we were able, at last, to ascend the locks.

While we were waiting I noticed a large number of water boatmen skating on the surface of the water. There were one or two damsel flies too, but I didn't even attempt a snap.

The lower chamber of the staircase pair is, for some reason, smaller than the upper one. This means that water has to be run down from the pound above to ensure that boats do not ground on the sill when moving from the lower chamber to the upper one.

Here is Jubilee in the lower chamber.

At the top we turned right and tied up in the Ellesmere Arm. We shopped at Tesco and went to the Red Lion for another good meal. Their chips are the best.