Wet dash to Liverpool

30/9/2017


Just outside Wigan is the re-built staithe of Orwell's pier. Wigan is a city of contradictions, energy and apathy, fine buildings and rubbish ones.

On Friday we moored next a fine pub, the Farmer's Arms, and couldn't say no to a good feed,  with a free bottle of merlot. The landscape is flatter, few hedges, wide fields, cropping. Great hay stacks, bales forming 20ft or so towers.

No locks, which given a persistent drizztle suits us fine. Numerous electrically operated swing bridges. The first one of the day delayed some late peak traffic while the system malfunctioned. I had to read the 'how to reset the system' instructions, as the cars banked up. No pressure!

Now moored for lunch, cold wet outside, snug warm inside. Love that central heating!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Heading west

Image
 Where shall we go for our last Santiago voyage?😢 initially we thought Llangollen,  over that amazing unpronounceable aqueduct  the Pontcysyllte. But time is short, still Scotland, Portsmouth, Lancashire, Yorkshire and London to fit in to our last 5 weeks So we settle on Chester. Not so many miles or locks as Llangollen. Funnily enough the River Dee runs through both, in Chester close to the sea, in Llangollen high in the Welsh hills, feeding part of its flow into the canal, enabling the transport of stone. So we travel back through the Harecastle tunnel, approximately 40 minutes, the Cap'n  sensibly wearing a lifejacket. Falling into an unlit tunnel, banging your head on a metal boat...it has happened, but not to us.
Read more

Chester

Image
 No heroics  we agree. That is we won't stand on the back of the boat, charging into pouring rain. Even gentle English rain is wet. Who would've thought  it. So we get a bit wet, then moor up, about 15 miles east of Chester, on the beautiful Shropshire canal. It wends nor west from below Birmingham towards the Mersey. On an earlier trip we pushed west from Chester to Ellesmere Port. From there you can 'ferry across the Mersey' to Liverpool.  We were organising this, using a pilot, some years ago, but bad weather kyboshed that. Moored up yesterday afternoon in Central Chester, 5 min walk into the ancient town centre, from the city walls 🧱 , second only to York for their intact remains. After dinner on the boat, plus a reviving GnT, we strolled into the melee of coronation madness. The odd, very, hens' parties. Bah humbug. A pic of boaters dressed up for the coronation. And 2 of the canal. The odd round building with a pixy hat was the lock keeper's hut when comm
Read more

22 April Oberhafen

Image
 This small town fringes Lake Thun, trad wooden chalets climbing up towards pine forests. An ideal place to live or for a tourist A small cafe at the ferry wharf, so a coffee before heading east to Interlaken, or west to Thun.  Or a guacamole bagel for lunch! Our friends' house is a recent build, the roof covered in solar panels. K is an artist with fabric..a  puppet leans at leisure, quilted birds against a wall. Such skill and patience. Nearby a pool complex,  well used, a practical protocol of pre showering, shoe removal etc, that allows a high patronage with courtesy observed. Everywhere garden corners  fit in the urban landscape.
Read more