Wednesday 5th May Off to Market Drayton... and a Swan attack!!!

We set off from Cheswardine in brilliant sunshine and in shirt sleeves. It's a nice change to feel the sun. We headed through the deep Woodseaves cutting which has been carved out of the local stone. The bridge gives an idea of how deep the cutting is. There are parts of the canal and towpath that are not built up they are literally carved out of the stone. All this was done by hand using only picks and shovels and it's quite amazing to think how hard the navies must of worked to dig these cuttings.

Another aptly named high bridge at the start of the Woodseaves cutting.

The captain and his dog enjoying the sun.

We travelled just four miles and through 5 locks the Tryley flight which drop the canal down 33 feet to take it into Market Drayton.

The Tyrley top lock

Lots of information about if anything happens to your boat it's nothing to do with us....

The local stone is a red coloured rock and the canal has been carved out of it places. You can see the pick marks in the stone if you look very closely, the whole thing being dug by hand.

Leaving the bottom lock you can see the rock the canal is carved out of.

After leaving the locks you're treated to an ad-hoc tree carving of a man fishing. What else would he be doing. 

We arrived in Market Drayton, the alleged home of ginger bread. We found a nice mooring close to the road into town. As we arrived another boat was just leaving so we slotted in nicely. We had a look around the town which unfortunately appeared a bit run down with lots of empty shops. We had a lovely sandwich and a cup of tea in the Buttercross café before heading to the post office to post our postal votes for the local elections back home. We then returned to the boat via Asda's where we topped up with provisions. In the evening the captain decided to do some more paddle boarding. Having set off he was stalked and then finally attacked by a very stroppy swan. The grumpy bastard kept swimming behind him, then finally attacked, biting the paddle board. It  continued to stalk and attacked again before our brave paddle-boarder managed to get back to the safety of Harold.

The grumpy swan who followed and attacked the captain on his trip.

Even when the captain was getting his board out the swan was looking to attack again.

The swan finally sits on the weir opposite Harold looking very pleased with his evenings paddle boarder attack.