Almost solitude- our mooring for tonight

A beautiful morning, cool and dappled along the towpath on an early run. Cool underneath the trees as we cruised east towards Bettisfield.

A simply marvellous couple of hours until we went aground, had to be helped off by a passing boat and lost our bow morning line as it came off the cleat when being thrown to our assistant. That and stop for water added an hour to our expected arrival time.

After a late lunch we walked along the towpath and along the Prees Arm to Whixall marina for a cup of tea at the cafe. Which had just closed when we got there.

We planned to walk around the Whixall Mosses on the way back having taken in the view and information about these important habitats at the Mammoth Tower on the way out. The couple who rescued us this morning were sitting outside the cafe having moored their boat. We had a jolly good chat for half an hour until we thought it wise to make as it was beginning to look stormy.

Indeed, thunder was rumbling all around as we walked back to the boat. We were fortunate to avoid a drenching. As it is the skies are covered with dark, ominous clouds and thunder is once again roiling all around. What we thought might a pyrotechnic evening didn’t materialise, instead we had steady and refreshing rain.

A very quiet mooring. We’re the only ones here