Moore To Little Leigh...ish Via The Runcorn Branch. 1 Stoplock And 1 Tunnel.

My Dongle can swim........can yours?




Yesterday was a day of lunacy at our mooring as boat after boat went past at silly speeds, where they were going or what they were doing is beyond me.
One Lewis Hamilton in his plastic racing boat actually caused waves to break all down the side of Ubique and subsequently knocked the Dongle aerial head first into the canal where it seemed to have drowned.

It refused to work from then on, and who can blame it?
But.........after a night drying on top of the engine it miraculously came back to life this morning and all was well again.

Sometimes you can make a difference.

This is the Nuclear Research Lab where we tried to moor last year and D got carted off to security. Full story here
This year, although not much of a threat to a terrorist, there are signs warning you to stay clear.

I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall at the meeting to install these signs.

What do you mean a women just walked in here from her narrowboat?

She walked in and asked to moor...................Baaaaaldrick, we need a cunning plan.

We weren't going to go up there, but as we passed the entrance to the Runcorn Branch it looked too good to pass by. A deft bit of reversing and we were on our way.

An interesting couple of verandas in the guise of an old warehouse adorned these new builds.

Albeit they are nowhere near the canal you do get the general idea.

This bridge has the brickwork seamlessly moulded onto the rock base. Could this be done nowadays?...... I for one think not.

This branch of the canal has two very distinct halves, the lower section is all trees and large houses, where the upper section is mainly barbed and razor wire trying to protect the few boats moored along here.

This is the end of the line, rather aptly named Waterloo Bridge.
You have met your Waterloo.

Not fancying an overnight stop we moved back down and made our way through the Preston Brook tunnel and onto the Trent And Mersey.
This was along with seven, yes seven other boats doing exactly the same thing. The peacefulness of the Leeds Liverpool is now just a distant memory.

Note to BW.
Fix all the leaking gates and you wont have to rely on rainfall to fill and run your canal.



Until next time.........................





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Moore.


More mooring at Moore.

Now, should we stay or should we go?

Cons:

This place is like a motorway at the moment and there are three one way tunnels around the corner.

Two tunnels are uncontrolled. "You pays yer money you takes yer chance" type of thing.

It looks like rain.

Pros:

The final day at St Andrews is on TV all day.

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No contest.

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Until next time.........................

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Lymm To Moore.




Gloves?.... Winter coats?..... What madness is this?





Slipping quietly away from Lymm this morning into the teeth of a howling wind, it was not too long before the rain started.
The rain got steadily stronger and stronger until it culminated with us sheltering under a bridge along with a day hire boat whose crew looked like they were seriously in the wrong place at the wrong time.
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We both had our winter coats on today and you could clearly see our breath pluming as we plodded forth (I also had my gloves on, for which I am now a fully dyed in the wool wuss).

Things did improve greatly as time went by though, making our Peter Pan "flying through the rooftops" bit quite pleasurable.

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Making a quick stop at the "Village"...? of Stockton Heath for supplies, (four supermarkets and more shops than you can shake a stick at make this quite some village), we had to walk over the Manchester Ship Canal get to Morrisons.

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A long way down there somewhere is where we crossed over with Ubique on Tuesday.

Moving on again and there were plenty of delights to keep the eyes amused, this part of the Bridgewater is very rural, absolutely lock free and well worth the trip.







Modern sculptures, in only the finest pre-stressed concrete, along with an attached encampment of narrowboats could do nothing to destroy the enjoyment of the rest of this canal.
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We have a lovely mooring alongside a field of golden wheat this afternoon, our lovely golden cat has vanished into it and blended in perfectly.
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What else could she do?
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Until next time.......................
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