Lymm on a Saturday evening turned out to be much noisier than the Creamfields festival! One of the nearby pubs had live music, but at least it didn’t go on too late. This morning we were up and away by 8.30. By the time we got to Grappenhall it had really warmed up and the fleece had to come off. At Stockton heath, there are some really nice Victorian terraces alongside the canal.
There are much grander houses at Higher Walton.
Walton New Bridge is very distinctive, not least for being made of concrete.
At Moore, there’s a church (which looks as if it might still be a church), but the building next door is now a house. It’s called the Old School House. The one next to that appears to be called The Minister’s House.
Before long, the Daresbury Research Lab tower comes into view.
We’d left at 8.30 in the hopes we’d get to Preston Brook Tunnel without too long to wait. CanalPlan reckoned that Lymm to the northern end would take 3 hours and 15 minutes, but Waterway Routes is more pessimistic, putting it at just under four hours. We’d allowed 4, because of all the moored boats we’d have to pass. But as we got closer, it was clear we’d made much better progress. By the time we were passing the junction with the Runcorn Arm, I was sure we’d be able to go straight into the tunnel.
Entry to the tunnel going south is from half past the hour for ten minutes, and it was just gone half past when we got there — just three hours after setting off. At the far end, there were a couple of boats waiting, one coming out of the lock, and two more waiting to come through the lock.
All the waiting boats meant we had a swift passage through the lock, which never takes long anyway as the rise is only about 4 inches. We’d been planning to stop at Dutton, but as we’d made such good progress, and as the water level looked a good few inches lower than it was last week, we decided to carry on to Anderton.
At the permanent towpath-side moorings between bridges 209 and 208, there was a boat coming the other way. As there’s very little room I waited, and as he came past I ended up a little aground on the towpath side. I had just extricated myself when I spotted another one coming. If only the first boat had said there was another behind. Entry to Salterford Tunnel is from half past each hour for 20 minutes, and we got there at a time we could go straight through too.
Barnton Tunnel isn’t timed, but you can’t see if there’s anything coming until the last moment because of the angle of approach.
Adrian was at the bow and could hear talking, so thought there was a boat coming. Fortunately I was going very slowly, so could back up and wait. We’d not long passed boat which had come through, and I’d asked him if there was anything behind, but just got a blank look. Maybe people just aren’t aware of what’s going on just behind them. Before long, the other boat appeared.
We went through, fortunately didn’t meet anything at the blind bridge that comes next, and moored in what’s become our usual spot at Anderton. We walked a big bag of rubbish down to the skip (as there are no rubbish facilities on the Bridgewater) and had a ice cream from the visitor centre on the way back.
17 miles, 1 lock. (80 miles, 15 locks)
No comments:
Post a Comment