2017 Summer Holiday Day #11

Bugsworth basin to Strine

This morning I got up early and moved Jannock from Bugsworth to Whaley Bridge via a tight turn, a loosed off Plastic cruiser and the winding point in Whaley Bridge basin.There seems to be alot more boats moored in the basin now than when we last visited and so turning was not as easy as I expected. Godd job we filled with water at Bugsworth yesterday.

Off for a day’s ‘holiday from our holiday’ today – we caught the train from Whaley bridge station and spent a lot of the day exploring Buxton. It would be a shame to miss the Peak District scenery and do a bit of old school tourism. In the station there was a sculpture of a ticket collector made of old parts found in the maintenance workshop when it was closed down. Apparently the sculture was named Joe by Alexei Sayle in memory of his dad.

Buxton is a lovely town to visit, even in the rain. We wandered around the town, upper and lower, and had fish and chips for lunch in the Coach House. We even had ‘proper’ mushy peas with them, none of your Southern squashed up frozen peas here also served with chopped up onions soaked in malt vinegar and a mug of tea – excellent. The Coach House is up the hill, on the right as you face the front of the town hall.

It was carnival week in Buxton and all around the town were sculptures made from flower pots. We decided that although the Elephant family outside a Thai restaurant were good, we liked Mary Queen of Pots outside the Playhouse.

I also managed to obtain some ironmongery bits that I’ve been looking for in one of those old fashioned shops that you know will have everything in stock – excellent. I can now support the magnetic double glasing with some corner brackets. It was definately worth the train fare then ;^)

Back to Whaley bridge and we moved up to Tesco so that Brenda could fetch some essentials. It seems that Tesconetto’s Knickerbocker glory is our new favourite variety. Shopping completed, we set off in the rain and made our way past the four swing/lift bridges so that I can make an early start tomorrow. My target is Bosley top lock for tomorrow evening ready for a descent on Thursday morning and then through Harecastle.

I loved this extractor vent on the Matlow Swizzels factory – almost fully caked in sugar. We finally moored up just past bridge 22 – both soaking wet and cold.

Graham