A Very Special Royal Day.

Wednesday 9th September, 2015 outside Mossley.
We had a lovely view from our mooring across the almost deserted car park to the High Street.

We went out for second breakfast and found a very nice café where we sat outside and watched the world go by on their way to work.

The High Street is busy but never unpleasantly so, although the main A670 goes through the middle of town so there were the occasional thundering HGVs going by.

Yesterday, we had reserved copies of the Times and Telegraph at the local newsagents as today is a very special occasion indeed, the day upon which Her Majesty the Queen becomes our longest ever reigning monarch. We studied the papers over breakfast, particularly enjoying the many photographs.
On the way back to MM, we couldn't resist another chance to cross the river on the stepping stones.

However, our attempt to take a short-cut along a well-worn path through the undergrowth ended in a dead end at a locked gate; so we had to retrace our steps. It was fun, though!

We set off about midday from our leafy mooring.

The first lock was only 100 yards away and, yet again, a crowd of onlookers gathered to watch us go down and to ask questions.

It was fortunate that we set off when we did, as there was maintenance work being done on Lock 19W and passage was only possible during the workmen's lunch hour between 1:00 and 2:00pm. As we went through the lock, the workmen were just coming back from lunch and kindly helped us through.

There are many old mill buildings along the canal but this one had the biggest chimney we have yet seen.

Our plan was to moor up in the village of Mossley, but the moorings marked in the guide books were conspicuous by their absence so we continued on through another couple of locks and the 220 yard long Scout Tunnel. Unlike Standedge, this short tunnel has a towpath running through it beside the canal.

At the other side of the tunnel, there was another lock almost immediately and M went ahead to set it. She found that there was another boat in front of us going down in the lock and while R was waiting on MM, something got caught in the prop. So, we decided to moor up where we were for the night.

R went down the weed hatch and retrieved a pair of jogging trousers from the prop. For once, they were not much chewed - but a bit filthy.

At this point, we discovered that R had absentmindedly left his windlass at the previous lock so, while R was down the weed hatch, M heroically walked all the way back through the dark tunnel to retrieve it.
It being a special day, we made a special supper, and we toasted our wonderful Queen with our very best champagne (Ackerman's "pink-un"). She deserves nothing less. God Bless Her!

Today: 3 miles, 10 locks and 5.7 hours.
Trip: 292 miles, 236 locks and 214.5 hours.