Prees Branch.

After lunch, Keith and I went with cameras in hand for a walk up the rest of the Prees Branch.

You can walk about 3/4 mile up the arm.  The Prees stretch of canal was built in the early 1800s, as a branch of the Llangollen Canal, it was abandoned even before it was completed due to lack of finance. It was originally longer, reaching Quina Brook, though like many canal schemes it didn’t reach its original goal of Prees.

Today it is a long pond and a quiet backwater for all kinds of water creatures, including the water vole, which did not show its face to us. Otters are also occasionally see, as well as birds such as mallard, moorhen, swans and kingfishers.

Today Mrs Swan was sitting tight on her nest.

Violets were very much in evidence along the towpath.

I think this sheep needs a better hairdresser.

There was a lot of Kingcup along the canal.

Bridge No4 is still standing and in good shape.

The watered section ends.

The drained section begins.

We arrived at a section which although it has a footpath sign on it, has clearly not been used for sometime and so we had to walk along the road to rejoin the canal. A little further the canal footpath diverted into a field, so we decided to turn around and walk back along from whence we came.

The water was beautifully clear and there was plenty of flora to see along the way, it was a very pleasant walk.

Back on board our boat, I fetched in some coal from the hold and then it was time to cook something for dinner, so we are having Sweet and Sour Chicken with Rice, then it will be time to sit down and relax before feeding mog and dog, have a shower and then finally stoke up the fire before bedtime. Phew I am worn out just typing about it.