And I thought last nights moorings were going to be quiet, just the railway that only seemed to have local traffic and that was behind the hill, wrong.
I got up about half one this morning to pay a visit to the loo and saw bright lights coming along the tow path, at first I thought it was a couple of bikes but then realised it was people walking. They stopped beside the boat moored a short way ahead of us, they stood for a while by the boat, I could see there was 3 of them and one with a back pack so I thought they had returned to their boat, however they stayed on the tow path, one of them looked as if they went to the back doors but then returned to the others so my next thought is they are locked out. I kept watch and not much happened, then one of them started banging on the side of the boat, I opened our front door slightly, you must bear in mind I am stark naked and my cloths are in the back cabin far side of Diana who is asleep. As I listen with the door ajar I can hear a female voice saying "David are you all right, put some cloths on and let us in". As it was now obvious this could be someone in trouble I woke Diana and got some cloths on, put the boat lights on and went outside where I found 3 female Paramedics/Ambulance Technicians trying to get Dave let them in. He had called them saying he needed help and they had spent hours trudging the towpath looking for a boat with no name, now they had found him he wasn't cooperating and they didn't know where they were but had requested police assistance. I was able to give them the post code of the nearest road access, still a ¼ mile away. I stuck around until a police man turned up, he went into the boat to talk to the man. From what I could see from outside the main problem the chap was having was that his Lt. bottle of cider was almost empty. As for the ambulance girls, one said they were 8 hrs into the shift and still not had a break, I offered a mug of tea but by the time it was brewed the police arrived and they were working again. By now it was 2-30 in the morning and we went back to bed, we heard the emergency services leave a little later, whether the chap was with them I don't know, but I doubt it, one of the girls said she had met him before.
This morning it was raining and we set off at our normal 1000hrs, passing the boat in front in daylight it looked quite smart and tidy, not what I expected from last nights activities. We were to meet lots of boats today, a hire boat, then a day boat topped off with a Charity trip boat.
Passing Romiley visitor moorings mooring there is the remains of a sunken burnt out cruiser well out into the channel, its a bit like an iceberg with the majority of it being hidden from view underwater. You can see what the weather is like.
There is quite a bit of old industrial heritage left beside the canal 
We moored for the night just before Portland basin were I found just two rings, all I needed to moor to, needless to say as soon as we had tied up the rain stopped and the sun started to shine. After lunch we wondered over to the Portland Place museum for a couple of hours before returning to the boat.
Last time we came this way we moored opposite Warble Narrowboats, there are still a few boats moored there and one or two no the bank, but all the buildings have gone for other uses.
Today's Journey 
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