Last night we finally got to sleep after laying there for a while listening to the base plate on the gravel, the rain on the roof and the ducks trying to get the blacking off so well past midnight. We then had the early morning call from the geese just sorting out who was allowed to swim where. The weather forecast for today was quite grim so we were surprised to see sunshine when we got up, so it was breakfast and away. You can se how close we managed to get to the bank last night and getting off this morning wasn’t without its problems.
Unfortunately the good weather didn’t last and we were soon in the rain. We had good luck with the bridges, catching up with a boat just as they were going through. At the electric one a chap had just gone through and let us and the boat behind through, we worked the third and were now tail end Charlies so the first boat did the last bridge.
CRT are repairing the towpath and piling reinstalling some very large stone block. I was surprised that their little digger could actually grip them to lift them into position.
A short way past here on the offside right beside the aqueduct just south of Turf Lea Lift Bridge there are the remains of some old activity.
By the winding hole there are signs on the offside warning or Giant Hogweed and it is now all shooting again, I would have thought this would be the ideal time to spray it off.
Again just past the bridge is this pair of giant hands, I have no idea why or who is responsible, but they are quite dramatic.
I dropped Diana off at Tesco and carried on to the very end to wind. I arrived just as a large party of school children were just packing up a morning of canoeing, the rain didn’t seem to dampen their spirits at all and thankfully they were well out of my way. It also the location of where CRT are pumping water up from the rive to try to keep the Peak Forest canal topped up.
I waited under the road bridge in the dry and waited for Diana to return which was not to long. Almost as soon as we set off two things happened, first it stopped raining and secondly we saw our first brood of Mallard ducklings.
Just passed the junction to Bugsworth Basin we met the boater we had been playing leapfrog with this morning and he informed me that Furness Vale were still selling diesel at the old price so I pulled in and topped the tank up. We then carried on past all the movable bridges, again only having to work 2 to moor for the night just south of bridge 21.
Today we have a new Google Map as I can only put 10 days on a map.
Todays Journey
11¾ miles with no locks in 5½ hours
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