Our time is up !!



Sad to say that our time in Liverpool is up and we must leave this remarkable city.

We have had such a great time here and it clearly will be on our agenda to return here - next year.

Being able to moor up in an area which is just 5 minutes away from the city centre on moorings which are friendly, quiet at night and have power and water is unique in our travels.
There are just so many things that we have seen whilst we have been here that words alone cannot tell completely.

the yellow duckmarine - making it's usual splash on the occupants
as well as the residents

the day it broke down - but as with all boaters there is always
someone to come to the rescue

The moorings in the background - an ideallic place to stay

Especially happy with this - the view as I worked

Part of the Old Dock area - still preserved under the new
development that is Liverpool One

The walls of the Old Dock - a great deal of work was carried out
during the development of the new shopping precinct to ensure
that ths old dock was not affected

St.George's Hall which was built to house both the Courthouse
and a Town Hall

The courthouse

the dock (not the shipping kind) - well some of them might have
been shipped out

Part of the huge organ in the town hall

the ceiling

we had to take the ferry across the mersey - and yes they played the song
Diane did her best but without the words and the tune we can still give her
a pass mark

a view back to Liverpool and the Liver building across the river

foreground there is a beach - but way too cold for a dip

the imposing structure that is the Anglican Cathedral

This is the ferry

the Town Hall on the Birkenhead side - cannot remember which
one it was

Part of the submarine U-534 - salvaged after the war and now on display

waiting for the ferry

This is for Diane's dad - for memories of over 50 years ago

the SuperLamBanana - this is the first one

all around Liverpool these sculptures have materialised

along the waterfront

and in front of the Liverpool museum - as well as in the town

just one more

the city is a delight to walk through - notice the building on
the right with the tower

not much chance of knowing the time - no sun to speak of

The town hall - like a lot of older buildings there
is a great deal of cleaning needed

The Queen Victoria memorial - in Derby Sqaure

couldn't come to Liverpool and not visit Mathew Street - and
The Cavern Club

The Anglican Cathedral

It really is more impressive inside

Such incredible work to build this

I am sure that this is a normal telephone box with more than
one number that can be called

Looking at the Anglican Cathedral from the Catholic Cathedral

The Catholic Cathedral - note the black section at the top -
this is actually stained glass windows

The stained glass windows from the inside

The altar

The Philharmonic Dining Rooms - worth a visit simply to see the
tile work inside - even in the gents toilets

The Liver bird - symbol of Liverpool

 This has been a part of the sights of Liverpool - there was a lot more that we have seen and a lot more still to see

Hello, Hello, Hello – what are you up to then?

Wednesday 6^th June 2012 to Sunday 10^th June 2012

27 Miles, 6 Locks, 3 Tunnels, 10 Swing Bridges for this week

Totals:  1175 Miles,  923 Locks, 35 Tunnels, 18 Lift Bridges, 36 Swing Bridges

Our priorities before we started off into Liverpool were to firstly wind so at least we were pointing the right way and then to fill the water tank; the grey tank was going to be OK until we got into Liverpool and the diesel was OK as well.

One thing we have certainly noticed on the length of canal from Wigan has been the lack of facilities for boaters – they are there but you really have to look for them and do a lot more planning about where you can do what.

Achieving our goals in reverse order we were able to set off – at least for ½ a mile – the swing bridge at New Lane once again played up – a BW notice advising against operating it; so a phone call to them and the message back that it would be passed through and someone would be in touch in a little while – 45 minutes was a bit long to have to wait before we phoned again to find out what would be happening – by this time it was later in the afternoon and would necessitate a longer cruising day tomorrow.

Eventually the BW guys were there and we were on our way – these guys have a lot to do and we have no problem with any of the people on the ground, it is the lack of helpful communication about what is happening after the initial report that is of concern.

as seen on TV with the Queen - they were just out for a cruise,
presumably to turn her around as they passed again on the return
journey about 10 minutes later

We managed to get a couple of hours cruising in and moored in a lovely spot near Model House Farm.

