Beeston Castle to Hurleston Bridge No.1, above Hurleston locks, Llangollen canal.

Travelled 6.6 miles, worked 9 locks in time of 5 hours 40 minutes.

Last night we were treated to a lovely sunset.

This morning there was a ground frost as the temperature got down to -0.2c over night, but it meant it was a sunny start to the day for me. We left our weekend mooring at 8.40am, and headed off towards Beeston Iron Lock, passing the railway signal box.

There were no deer out in the field today. Already at Beeston Iron Lock were Colin and Gwen on NB Pal. Gwen said they would wait for us at the next lock Tilstone Lock. You cannot share Beeston Iron Lock because it is to narrow. When we arrived at Tilstone Lock, Colin and Gwen were waiting for us, so we pulled in alongside them. I always love meeting new boaters and having a proper old natter.

I think that this stretch of the canal is incredibly pretty.

We arrived at the Bunbury staircase Locks, all the hire boats were being worked on, but this did not cause us any issues, despite being told by a passing boater it was chaos.

We left the Bunbury locks and said cheerio to Colin and Gwen, who were great fun to share locks with.

They moored up for some breakfast and we never expected to see them again.

As we made our way to the Calveley Sanitary Station, I put some Sausage Rolls in the back cabin stove to warm through. When we arrived at the Sanitary Station we had to queue for 20 minutes for the water tap, once the other boats had left we managed to get in to take on water and whilst we wanted for a slow fill, Colin and Gwen pulled in behind us also wanting water etc. I saw a couple more Swallows, which nest at the sanitary station, but you know what they say "Two Swallows do not make a Summer", but today we could be forgiven for thinking Summer was here, because it was so hot.

There are signs which say your stay should only be a maximum of 30 minutes, but the tap was so slow it took almost an hour to fill our water tank, I think they either need to change the sign or speed up the water supply. Having filled with water, we set off behind Colin and Gwen, who then pulled in near Barbridge Junction as Colin wanted a paper from the garage, we continued on our way through Barbridge and on towards Hurleston Junction.

At 1.10pm we turned into Hurleston Junction.

There was a boat just going into the bottom lock, so I stepped off with the centre line and tied us up whilst we waited for the boats in front of us to move up through the four locks. We waved goodbye to Colin and Gwen, who were going to moor up at Nantwich. I am sure we will see them again.

I then got on with the job of working the locks. We were now officially on the Llangollen Canal and so happy to being Hadar on to such a beautiful canal. The last time we did this canal was with our other boat in 2006. The water levels on the pounds were down, so a couple of the boats in front ran some water down, we only had a problem getting into the top lock. Linda who used to be the lock keeper on the flight, came out to investigate the sound of our engine, she bought her windlass with her and let some water down to aid our passage. We got to have a bit of chat with her as Hadar came up in the lock. Linda explained that some BW staff were fitting a boom across the spillway to the reservoir, there has been a fuel spillage further up the canal at Burland, and they have to stop it getting into the reservoir, not what you need. This explained why the water level was low on the pounds because there is was no flow on the canal, as they have it shut down in terms of supplying water to the reservoir. Having said cheerio to Linda, we moored up just past Bridge 1, Keith got on with sorting the bow fender out which needed adjusting, whilst I got on with stewing some apples for a crumble and cooking some bolognaise sauce, which we will be having for tonight's dinner. The sun is still shining, Marmite has been out on the towpath and Paddy was sleeping on the back counter. I am looking forward to a peaceful evening and we will see what tomorrow brings.