Friday, April 25, 2014

Early start...early finish.

Quite an early start today. One, to beat the forecast rain and two, we moored in the middle of a rookery last night and they were having one hell of a shouting match this morning, although it beats waking to the noise of traffic by quite a distance. 

The weatherman said rain before lunch. The map said 3.5 hours to Tixall Wide and the bread maker said 3 hours 15 mins to bake a loaf. That's a plan then and we were off about 8am after the compulsory cuppa. 

First lock of the day at Park Gate always looks pleasant. Louise struck up a conversation with a chap loitering with intent. Turns out he was 'killing an hour' before going to a six hour meeting and that he would gladly swap places with us. We politely declined, especially when he predicted his lunch would be a turned up sandwich and we had a freshly baked loaf on the go. 
Park Gate Lock
This unusual post at the bottom of Shutt Hill Lock was once used to help turn boats into a small wharf at that location (thanks Nicholsons).

As we passed The Moat House at Acton Trussell the loitering chap was just getting out of his posh Mercedes in the car park and called across as we both waved politely (but quite smugly). There was quite a chill in the air today and we took it in turns to walk with Jasper and set the locks. 
Deptmore Lock
Rain must be on the way
This 'craft' was a bit of a concern as it wasn't tied up to stop it from drifting further into the channel although it had a patrol notice attached !!

I say 'craft' as I reckon it was more of a caravan/butty that we've seen before. Wonder if he realises he's lost it ??

As we approached Tixall Lock the rain started but we managed to get moored up before the heavier stuff arrived. The freshly baked loaf was perfect to make a sausage and egg sarnie which helped us miss a lot of the afternoon rain with a snooze. 

Hopefully we'll get out for a walk later......to the pub. 

1 comment:

  1. We have a bread maker on board as well and Diana normally starts the loaf before the engine is on. The initial kneading and proving doesn't use much power unlike the baking, that way we can get away with a two and a half hour trip if we need to.

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