Monday 26/9 Castlefield Basin, Manchester to Lymm, Cheshire

We motored quietly out of the basin at 8.00am. Three boats had left earlier but they all turned right to make a start on the Rochdale 9 under the bridge hole, with water cascading over the top of the bottom gates.

We turned left 

to retrace our steps back down to Waters Meeting. On our way out we passed a mixture of new

And old buildings

And new again

There were lots of these entrances to old warehouse loading docks along the canal in Manchester

I thought I should take a pic of some bridge graffiti. This one was chosen because we could understand it

Lawrence, the first day we have had to rug up.

A little later we had to don the raincoats and it stayed wet for the rest of the day. On the outskirts of Sale we passed some permanent moorings where this fella was fishing

Our progress was much slower than expected because of the number of permanent linear moorings along the canal; our speed was held down to tickover for much of the time.

Seen at Broadheath; the new Urban Splash apartment blocks right next door to a derelict 1833 cotton warehouse

The Linotype Works On the other side of Broadheath.  At its peak it employed over 2,000 people. Now it's being redeveloped. I don't know if you can see in the background the facade that is been kept and is currently being held up by scaffolding.

More of the Lonotype Works being kept. The site covers several acres.

A sad sight

As you know, the English like their dogs!

We reached Lymm at noon and despite L's protestations we called it a day. Lymm is a prosperous and pretty village, with nice walks, a choice of cuisine and good moorings close to the high st. What more could you ask for on a rainy day. We had lunch and then went for a walk around some of the village.

Cottages overlooking the pond

Looking up the main st

Not many pics, I couldn't juggle the brolly, the bag and the iPad.

We walked up The Dingle, a path leading from the pond up the wooded gully to Lymm Dam, also surrounded by woods. We did a 3 mile walk around the dam returning to the village, again via The Dingle.

Lymm Dam and St Mary's Church

The walk took at least half as long again as it should because not only were there some beautiful trees to admire,

Lovely colours,

and squirrels and birds to watch there were also chatty dog walkers, who when they heard our accents, were intrigued enough to want to know why we were walking around Lymm Dam in the rain and not on a beach in OZ.

Just as we got back to the boat the rain started in earnest but we are tucked up snug and warm in AL.

We are quite excited about dinner - we have options - Italian, Turkish & Indian, mmmm

Our mooring in Lymm

13 1/2 miles, 0 locks in 4 hours.