We pulled pins from Plank Lane at 07.40 with a 7 or 8 hour cruise in front of us . We will try and get down to somewhere near Lymm for the night. We will be passing through the outskirts of Greater Manchester and we have been told that there are not a great number of safe moorings so we have decided to do the trip in one hit.
We stopped at this pub in Leigh not for a drink but for the Aldi Supermarket that was right next to it . Needless to stay we stocked up with the most important essentials ,wine and a bit more wine. It’s not that often we get a Supermarket next to the canal so we always stop and take full advantage of it .
On the move again and this is where we leave The Leigh branch of The Leeds and Liverpool canal and join the privately owned Bridgewater canal. As you can see they are a bit slow at taking down their signs as the Vickers Hall Bridge is now open , well I hope it is.
We have heard so much about The Bridgewater Canal and I can say that most of it has been bad . It is owned/run by Peel holdings who as far as I understand are only interested in the land beside the canal and not the canal itself . We have also heard that they are very heavy handed with enforcement with one particular enforcement officer being a nasty piece of work. Anyway I guess we will find out for ourselves as we cruise the canal.
Leaving Leigh and it’s good to see some of the old Mills and factories still standing.
After over 4 years of travelling I think this is the first Pit Head we have ever seen.
We then cruised on and thought we were seeing double as we came across nb Sandoy as we entered Lymm. Of course it was friends Jack and Tina on their Sabre built boat which looks identical to Inca . We had a chat and then went on and tried to moor in Lymm ,but it was rammed full so we carried on for a couple of miles before picking up a nice peaceful mooring for the night at Pickering bridge after an 8 hour lock free cruise.
One of the few places to moor on this section is Worsley and although the moorings are next to a busy a road we have marked it in our guide book as a place to stop the next time we are up this way.
We were soon to come upon this Lighthouse next to Parrin Lane bridge and being so far from the sea we wondered why it was here .
It seem’s that a local man was given the opportunity to buy a mooring for his narrowboat on the Bridgewater Canal in Salford. There was space to build something on the land so he approached the local planning department and they said that he could build anything as long as it was made of stone. He sold his narrowboat and started building a lighthouse 30 miles from the sea. I’m not sure if it has a flashing light or not ,but what a strange thing to build if you could have built anything you wanted to.
After about an hours cruise we got to the Barton Swing Aqueduct Bridge. I must admit that I was a bit excited as I have always wanted to go over it . The bridge crosses The Manchester Ship canal and along with an adjacent road bridge swings open to allow large ships to go in to Manchester.
Crossing the bridge and looking to the right you can see the road swing bridge .
And looking to the left you can see the city centre of Manchester. In the end although it was a good crossing it wasn’t what I thought it would be. I think I just expected something bigger and more imposing.
Nearly at Lymm and we got a shout from this guy who we have never met before . He said “I remember that boat well” . We stopped and reversed back to talk to him and it turned out that it was Paul who fitted out Inca when he used to run Sabre Narrowboats . We had a good chat and complemented him on his excellent work, although I did have a bit of a moan (like I do) about the paintwork which has a nasty habit of oxidising. It seems from what Paul said that there is some sort of polish with a resin in it that stops the oxidation . If anyone knows what it’s called I would love to know.
I wonder what she is doing under that tree …
We then cruised on and thought we were seeing double as we came across nb Sandoy as we entered Lymm. Of course it was friends Jack and Tina on their Sabre built boat which looks identical to Inca . We had a chat and then went on and tried to moor in Lymm ,but it was rammed full so we carried on for a couple of miles before picking up a nice peaceful mooring for the night at Pickering bridge after an 8 hour lock free cruise.
Happy Days
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