We’ve made it to moorings just outside Bilbrook, where Sarah will be catching her train tomorrow. We’ve had lovely weather today, the Shroppie cuttings looking rather gloomy when the sun is in, but glorious when it’s shining bright.

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Sarah gave Eira a walk along the towpath whilst I pootled along behind, all the way up to the water point where we topped up the tank.

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Our first and only lock of the day was at Wheaton Aston. This was scheduled to be closed for the CRT to make repairs, but the outcry was such that they changed their minds, and will do the repairs in the winter when things are quieter. In the meantime, the bottom gates are incredibly leaky, as you can see from the piccie below.

Some boaters like to grow lots of plant life on their roof. I don’t know how the first one sees where they are going, but it did look nice. As for the second, well it clearly doesn’t go anywhere anyway!

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We stopped off at Countrywide Cruisers for a pumpout, as they are alongside and on the right side for our pump out. We were impressed to learn that they’ve been going for 49 years, and the man doing the pumpout for 30. Not bad going!

After that, it was plain sailing up to our mooring point. The moorings here are blighted by the typical ‘Shropppie shelf’, which lurks a foot or so underwater at the edge. As a result we couldn’t get Oliver close in; Eira was going to have to walk the plank.

Despite coercion with cheese and treats, she refused to get on and I ended up carrying her back aboard. Later she did pluck up the courage to get off the boat – the promise of walkies overruling her fears!

Luckily when we got back from a trip to the shops the boat behind us had left, so we moved back to where the shelf is much smaller and we can get the bow in close enough to just step off rather than needing to leap for shore.

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