Many Meetings: To a Crowded Litherland

Thursday 8th and Friday 9th August 2024 in Litherland.

The four of us decided to travel on to Litherland today, where you moor and wait on secure C&RT moorings before going into Liverpool. Some of the areas on the outskirts of Liverpool are not recommended for overnight mooring but Litherland is not only secure but has water and waste facilities too. So, we set off mid morning for a slightly longer day's cruising.

We need to travel 12 miles today and there are no locks - but there are nine swing bridges and none of us are too enamoured of swing bridges. In fact, they are a pain in the proverbial backside! Luckily, a couple of them were opened by others for us, which was nice, including the one that got stuck on us in the upright position last year, so M was very relieved not to have to do that one herself.

At one of the bridges, a group of C&RT volunteers was cutting back the overgrown vegetation hanging over the towpath. One of the volunteers wryly remarked "only 2,000 miles to go!" .

It is really noticeable this year that the towpaths and locksides are getting increasingly overgrown, so it was nice to see at least something being done.

A number of the the fields beside the canal have a distinctive crop of yellow and blue flowers. M, who happened to be opening a swing bridge beside one of these fields, took this photograph and identified them as a mixed planting of buckwheat, wild mustard and a variation of vipers' bugloss. Research in our wild flower book told us that these are all sown as conservation species. They look so pretty too!

When we arrived at Litherland there were no vacant moorings but Jill and Lloyd on nb "Nifty Fifty" very kindly said that we could breast up against them, three deep. That's a "first" for us!

On Friday morning, a number of boats left and opened up one space so we backed MM and Lazy Bee into that space, still breasted up.

Breakfast in the local huge Tesco next door was followed by a very lazy day.

There are now four boats here waiting to go into Liverpool tomorrow and, in the evening sunshine, we gathered together on the towpath. The two on the left are Sue and Phil from nb "But'n'Ben" moored next to us.

Sue said that "But'n'Ben" is a Scottish expression describing, what she said was, a "two up, two down, without the up!" Literally, the "But" is the outside (or front/kitchen) room and the "Ben" is the inside room of a small two room cottage.