Woodweaves and Beyond

Last week we were blessed with fine weather whenever we decided to take our Grandson out on a bus. With him on Sunday went this regime. After the usual ablutions - empty the toilet and fill the water tank - we set off this morning towards Market Drayton.  In the rain.  A Famous Author was in the area and we arranged to meet up with him and refresh our supply of books for libraries. The rendezvous we agreed on was Knighton near the old Cadbury's chocolate factory.  When we arrived (still raining) we discovered no access from the canal to the road and so the fact that we could not get Gecko into the bank was irrelevant.  A hasty revision was made to meet at the next bridge.  When we arrived (now raining harder)  we managed to pull the bows in but had to leave the stern about 3ft from the bank.  I squidged my way up to the road which turned out to be a farm track.  Our third attempt at meeting was more successful and we arrived simultaneously with the Famous Author.
Whilst we were moored the rain eased and we decided to resume our journey.

As we approached Woodseaves Cutting the rain came down in earnest. There is not always sufficient room to pass an oncomming boat but there were not too many other fools driving in the rain.

The passage through Woodseaves was not improved by a landslip which restricted the channel even more. 

Once we were clear of the cutting the rain eased up again and we were encouraged to continue. By the time we arrived at the top of Tyrely Locks the rain had decided it could not beat us and we had a dry run down into Market Drayton.