What is lighter than drizzle? Well, whatever it is called, that's what it was doing this morning but it was quite wet. So no walk along the River Dane. A shower and some clothes washing instead.
We cast off around ten heading for the town of Congleton for reprovisioning and lunch.
Along the way these guys almost came to a sticky and smeary end when getting into their canoe at a bridge hole which had some shrubs in front of it obscuring our view.
All we could see was a head bobbing up and down. I thought it was a fisherman sitting under the bridge hole retrieving his line before our imminent arrival and Lawrence thought it was someone picking up dog shit. Within a bees dick of being too late we saw the canoe and L threw Aqualife hard into reverse. The stupid old gits just sat in their canoe bobbing about, their eyes getting growing bigger and bigger as AL's nose kept sliding toward them, the engine screaming in reverse. They didn't even try to back paddle, they were literally like stunned rabbits.
I wouldn't be surprised if there were some wet pants in the canoe, our bow was only two feet from them when AL finally halted. It would have been a very messy outcome if they had been squashed between the stone siding of the bridge hole and 25 tons of steel Narrowboat. They were very relieved to still be in one piece and profuse in their thanks as they paddled off shakily.
And needless to say, while this was happening (all in slow motion, you must remember - after all we are talking about Narrowboat speeds here) at least 5 gongoozelers and 3 dogs appeared, seemingly out of thin air, to stand around and watch the drama play out.
As you can see it was grey and overcast, typical England, some might say.
But there were still some nice views to be had
Although we did miss out on the glimpses of the Cheshire plain promised by Mr Pearson.
And the train viaduct, again
We were moored up in Congleton at 11.40 and walked up to Hightown to shop and lunch.
Shopping done we had a very good lunch at the Railway Inn. As we came out of the pub it started to rain in earnest and by the time Lawrence had lugged two heavy bags of shopping (for some reason, today, I wasn't allowed to carry anything) back to the boat we were both rather damp. Lawrence was not to be deterred however, and stripped off his wet jeans and donned his waterproof pants and cast us off as I dried the shopping before stowing it away.
As it was still raining, I then dealt with the rest of my washing and by the time I had festooned the inside of the boat with various items of underwear, the rain had stopped and I joined Lawrence on deck.
We cruised until 3.20 and moored up by Bridge 86 where a footpath we intend to take tomorrow, an idyllic one according to the Pearsons Guide, that "goes across the fields to the National Trusts incomparable Little Moreton Hall"
After we moored the sun came out for a couple of brief, but much appreciated, periods and I took these pics of our mooring.
The view from AL and the fields we will be crossing tomorrow
And the barn across the canal.
And a boat coming under Bridge 86
7 miles, 0 anything else in 5 hours 20mins.
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