Liverpool at Last!

 Saturday 10th August 2024 in Liverpool.

Lazy Bee and MM set off just before 10:00 and arrived at the top of the Stanley flight of locks about 11:00 as instructed. There was nobody around but the gates of the top lock were open, so we went on in to wait for the C&RT volunteers. Rather disappointingly, it was dull and raining, but that was infinitely better than when we did this flight last year in the teeth of Storm Antoni!

The volunteers soon turned up and explained that we had to wait for a while as there was "wild swimming" taking place in Collingwood Dock below and we couldn't go through there until after 12:00, when the swimmers would have finished.

The volunteers were, as ever, cheerful and very helpful and so going down through the four locks was easy with Shelley helping with the paddles. Always fun to see the trains going over the canal bridge.

Coming out of the bottom lock, we cruised through Stanley Dock past the massive old "Tobacco Warehouse" which is slowly being converted into very expensive apartments from right to left. You can see how far the conversion has got!

Part of the "Liverpool Link", opened in 2009 to allow boats to get from the L&L canal to the docks, is a new cut through a dock that had been filled in. This is known as "Sid's Ditch", named after the chief C&RT volunteer who is, reputedly, retiring this year.

One of the most memorable views as we entered Liverpool is to see the Royal Liver Building in front of us. Then you really know you've arrived!

After the four Stanley Locks, there are still two more locks to go through as well as three tunnels. The mouth of the first tunnel can be seen in front of the boats.

The last of the three tunnels takes us under the "Museum of Liverpool". The second tunnel takes you under the famous statue of the Beatles!

Looking back from MM, we watched Lazy Bee follow us into the Albert Dock with the Royal Liver Building in the background.

Finally, in Salthouse Dock we tied up the two boats either side of our shared pontoon.

The weather improved throughout the afternoon and supper, outside in the light of the setting sun, was our reward at the end of a fantastic day.  This is definitely the best way to come to Liverpool and wonderful to share the experience with Shelley and Harley. We had planned this together two years ago and finally - we have made it! Hooray!!

Today: 5 miles, 6 locks and 4.0 hours.

Trip: 176 miles, 85 locks and 88.6 hours.