Battle swans can be quite aggressive about demanding food with menaces. This one stuck its head in the kitchen window and suggested that Paula cook dinner for it.

We headed north on the Shropshire Union this morning. Soon we hit the Bunbury staircase locks, where I had to help two boats up before we could go down. That was complicated by the fact that the last people to go through it had not fully closed one of the bottom paddles, so both the boats going up ran aground when going from the lower to the upper chamber. By the time we were through that it was drizzling, and the radar app showed more rain on the way, so we moored up and waited for it to pass.

We continued after lunch. In one of the locks the edge of the bow got caught on the rim of the lock as we were going down resulting on the boat tipping sideways and backwards. This is one of those Awrggh! moments that boaters dread. However, it was soon fixed. Drop the lower paddles, open the upper paddles to put some more water in the lock, and we floated off none the worse for wear.

Of course, the lock with all the warning signs about the possibility of getting stuck in we had no problems at all.

This is another Telford creation. This is an area of sandy soil subject to subsidence, so the original locks would not hold water. Telford used the same techniques used for the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, and made a trough out of cast iron sections bolted together.

By late afternoon the wind was picking up, so we moored up with a view of Beeston Castle hill.