The only problem with the canal through this length – since Parbold - has been the curvature of the side and the need to moor further out from the side, but the scenery is extremely pleasant and beautiful.

The following day we headed off under very heavy laden skies, but there was nothing we could do – we had to be at Bridge 9 by 9am the following day and with many miles and almost as many swing bridges to negotiate we always knew that we were going to start off drier than we finished – a self-fulfilling prophecy really!!

We moored a little short of the target and knew that a half-hour in the morning would get us to the target – achieved in plenty of time and had a chance for a cuppa and bit or work before the BW guys arrived to operate the swing bridges to reduce disruption to the traffic.

We had been forewarned that we could expect to become a bit more intimate with the weed hatch – not at all surprised when it happened – a decent amount of plastic wrapped around the prop – but it was a new record in getting the mats removed, hatch opened and prop cleared as well as putting everything back in place to carry on – didn’t even have to moor up – the good lady wife acted as human mooring pin.

assorted bottles and rubbish - these could be stormwater refugees

These however are not - a bag of rubbish and a plastic sheet - just
waiting to become fouling on a boat prop somewhere

The first few miles of the journey start to make you wonder – why on earth (or water) would we want to put ourselves through the ordeal of finding a way through all of the rubbish and crap that had been dumped into the canal – this was more elusive than the north-west passage – it was not rubbish which had flowed in with stormwater – the filled rubbish bags, large children’s toys, large pieces of foam mattresses were a dead give away about how people viewed the canal.

we couldn't see how this would have found it's way into the canal
- apart from being deliberately thrown there

The sign says it all about the area and then becomes an invivtation
for some to do the opposite

But just as we were lamenting the attitudes of people in the area, it suddenly cleared up – we did pass many volunteers doing there bit to improve the look and gave thanks to them for their efforts.

Again it was not the most brilliant of days – raincoats, hats and umbrellas gave it all away – in fact the latter were put back in place – the wind meant that they really were of no use.

Such was the wind that my beloved Driza-bone cap escaped my attempts to preserve its place on my head and went for an impromptu soaking behind the boat – that was gone – but it was floating and heading for the towpath side.

Diane assumed control of the boat and let me off at the next bridge hole and with trusty grabbers in hand I headed back to search for it.

It didn’t take too long to find, but turning around I found two community police officers (on their bikes) with inquisitive looks on their faces “would you mind telling us what you are up to?”

“I am on a boat and the wind gust took the cap off – so I was here trying to retrieve it”

I left – cap in hand – and with both of them grinning – and headed back to where I presumed Diane might have been.

She surprised only herself in being able to moor up and tie up the boat on her own – I always knew she could do it – she just had to prove it to herself.

views of the locks from the top - heading down into Liverpool

We have got to say the volunteers at the lock heading down into the Liverpool dock area, as well as the BW guys that had by now caught us up – have to be congratulated for their help and pleasant nature – we were through the 4 locks and cruising through the docks in about 30 minutes – it was all quite an experience and a very enjoyable way to enter the centre of Liverpool.

The iconic Liver building - with the two Liver birds - male and female
at the top - each are 18' tall

and this is my very own (a)liver bird

 Through two more locks and then some manoeuvring past vessels towering over us – and that was just the lifeboats – we made our way to the nominated berth.

We thought that we could reverse in but the wind meant that was not going to happen, so it was bow in – the shorter pontoons meant that tying up was a bit more difficult, but got there.

Diane was very excited when she was checking the electricity meters on the post assigned to us – one had ₤3.52 credit on it and the other had ₤14.95 credit – a win.

Naturally we thought that we should see if we could re-zero the meters and use the card we had bought – NOT!!

Free moorings, free electricity and free internet (thanks to the portable hotspot option on the phone) – not bad for 13 days in central Liverpool.

