Wednesday 13th July 2016
Big day today with Cameron leaving 10 and Theresa May moving in and Liz saying Bye and Hi. We will say no more about this except that it has the country riveted.
Gosh it was cold this morning. It got down to about 7c overnight and as we were cruising from East Marton it was about 10c. Had to put on the thermals with toques and gloves. The weather forecast was for no rain but yet again they lied.
A bridge on a bridge. Originally it was for foot traffic and then they added another level for the cars.
One of the things we are finding on the boat is that we are getting very stiff. It’s because of the smallness of our living environment so you do have to be a little inventive as to find places to do your daily stretches – maybe this is going a little far and actually looks like Fras is about to fall into the canal.
Di meantime hung onto the back of the boat looking like an Eskimo.
We added two more momentous moments by reaching the summit of the Leeds and Liverpool canal at 478 feet and by crossing from Yorkshire to Lancashire.
Another momentous moment was when a lock key was dropped into the canal and with the assistance of a rather strong magnet from W+M it was retrieved – £15 saved!
Fras actually got the opportunity today to take some time off and sit up the front of the boat with his feet up to take in the scenery. What makes it even nicer when you sit up the front as you cruise is that you cannot hear any of the engine noise so you feel like you just glide through the water taking in the landscape.
Di meantime was at the bum end sheltering from the passing showers.
We have our first set of “lock slaves” Al and Susan from Canada joining us tomorrow so we need to re-arrange nb Lucy interior a bit and do exciting things like pump out (poo dump). We had phoned ahead two days ago to a marina who said they would be open on Wednesday and that they also did pump outs. Hmm, all sounded good only when we go there we discover that their poo tank was also full. Not such good news. We will have some additional poo edumication until we can find somewhere else for a pump out – quickly. The boys also changed the oil on W+M’s boat at the marina under guidance from the staff so of course a celebratory drink needed to ensue.
A mile up the canal we found a perfectly satisfactory watering hole.
We got talking to the staff and they were telling us how the original pub was underneath the current pub and that it was built in 1655. They kindly took us down into the basement so that we could view it which was a great opportunity. Apparently there is a ghost down here but no recent sightings.
We have been communicating during the day with Al and Susan and they have landed safely in London and are making their way up to Wigan to spend the evening in their last comfortable bed for the next seven days – also to get over the jetlag. They will have a short train trip to Foulridge where we are moored tonight followed by a short taxi ride down to the canal. The poor guys, they are then straight into a 1.5k tunnel followed by 7 locks – we think you call that a baptism by fire.
Tonight we will catch the third and final night of Trainspotters Live – just so looking forward to it!!!
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