Wednesday 17th August
We spent a quiet night in the village of Rufford. Lovely mooring and well worth the short trip down the Rufford Arm – very rural with the smell of potatoes, cabbages and leeks all around as the soil here is very good for vegetables.
‘Chance’ moored in Rufford Village.
In the morning Doug took the bus into Southport (1/2 hour) and spent the day wandering around while James stayed on the boat to look after Oscar and carry out some maintenance (again!).
Southport War memorial in the Town Centre.
Southport Pier and the lovely gardens in the distance. Just as Doug arrived back ‘Heth’ ( fellow blogger from nb ‘Takey Tezey’) was paying us a visit. We only realised that morning that they are moored in St Mary’s marina just over the bridge from where we are moored. Great to meet you at last and hope it’s a longer chat next time as Heth and Dave were only three hours away from catching a plane to visit their son in Germany (thanks for walking round to see us Heth – we understand we’re privileged that you did so (walk that is!)).
Heth and Doug - meet up at last!
Thursday 18th August
On Thursday we headed back up the Rufford Arm with nb Unique (Lyn and Roger). We had a pleasant journey sharing the 7 locks with them in lovely weather. We stopped off at Burscough to stock up at Tesco’s then moored up just outside the town for the evening. It’s a bit strange at present as we don’t have a map of this part of the canal system from Burscough onwards to Liverpool so the swing bridges are always a surprise.
Friday 19th August.
We continued on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal to Lydiate as we knew that fellow blogger Debbie on nb Tickety Boo moored here. Sadly Debbie wasn’t at home but we hope to meet up when we are this way next time. We winded (turned round) at Lydiate and started our return journey.
nb Tickety Boo!
James operating one of the many swing bridges (they are not such a surprise on the way back!)
Tonight we are moored up in the countryside again and just as we hammered in the pins Doug noticed the trees were full of Mirabelle Plums so guess what we will be having for pudding tonight!
How lovely to read about your travels in this area. We spent a week lurking the canals there last October. With new found friends and family members in Scarisbrick, Lydiate, Ormskirk we had a fantastic time visiting the marinas. There was a great little farm shop on Martin Lane. Thanks for the reminder!
ReplyDeleteElly
Hi Elly and Mick
ReplyDeleteGlad the blog brought back some good memories for you both, hope all is well with the new house. We are loving being back on the canals and so pleased with Chance, hope to meet up with you both when you get over here, how's Coco? Oscar seems to be doing really well lately think the boating life suits him!! x
Thank you so much for leaving me the lovely note! I am so disappointed I missed you two and the lovely Oscar. Sounds like you are having a great time.....envious, me? nooooo, oh ok just a tidgy bit!!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy! Debbie x
Thanks Debbie, Sorry we missed you to, will definately meet up next time we are this way, we have really enjoyed the area, and want to do the Liverpool Link next time. xx
ReplyDeleteHi again guys,
ReplyDeleteCoco's heart isn't so good and the vet says we'll likely have her just a year or so more. We're sad but she's 13 so we couldn't have expected much more anyway. It gives us a bit of a timeframe - we're thinking it may be March 2013 that we finally get to make our dream a reality. :)
Elly