Leaving Boothstown.

 Wednesday 11th in Boothstown and Thursday 12th September 2024 in Lymm.

On Wednesday, we went back up to MM at Boothstown, where she has been for the last couple of weeks. It was a journey of several stages! We drove up to Aston Marina and parked the Touran there so it will be there when we arrive back with MM at the end of this summer's cruise. Our good friend Peter Coote very kindly picked us up and drove us to Stoke-on-Trent railway station, although we got lost on the way and there are roadworks around the station so Peter had to drop us off some distance away and by this time it was raining!  But it was so kind of him and it helped to make the journey much easier.  At Stoke-on-Trent, we were fortunate enough to catch a fast train to Manchester Piccadilly (still raining), a free bus to the central bus station and finally a long bus ride to Boothstown and a fifteen minute walk to the marina. We were very lucky that whenever it rained, we happened to be either inside a bus or a train!

We arrived too late to set off that evening, so we decided to stay in the marina overnight and get fuel tomorrow. After the rain, the skies cleared to give a lovely evening and it always feels secure to be in a marina and on shore power!

On Thursday morning, we decided to walk to the RHS Bridgewater garden, which is just a mile away on the towpath. On the way, we passed these new 72 hour visitors' moorings, which were very recently installed by Peel of Manchester presumably as flood prevention as Peel intends to build houses on the low lying land between Boothstown and the RHS garden.

We arrived at the RHS Garden for breakfast just as the café opened at 9:00am.

We were the first visitors through the door on the dot of 9am. Normally this area is heaving and there is always a queue for food, but not today. We had the place to ourselves; not a soul in sight other than a handful of staff.

Even the terrace was empty and we could take our pick of the tables. However, by the time that we finished breakfast it was already beginning to fill up with visitors arriving for the gardens, which open at 10am.

Les at Boothstown has been looking after MM while we were away and he has become a good friend. He helped us to fill MM with diesel and then it was time to say our goodbyes. This is Les with his lovely partner Jackie on Jackie's boat waving us goodbye as we left. We shall miss them both and hope to see them again in the future.

After going through Worsley and the Barton Swing Aqueduct, we did a quick dash into the Trafford Centre for "a few bits" (the fridge was bare!) before going on to Altrincham.

One of our favourite coffee shops is Kickback Coffee at Altrincham, where there is a convenient set of railings right outside for us to tie MM to. By then it was already getting late so Kickback was closed. Soon after, the clouds became even darker and there was heavy rain - so our timing was perfect!

Today: 10 miles, 0 locks and 4.3 hours.

Trip: 233 miles, 99 locks and 119.5 hours.