Two little piggies…

…went to market. Market Drayton, that is. We'd always planned on doing some shopping in this decent town, even though it's a bit of a walk to the centre. Well, standing at the tiller is not very conducive to doing my 10,000 steps a day! First we had to get there. It was a bright, sunny morning, but the sun don't shine much in Woodseaves cutting.

I had the impression that they've trimmed the greenery since we were last here, but it was still rather tight for the hire-boat we met coming the other way.

They were sufficiently nervous for one of them to step off with the centre line, but there was actually more room than they realised. I executed a little manoeuvre as they came through and they were surprised there was so much space. This picture is a first for me – I hit the video button by mistake, and found out tonight how to extract a still frame from the resultant movie. The difference in resolution is significant.

Next up were the five locks of the Tyrley flight. I hit the wrong button again!

These are noticeable for (a) the very attractive top lock, and (b) the shallowness of the pounds between the locks, so that trying to get into the side is fraught with peril. The knack is not to exit one lock until the next one is open. As it happens, there was a stream of boats coming up the flight, so this was straightforward and we had a lot of help with the gates and paddles.

We tied up shortly after at Market Drayton and walked into town. We'd taken our Ikea trolley but bought more than we'd thought we were going to, and the bags we had to carry got heavier by the minute as we walked home. A restorative cup of coffee was followed by an afternoon snooze that extended until there didn't seem to be any point in trying to take Erin Mae further tonight. It's going to be nearly twenty locks tomorrow as we head to Audlem for the weekend, so an early night might be called for.