Where to next?

Now Chertsey's home, where shall we go next? Well, the simple answer is Braunston, via Ellesmere Port. The latter for the working boat gathering (my first time there with a boat); the former, to have the oak gunnels made and fitted.

The detail, however, is something I had put to one side, mental geography not being my strong point. I can read and follow a map, as long as I've got it in front of me; I just can't bloody remember it.

So, the map is unfolded on the bed behind me, and I shall keep getting up to consult it as I write.

From Stretton to the Port, that's easy; even I can do that in my head. Straight up the Shroppie, past Warrior''s old mooring at Golden Nook and into terra (aqua?) nova. No Ship Canal or crossing the Mersey for us this time, but back down again to the Middlewich Branch - another new waterway for me, and it remains so as far as Harecastle, after which it's down to Fradley and more than likely retracing last year's route via the Coventry and Oxford. The plan is to stay at Braunston while the gunnels and the cloths are made, and remain there for the Big One at the end of June, and after that... well, that's definitely not decided yet.