Day 2

18 miles: 21 locks: 4 swing bridges: 1 cut finger (mine again!) and 8 litres of Pimms remaining.

Today has seen us travel through out first locks, and there were a lot! It was a new experience having a shower whilst travelling down in locks. Anthony and Charlotte loved assisting Matthew, and even I had a go at using the throttle when we were in the locks. It's quite scary - we've got this massive boat to control, and the locks are rather narrow. However, it's a huge sense of achievement and great fun. 

Anthony fell out of bed twice last night, so we had another disturbed night. Hopefully tonight will be better.

We finished our journey north along the Llangothllen Canal and have started travelling south along the Shropshire Union Canal. We should reach Birmingham in about two days, if all goes to plan. It was lovely travelling along the Shropshire Union last night, once I'd tucked the children up in bed. It was so peaceful and quiet, the jersey cows were busy munching along the bank of the canal and it was a tranquil sky. All the ducks were splashing around, starting to settle down for the night. It felt like being back in Kenya - where we went for our honeymoon, just without the wariness of watching out for lions!