Day 9 Friday 25 May 2007

Blake Mere to below Grindley Brook locks. We had breakfast at a picnic table by the mere. We put a table cloth on it and sat eating bacon sandwiches and drinking coffee. Everyone walking past commented on how civilised we looked. It was not as warm today, the sun played hide and seek for most of the day. It was very warm when it was out, but there was a cool wind. We saw herons, canada geese, greylag geese, crested grebe and shell ducks at the mere. There were several cows and their calves on the towpath just past the Whitchurch branch. We moored for the night below the Grindley Brook locks. There were a pair of kestrels nesting in the hollow of a tree in the field opposite us. They were both in and out with food, so they must have had chicks. A jackdaw had made it’s nest in the same tree, just below the kestrels. There were hardly any clouds in the sky and we had a clear view of the stars.