Leaving Wales on the Sunday morning via Chirk Aqueduct, we had a pleasant meander back over familiar territory.

No delays at St. Martins, and reasonable weather, and by Monday afternoon we were toddling into Ellesmere Arm for a quick visit to Tesco, before nipping round the corner (boat-wise) to Blackwater Marina, ready for the engineer to do his oil changing thing on Tuesday morning. With Song & Dance tucked up on the service quay, plugged in to the mains, and Sir happy with the nearby holiday flat garden to explore, we took local advice and toddled down to the new Greek Restaurant Meze, which was indeed most excellent.

A warm sunny Tuesday in a marina must mean doing the laundry (oh the glamour). For various reasons our engineer chappy didn’t finish until mid-afternoon, and so having thoroughly fed, waterered, dieseled and emptied Song & Dance, and dried all the washing in their tumble dryer, we set sail for a long haul cruise back around the corner into the Ellesmere Arm, where the Captain was beginning to feel right at home.

We were going to head down the Montgomery canal after all the boat servicing stuff, and you need to book a passage through Frankton Locks, so we decided to stay another day and chill out before heading out into the fray again. And so Wednesday was spent pottering around the town and the mere, shopping for some birthday presents and so on.

There are plenty of nice houses in Ellesmere,

the church overlooks the Mere, and down near the water, something stirred.

One Tuesdays and Wednesdays, the local Indian Restaurant was offering a Starter, Main Course, Rice or Nan or Chips and a fizzy drink for a tenner, so it hardly seemed worth cooking, and for £20 for the two of us the food eminently acceptable. We’ll be returning to Ellesmere again in a week or so: we suspect there’ll be a repeat engagement!