The iconic Liverpool yellow duck - two of these amphibious vehicles
taking passengers for a plunge into the dock areas - they create a
fairly large wave on their entry  - not quite what we are used to on the cananls

The wind did not let up for that first night – blowing us as well as all others around – even when moored up – and all sorts of noises to go with it.

Oh I do love a parade - this one for squad of the Territorial Army
returning from Afghanistan - a real traffic stopper

The first two days here have been great – very handy to everything we need and plenty of things to see and do – we will be trying to see as much as possible over the remaining time that we have here.

Crick Weather – now an official term

Saturday 2^nd June to Tuesday 5^th June
No water travel this week

A new meteorological term has entered our dictionary – Crick Weather – the phenomena associated with the Bank Holiday at end of May/beginning of June and geographically around the Crick area.

After a week of almost glorious sunshine the weather very quickly gathered cloudy and cooler/colder conditions – almost overnight. The reason for all of this – the fast approaching long weekend and the Crick Boatshow.

We had a fairly long list of items that we had been building for a couple of months now – things that we wanted to find out about for the boat and guessed that we would have a better than average chance of being able to satisfy by another visit to Crick – so decision made – we were off there again.

On the two previous times we had been, we succeeded in coming out wetter than drier, but we had a plan – careful consultation with the weather planner (Diane’s android phone) showed that Saturday was going to be better than Sunday – previous visits had been Sundays.

As it turned out this was a decision of some genius – Saturday was a day that could be spent outside for most of the time and Sunday was absolutely miserable.

Almost all of the items were crossed of the list and we had a wallet full of credit card receipts to prove it.

Sunday was a flood – we went to the movies and generally made sure that we were somewhere inside – cold and wet and cold again.

Monday, of course was glorious and we met up with Mike and Stella from Isobel at Polesworth CarBoot Market – bought a couple more things – spare room to fill in the hire car was Diane’s excuse.

We went back to Isobel with Mike and Stella, but moored up behind them were Betty and Graham on Tranquility  - a knock on the side and Betty appeared, followed by Graham – we chatted for a while and bought some tyre fenders for the boat – you can never have enough can you?

On the way back to the boat, which we had left at Burscough, we pick up Banjo from the kennels – he had had a good time there and was surprisingly very clean despite all of the rain that everyone had had.

Part of the war memorial at Southport -
so wonderfully built

Tuesday came and we took advantage of having a car and headed off to explore around the area – ending up at Southport where we spent some time looking around, but our time to head off was approaching and we started to ready ourselves for the trip into Liverpool

The Olympic Flame and We’ve been Grassed Up

Monday 28^th May 2012 to Friday 1^st June 2012

14 Miles, 2 Locks, 5 Swing Bridges for this week

Totals:  1148 Miles,  917 Locks, 32 Tunnels, 18 Lift Bridges, 26 Swing Bridges

 We needed to wait until Monday where we had moored over the weekend so that we could take Banjo back to see the Vet – he improved a great deal and the vet was satisfied with his progress – so we now have enough tablets for about 4 weeks and an appointment to come back in about 6 weeks time.

 After a glorious weekend it was now time to move on just a little bit further on and we carried on through Apperley Bridge and onto Parbold – we have been advised that though there we quite a number of moorings it might be a bit difficult to get one – we were lucky to find one after the turn and before the bridge.

The deep lock at Lock 91

Parbold is a really lovely village as we found during a fairly lengthy walk around – visiting Our Lady and All Saints Church – a massive church for a village/town of this size.

a magnificent structure in the middle of Parbold

A couple of days in Parbold and as usual it is just so easy to meet up with other boaters and so we meet up with nb Enterprise (sorry guys we didn’t get your names) who are heading to Liverpool.

It was very very quiet where we moored up – not a sound was heard all night and considering we were in the centre of the area it was very pleasing.

We did find out that where we were planning to head to – Burscough Bridge – was to be involved in a very significant event on the Friday – in just a couple of days time.

So we moved on and did battle with the swing bridges – at least Diane did the battle I just steered through.

In defence of the realm

We had noticed that there did not seem to be many places to get the necessities of life aboard sorted out – in particular any pump-out stations – two of those that had been marked down were no longer in existence – the most extraordinary of these being the one which had been located in the middle of Burscough Bridge.

There had been a total redevelopment of this area with shops, chandlery and cafes which looks incredible and a lovely area had been created – only problem is that despite ordering the pumpout equipment, BW management forgot to tell the builders and include the requirement in the plans, so consequently it wasn’t built - thank you very much from the top of our grey tank.

As is always the case, local knowledge from other boaters meant that we knew exactly where the next place to visit would be; in addition there were some very helpful BW staff on the ground to advise as well.

Speaking of whom they were also able to help out with a reluctant swing bridge – it didn’t want to open but was quite happy to sound the bells and flash the light but not to move.

The boat club next to the Red Lion Caravan Park provided the pumpout and we could once again uncross our legs.

Back to moor up at Burscough and we were up early on Friday morning to head up to the town to be there at 8am – the roads were being closed off in anticipation of the journey of the Olympic Flame down the main street on its way to Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool.

It all started with a couple of people standing behind one
another and pretty soon they were queueing down both sides
of the road in fine British fashion



Even the Beatles were there

This guy was way too fit - fancy running up the hill - it was gone
almost before we saw it

Further to the work done by BW – early in the morning we had three staff rapidly making their way along towpath – two with larger mowers cutting the grass on either side of the towpath and a third with a smaller one cleaning and tidying the area close to each boat – trouble being that without any clear direction of the cut grass, most of it ended up on the side of the boat – talk about being grassed up.

It would have saved a repaint if we wanted green - but the towpath
looked a lot better

  But they did a great job and with no complaints from me – "she" might have something else to say as she was the designated cleaner of the mess.

From Emergency to Cremation

Monday 21^st May to Sunday 27^th May 2012

44 Miles, 7 Locks, 1 Tunnel, 1 Swing Bridge for this week

Totals:  1134 Miles,  915 Locks, 32 Tunnels, 18 Lift Bridges, 21 Swing Bridges

Our continuing journey north was now accompanied by warm sunshine – the first obstacles were the Dutton Stop Lock and the Preston Brook Tunnel, after that it was simply pure cruising.

Once again Banjo has amazed us with the desperation to get to Diane – off the boat he was despatched when we reached the lock for a natural break, but with the lock gate opened and the boat entering the lock (Diane steering) he decided that he wanted to get to her before the boat was fully in the lock – so onto the lock gate platform he stepped and front paws on the top of the gate was eagerly looking to be able to clamber aboard.

Not looking at what exactly was happening I commenced to closed the gate and amidst the confusion he decided to make a back flip with pike to the ground (degree of difficulty 4.5) and miserably failed – into the canal but managed to get himself out this time – miserable drowned water rat of a dog.

Clear of the tunnel we presumed that we might be able to top up the diesel at Claymore navigations – alas an air blockage in the diesel pump and lines meant that they were not able to complete the task.

Not to worry at all, we continued cruising onto Lymm in the pleasant sunshine and with a light cooling breeze – we moored up on the offside (moorings available on each side). Lymm is one of our favourite small towns and we had a short and brief reacquaintance – just like being home again.

We had decided that we would stay here for a couple of days – 48 hour moorings available – fine weather and a chance to slow down again.

On the second day we were once again in the company of nb Valentine and drinks on board that evening were both very enjoyable and much later than we had planned – but a very good night was had by all.

Off-again the following day and only a short trip was planned to Dunham Town with a water stop on the way – all achieved with no fuss at all.

