Onwards to sample the Lancaster

Thursday 9^th May to Friday 10^th May 2013

We thought about going into Preston for a bit of a look and see the city, so we were off to Salwick train station just a short distance away – the trains were running through there fairly regularly.

The roadworks at the bridge above the station were negotiated and onto the platform.

We had missed the 8:15am so thought that it couldn’t be long to the next train – checking the updated timetable – seems that the works still taking place had slightly changed the daily schedule – next train would be 16:15 – mmm, a bit too long to wait – oh well, Preston will just have to wait.

Back to the boat and Diane decided to get a bit of tidying up done; I got stuck into work.

By the afternoon, all of the energy expended over the last few days had caught up with us and we needed a nanna nap which worked well for us and we woke up after a couple of hours very much refreshed.

Friday’s weather should have been a bit better than Thursday so naturally we would move – the rain delayed it a bit and didn’t quite completely disappear, but what the heck – let’s go anyway.

Like everyone else who gets here, there is only a limited time to enjoy so we pressed on – just a few hours.

Firstly we would need to top up the water tank.

This is a lovely canal, the only problem we have encountered is the shallow sides and hence mooring opportunities are limited.

There are sections of wooded waterway and other parts which open right out – with only the M55 disturbing the peace initially.



A good example of a John Rennie stone bridge - the fattened
circular shape and the triple keystone

The boat seemed a bit sluggish but we thought that it was just the canal being a bit shallow, but at the waterpoint the weedhatch was off and a few handfuls of plastic unwound from the prop – that would do it!!

This is a lovely time of year to be on the waterways and part of that is the wildlife around and the arrival of the goung-uns.

Our aim was to make for Bilsborrow, but it was the same idea of many others and a lack of suitable mooring spots forced us to move a bit further on to Claughton where we stopped – the plank came out to get from the back to the bank and we settled in before the rain came.

There is a small Spar here where Diane got a few things that we needed, but for the most it was indoors out of the wet and the cold – strange (or not really) that it was so lovely just last Tuesday and now we are rugged up again – must be England!!


8 miles

Totals: 1666 Miles, 1294 Locks, 56 Tunnels, 28 Lift Bridges, 129 Swing Bridges