A trip to the big city

Here's me and Her on our July trip to Manchester. I had to make it clear to her that she wasn't welcome on my lookout post. