Ellesmere to Blake Mere

Over our stay here at Ellesmere we’ve been buying what we needed when we needed it from Tescos so that we could empty the freezer and fridge before we went away for the weekend. The advantage of this is that our club card suddenly wants to welcome us back with open arms and persuade us to always shop at Tescos. So we had ended up with two £7 off when you spend £50 vouchers. A list was put together and a shopping trolley filled. We then left out goods up to £50 made a list of them and went to pay for the first load before returning to use our second voucher. Thank you Tescos, you may see us again in the next few days but then not until next year.

With everything stowed and a load of washing on, we pushed off and headed to the services. The homeless chap was walking into town and gave us a big smile and wave. Whilst filling with water we came across his little camp by the dry dock where a roof over hangs. He now has several sleeping bags, all which were laid out airing, a small primus stove and there were a few items of food. If it hadn’t been for the lack of a couple of walls it would have looked quite cosy.

We stayed until the washing machine had finished so that we could leave with a full tank of water, then reversed up to the junction were we winded and headed back towards the meres. The weather has been very mild today and tomorrow should be similar, maybe a last chance to touch up the scrapes on the gunnels. The edge is quite low at Blake Mere so we pulled up, let the cat out and I pulled on my painting dungarees. I worked as quickly as I could before the light faded. Scrapes sanded down, rinsed off and some Fertan applied to work it’s magic overnight.

What a place! Huge big trees to climb, views across a very wide canal and plenty of holes to put my arms down. I managed to find a friend who seemed to be a little bit chilly, so brought it home to warm up in front of the stove. The side was opened for me, but then quickly closed again. So I tried the front, which also got closed in my face. I don’t know why they didn’t like my friend, it was great fun and very playful.

As the sun went down the odd clouds that had surrounded us for much of the day disappeared into the gloom accompanied by a cacophony of pheasants. A couple of hours later this was replaced by numerous hooting owls from near and far across the mere. Noisy but wonderful.

0 locks, 1.05 miles, 1 right, 1 wind, 1 left, 1 chicken into 5 meals, 1 sad gits mince into 3, £14 saving, 1 jolly warm wave, 1 side ready for paint tomorrow, 1 diddy friend, 1 murder!