After s nice peaceful night we set off at 9am – destination Dunham Massey – how ever, by the time we had crossed the Barton Swing Aqueduct, past Waters meet and down through Stretford and Sale, it was way too early to stop so we continued on to Lymm.
The water levels in the Manchester ship canal pound that passes below the aqueduct leave a little to be desired – not going to get many ships up there in a hurry.
We got a cheery wave from the operators of the Sale canoe hire base as we passed under the bridge where their base is. Unfortunately one of their canoes, crewed by two middle aged men, was tacking down the Sale straight from side to side with little clue on what other boats were about. Another narrowboat heading towards them (& Manchester) got their attention so they pulled across to the offside and hovered near the boat club moorings. Once he had passed they pulled out right into Jannock’s path again so a blast on the horn got their attention and sent them into the side again.
About 10 minutes later, just after we had passed under the next bridge, Brenda looked back and watched them capsize the canoe. They immediately ignored all the concerned towpath walkers who stopped and swam to the offside boat club moorings instead. If they managed to get out of the canal onto the bank I wonder how they were going to get out of the locked compound.
The promised rain held off and we had made good time so we went to Lymm and arrived to find a prime off side mooring spot free – excellent! We then went shopping ready to receive Trevor (one of Graham’s ex workmates) and Ann for an evening visit.
It was a good evening, plenty of chat of friends, families and shared memories of work and boats. Trevor was brought up in a house backing onto the canal at Worsley, so we fed the Worsleyberries, that we picked not 50m from his old house, for desert. After a good evening thy returned to Wigan just after 10pm and we cleared up and retired to bed exhausted.
G&B
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