News that might affect our Plans.

Saturday 27th July 2024 at Lymm. 

Today, we set off together again with "Lazy Bee" taking the lead. The Preston Brook tunnel is not far ahead and we timed our arrival to be able to go through on the hour. We made it with about a minute to spare!

At the north end of the tunnel, the Trent & Mersey Canal gives way to the Bridgewater Canal, which is owned by the Manchester Ship Canal Company and so requires a different licence. Luckily, as C&RT licence holders, we can cruise on the Bridgewater for 10 days if we register, which we did.

This chap seemed to be playing "I'm the King of the Castle!"M felt vertiginous just looking at him!

Lymm is one of the loveliest villages on the Cheshire waterways and it has good facilities, so the moorings are predictably very popular. However, we managed to get both boats in, although not next to each other. This actually worked well as MM was in the afternoon shade and had a good grass verge so Shelley and Harley could bring their picnic chairs down to us in the heat of the day..

During the day we received news that there was a leaking culvert at Burscough and that the canal there was closed. This was NOT good news as Burscough is on our way into Liverpool and we are due to go into Liverpool in just 14 days. Last year the same thing happened at exactly the same place and the canal was closed for five weeks while the C&RT tried to fix it. Luckily, last year, MM was the other side of the closure, so we manged to get MM into Liverpool withour problems. There will be an inspection on Monday and the CRT will provide an update. So, we decided to stay in Lymm over the weekend and wait to see what the C&RT says on Monday.

We walked down into Lymm for a "few bits" and to visit one of our favourite coffee shops.

In the late afternoon, we gathered on the towpath in the sunshine and chatted together as the sun set.

Today: 12 miles, 1 lock and 4.4 hours.

Trip: 114 miles, 71 locks and 60.2 hours.