Sunday 4 September 2016

Double Celebrations After a Week of Fun.

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After a stupendous time in Manchester with it’s buildings, it’s people and it’s Pride we left on Tuesday with a heavy heart.

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On the journey out towards Lymm we couldn’t help notice the immense Victorian Linotype Works had been all but raised to the ground! But we could breath a sigh of relief though as the best parts were still standing.

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It looks as though there will be some creative rebuilding and development taking place soon – some of the beautiful building facades are being carefully held together while the demolition continues.

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While passing through the lovely countryside around Dunham Massey we were hailed by nb “Poppy”’s owners who were very kind to say they read the blog. It was so nice to be able to say a quick ‘hello’ to them.

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Tuesday night was spent in pretty little Lymm where we enjoyed the local Fish and Chips. That’s the F & C shop behind the white car – not very far to carry them back to the boat!

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Wednesday was James birthday and our wedding anniversary and, as a real treat, he was allowed some Oreos with his morning coffee!

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Our destination on Wednesday was Stockton Heath where we were to meet up with several friends over the next three days. No sooner had we moored up than we had a great surprise visit by Neil and Pauline carrying a birthday cake and anniversary bubbly. What a very kind thought. There was nothing else for it but to sit down and have a coffee and a piece of Pauline’s cake with them.

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In the evening we’d arranged for Pauline and Neil to help us celebrate the birthday and anniversary. We had a superb meal together at Ego in Stockton Heath and we greatly enjoyed their company as always.

During our short stay in Stockton Heath we went to our friend George for a superb evening meal on Thursday where we met up with another old friend Stephen who’d also been invited and John. Early on Saturday morning, before we continued our journey we popped up to see cruise friends Bill and Jill. No photos sadly as James forgot on all occasions! Must have been the fault of all the fun!!

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Saturday was a wet day! As we said goodbye to Bill and Jill the rain started so, armed with waterproofs and umbrella James took the tiller and Doug lit the fire.

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As we left the Bridgewater canal and joined the Trent and Mersey traversing the three tunnels of Preston Brook, Saltisford and Barton (above) was a great bonus as they were the only bit of shelter from the rain during the entire day!

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After taking on water at Anderton (which took an absolute age as the water almost had to be helped out of the hose!) we headed on to get a few more miles under our belts, past the huge Tata chemical works ………

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…… and finally, as the rain eased off, we found our night’s mooring, alone on the one of the beautiful wide “flashes” around Rudheath. These wide open expanses of canal are caused by subsidence as the ground collapses into the disused salt mines beneath. During the six hours travelling we’d managed to cover quite a distance from Stockton Heath and, although the rain had stopped, it was a case of hunkering down next to the fire and relax.

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