On the Canal Continued -3
Beyond the Grindley Locks was the town of Whitchurch. We passed through Whitchurch and moored just past a bridge over which ran a fairly major and busy road. We could (with difficulty) get up to road from the canal. We thought that we might call a taxi to pick us up and take us to a pub. While the men secured the boats the women hiked up to road to explore. They came back to report that the road was indeed very busy, that in one direction they could see a roundabout and a McDonalds. The McDonalds did not appeal but I figured that I could call a taxi to pick us up on the road. Being close to a town we had internet access so I Googled “taxis Whitchurch” and came up with four or five entries, and started calling. The problem was it was Sunday evening in a rural area. The first guy I talked to said, in effect “hey its Sunday night, I’m closed!” After several recordings I reached a live person in car. But she said that at that moment she was way out of town and wouldn’t be able to pick us up. So we had something meager on the boat. The groceries were getting low. The next morning, however the crews of both boats consolidated their supplies and we had a very nice breakfast on Marcia and Schuyler’s boat. We could afford to eat what was left because that night we would be in Ellesmere which has a grocery store.
After Whitchurch there were no more locks but lots of drawbridges. In general, there are several types of bridges across canals that the narrowboat crew has to handle. We only had to worry about drawbridges. Most of the bridges allow paths or lightly used farm tracks to cross the canal. These are operated by a manual wench using the same crank handle as the lock gates are all very heavy. A few of the bridges allow more active roadways to cross the canal and these are powered by an electric hydraulic wench. We had key to operate this sort of wench. If a bridge was open, you would leave it open. If it was closed, you would close it again. The bridges were pretty simple and not nearly as time consuming as the locks. If there were several boats in row and you were good person you would allow all the boats to traverse the bridge before you went through and picked up your crew. However, one time Karen got confused and started lowering bridge as I was closing on it. I shouted and a misadventure was avoided. She was a little embarrassed. But need not have been.
Along the way to Ellesmere we passed through the Fenn's, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses National Nature Reserve. With my parochial US outlook on life my first reaction was my first reaction was “Wow! In the US we have 300-foot-tall Sequoias and in the UK they have mosses!” These peat bogs are among the few remaining peat bogs in the UK as the most of the rest have been drained for agriculture, forested, or have commercial peat digging. (thank you Wikipedia!). We stopped on the way back and the horticultural wives found them very interesting.
Before getting to Ellesmere we had to go through the Ellesmere Tunnel. This tunnel is 87 yds./ 80 meters long. You are required to turn on the boats headlight when in the tunnel. The entrance to the tunnel from the Whitchurch side is right after a pretty sharp curve. There is thick slab of highly splintered wood on one side of the entrance, to reduce the damage to the masonry from the boats that don’t make the turn. Fortunately, there was no opposing traffic, the tunnel is one way, and we were able to go right through it. With no bangs against the wood or the masonry.
Some pictures are at: https://goo.gl/photos/UzXb1e3GEhhNGMaTA