Whitchurch to Dobson's Bridge, Prees Branch.

Travelled 6.7 miles, worked 6 lift bridges, in a time of 2 hours 40 minutes.

Before I rabbit on about today's events, yesterday was a day of furious April showers in the afternoon. The photograph above was a hailstorm we had. During the afternoon we move the boat from her mooring at the end of the arm and moved her towards the turn giving is a TV signal, so we could watch the highlights of the F1 GP from Bahrain, which was an excellent race, sadly for Button and Hamilton it was not quite so great, but better luck in three weeks time.

This morning we left our mooring up the Whitchurch at 9.20am, with the sun shining and me back in my shirt sleeves.

As we pulled out of the arm, ownership boat Vulcan came through the lift bridge.

Mrs Canada Goose on her nest.

First Lift Bridge, Hassall's No1, I got off to work and beckoned Vulcan through before letting the bridge down, they then worked the Hassall's No2 for us. At this point we allowed them to go ahead of us, because they would be going much faster than us.

Bridge 37 with its hobbit's door. I am joking it is actually a storage space for BW to put their stop planks and equipment, but it does look like a hobbit's front door and always makes me smile.

High and dry, but up for sale. The countryside once again is very pretty and at the moment very green due to all the rain we have been having. We were surrounded by fields and farms, mighty oaks standing tall, but still in their Winter clothing.

At Platt Lane the canal is dead straight on an embankment across Whixall Moss. Fenn's, Whixall and Bettisfield Mosses National Nature Reserve is a National Nature Reserve which straddles the border between England and Wales, near Whixall and Ellesmere in Shropshire, England. Whixall Moss is one of the three peat bogs and is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). Whixall Moss like the others is important for their rare bog wildlife.

At Morris Lift bridge there was a boat already at the bridge. NB Elapsed Time very kindly worked the bridge for us and allowed us to go through first, which was very nice of them. I of course thanked them and we both went on our way.

Some of the fields along this stretch are flooded due to the heavy rain we have had.

We made the turn on to the Prees Branch at 11.30am, it was very shallow and so took us a couple of goes to get round the junction and did the first of the two lift bridges.

We arrived at the second lift bridge to find a fisherman, fishing on the bridge mooring, so it was just as well I had walked from the first one. Because it was a bit shallow Keith had stirred the mud up good and proper, so I dare say the fisherman would not have been to pleased, but then neither were we to see him on the mooring bollards.

Just a little further along the Prees branch we found Whixall Marina, where we winded and then moored up just past the marina.