We planned a walk to the Axe and Cleaver for a drink and who did we find again but Lyn and Phil (nb Valentine) – I think they may be stalking us – but the 6 of us (2 dogs included) headed off in the afternoon and had a very nice time in the garden setting of the pub in the back area.

The next morning we were off again – this time with the intention of getting past Waters Meeting and after a brief stop at The Trafford Centre (hopefully) head off further.

Well we got through the junction at Waters Meeting and moored up at The Trafford Centre in very good time – two nice men conducting a towpath survey kindly kept an eye on the boat whilst “she who must be obeyed” dragged me to the shopping centre on the pretence of lunch.

I have to say the place is massive – but very Americanised – everything way too big – I cannot see that there is enough foot traffic through the centre to allow for all of the shops to be profitable – anyway lunch was duly provided by “she” and we left after another top-up for the mobile and a raid on the M&S free chocolate give-away.

We were pleased to see upon our return another familiar face – John from nb Triskaideka – chatting away to the two towpath survey men – he was waiting for Ali to return; so a bit of a chat together and then he invoked the time-honoured means of ensuring return of whom you are waiting – he put the kettle on – sure enough as soon as it was done, Ali appeared – I do believe that John’s wallet is considerably lighter as a result of letting Ali out of his sight.

The Manchester Ship canal from the aqueduct

The Barton Swing Aqueduct

We travelled a bit further up the canal to Worsley where we decided to settle for the evening – very pleasant – but like all unfamiliar places we weren’t quite sure. There was really no need to be concerned – no problems at all and very peaceful.

Night cruising is the thing around here and of course one musn't
be without a convenient lighthouse to help guide you away from danger

In the morning we took a walk around the canal and the town centre to get a feel or it all – after all this was the birthplace of the canal system – all thanks to the Duke of Bridgewater and the coal that was almost readily available.

One of the most photographed buildings at Worsley - but it
doesn't date from Tudor times - just the 1800's

Diane liked the colours of the underside of this bridge -
the colours of the steerer remain just grey

Whilst we were walking we continued to notice that Banjo was not his normal self – he had been having trouble walking and moving for a couple of days now – we had decided that we needed to find a vet for him – there were a couple around Worsley but a bit too far to get him there. We found a vet in Wigan and being that they were open on Saturday mornings as well we knew that we had to get there for him – it was going to be one of those very long days – mostly cruising but a few locks at the end.

The patient - now feeling considerably better and happier

The minehead of the disused colliery

The old mill at Leigh

Locks like these we had not seen before – these were in fact Diane’s first experience taking the boat into and controlling it in double locks – so naturally with being on your own and the movement there was a bit of concern – something which I did not pick up on at first.

One of the flashes on our way into Wigan - now a very popular
water sports and recreation area

We turned at the junction onto the Leeds and Liverpool proper and after another three locks we were just about at the place to walk to see the Vet – she left with Banjo leaving me to resume my experiences as a single-hander through yet another very tough lock – 30 minutes for one lock – this is going to have to be a team effort for the rest of them.

We love the fact that someone has taken the time to measure these
distances for cyclists - but I cannot remember the conversion from
bike minutes to boat hours

The little fellow is now on the improve – he has imitated his mistress – a slipped disc in his back – an anti-inflammatory needle and a course of anti-inflammatory tablets now being undertaken – but at least he has movement and no pain and certainly far happier – we just need to carry him on and off the boat – yes your majesty!!

The junction of the Leigh branch with the main Leeds and
Liverpool canal - we swung around to the left from here

A couple of non-cruising days now at Crooke and a revisit to the vet on Monday are the order of the day.

All this time we have been having extremely wonderful weather.

We had our first BBQ adventure since being on the boat – a bit of a difference to the fully gas-controlled one back home, so the first cooking it was a bit burnt (almost cremated) but later efforts met with management approval.

Plans for the next week or so are now advanced – our booking to go into Liverpool is now less than two weeks away, so very much looking forward to that.