We planned to have one more meal together before they left us. We headed to town with their luggage in tow.
We had another delicious meal, this time at the Black Bear. We have been eyeing the sticky toffee pudding at the pubs along this journey. To commemorate the time the Wales 6 have enjoyed together we got one with six spoons. It was incredible.
While we waited for Kara and Tom’s taxi to arrive I poked my head in the church, St. Alkmund’s, across the street from the restaurant. Of course, I did.
I liked this depiction of the Last Supper that hung on the church wall. My mother used to love telling this joke: “What did Jesus say to the disciples at the Last Supper? Why don’t you all come to this side of the table if you want to get in the picture.” At least this rendition has one person on the opposite side of the table.
After Kara and Tom left, the Wales 6 became the Wales 4. We will miss them and the humor and skills they brought to the group. I’m hoping I can be helpful when we get to the locks tomorrow!
We hiked back to the canal. Sculptures appear in random places here in England.
We are constantly stunned by the flowers along our journey. Gardens are lush and well-maintained.
As we walked along the towpath back to our boat we came upon a narrow boat sweet shop. The saleswoman was very good at her job and we couldn’t help but use up some of our pounds.
This is the furthest we are going on the canal. We are now heading back over familiar territory. First we needed to turn the boat around in a winding hole.Shelly is a pro. I can’t say that enough times. Without Shelly and Sara we may have had to spend the whole week in the Chirk Marina.
The section of the canal we traveled today is such a lush and beautiful part of the canal. Sara and Shelly did the back of the boat duties. Linda and I sat at the front to relay information back to Sara and Shelly. I sewed on the last round of merit badges for Sara and Shelly’s vests while enjoying the sunshine, bird songs and the green of England. I gladly got out to raise and lower the lift bridges along the route. We stopped to stretch our legs at Mammoth Tower, which was something we had noticed when we were going the other direction. It turns out it was a peat bog — Fenn’s & Whixall Mosses National Nature Reserve. Peat moss used to be hand-cut. In 1968, mechanized peat cutting began. This particular area was also used by the military as a WWII rifle range. We learned that the loss of a peat bog is detrimental to the environment. This particular peat bog holds 3 million tons of carbon, that is equal to the carbon footprint of 250,000 people. Peatlands cover less than 3% of the land surface of the Earth but store twice as much carbon as all the forests combined as long as the peat is wet. If peat dries out it releases CO2 into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change. Since 1991, this area is being preserved and aided in its recovery. We all understand now not to use peat products in our gardening.
The area is called Mammoth Tower because you can climb this structure to look over the peat bog. When you get to the top of the tower you walk through two fake mammoth tusks. I didn’t see any other reference to Wooly Mammoths. I guess calling it Fenn’s & Whixall Mosses National Nature Reserve wasn’t sexy enough.
We were hoping to return to Ellesmere today but we didn’t leave Whitchurch until 2:30 p.m. We pulled into the outskirts of Ellesmere just after 8 p.m. We were very hungry by then and we wanted something more substantial then peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. There was a little path next to our boat that led us past Poor Clare’s Convent and out onto the road.
We found our way back into town and arrived at Thai Mere Restaurant. They had room for the four of us and we feasted. We didn’t finish until after 10:30 p.m. It was so late that the owner stood at the door as we left, waiting to lock the door after us. We got out our flashlights and walked back to the canal in the dark and immediately went to bed.
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