OMG...

May the photos speak for themselves.

Up until now there has been lots of talk about doing the blacking, the preparation required, etc, etc, etc.  And then lo and behold, a bit of prompting from 'Smiffy' and look what happens !!!
AND Andrew has even turned the boat around and done the other side !  What the world is coming to :D

Preparation

That's the stuff

OOOhhh, first dab

Jokes aside, looking good

A bit under

and over

half done, marvellous

So now to continue with the other news.

We left our mooring at Blake Mere a few days ago after staying put in the wet weather.

After some rain

The next morning

We tootled into Ellesmere Arm to gather some crops and stock the larder.

Ellesmere Arm

There is now a large Tesco just at the end of the arm, very handy.  We did not stay around, it being a Sunday.  We want to go in to the butcher and deli, so we will stop overnight on our return.
I did have a long look at the wool boat in front of us but decided that I probably have more than enough wool at the moment, but a new, smaller crochet hook will come in handy. So hopefully we will see them again on our way back.  I believe they are heading our way so that is good.  Plus it turns out that they are actually fellow forumites :)  If we had realised when we were there we would have stopped to say a better hello.

Spotted as we were winding in Ellesmere Arm basin

They stopped and moored up

Bath time

Anyway, on we went after a water fill and dodging the 'new' boaters we made our way to Lion Quays Hotel, where we had arranged to meet up with some more fellow forumites.  

Saw this on the way and wondered how much it was to park a boat for 24 hours :)

It is good to meet people in person that Andrew has been chatting with online for some time now.  We had a great evening chatting and drinking until our peace was severely broken by a large party of hens and roosters, or at least that is what they sounded like.  They were terribly loud but as it was well past 9pm and some food was in order (but not at the pub prices) we bade our farewells and turned in to our own floating houses for a late dinner and bed.

Next day we headed for Trevor. Once more to meet up with another forumite !  Don't you know it we are everywhere, you cannot get away from us :D

It was a very entertaining trip, with many 'new' boaters on the cut and mayhem everywhere.

Chirk Aqueduct

Chirk tunnel

with 3 boats ahead waiting to go through, one more behind us on the aqueduct and a boat waiting to cross the aqueduct there on the left and another exiting the tunnel, as expected it was fun !!

This was another day where we ended up pulling a hire boat out of the mud on the side of the canal as they had moved over too far !  Andrew is getting pretty good at hauling boats out of the shallows now :D

Pontcysyllte Aqueduct

Concentration required

River Dee below

We were moored up in Trevor Basin by mid day.  Later as the weather was good and the sun sort of shining, we walked back to the Aqueduct and down to the river for some new views.

Aqueduct from below

and Trevor Basin

Trevor Basin and Pontcysyllte Aqueduct

Lord and Ladies seed head

The intention was to move on to Llangollen today but with the number of boats and further mayhem in the basin that Andrew spied this morning before I was even up and the weather did not look to great we decided to stay put a further day.  Which in hindsight was great for the bottom of the boat.

Tomorrow we will move on though to enjoy the final leg of this lovely canal.  So goodnight all and sleep well  :)