Chester

 No heroics  we agree. That is we won't stand on the back of the boat, charging into pouring rain. Even gentle English rain is wet. Who would've thought  it. So we get a bit wet, then moor up, about 15 miles east of Chester, on the beautiful Shropshire canal. It wends nor west from below Birmingham towards the Mersey. On an earlier trip we pushed west from Chester to Ellesmere Port. From there you can 'ferry across the Mersey' to Liverpool.  We were organising this, using a pilot, some years ago, but bad weather kyboshed that.

Moored up yesterday afternoon in Central Chester, 5 min walk into the ancient town centre, from the city walls 🧱 , second only to York for their intact remains. After dinner on the boat, plus a reviving GnT, we strolled into the melee of coronation madness. The odd, very, hens' parties. Bah humbug.

A pic of boaters dressed up for the coronation.

And 2 of the canal. The odd round building with a pixy hat was the lock keeper's hut when commercial traffic moved 24/7, and keepers operated the locks to speed traffic.

The other pic shows Santiago leaving the top lock straight into a 2nd one, known as staircase locks.

Why is my head full of arcane info on canals and nursery rhymes?

So tomorrow we leave Chester and head east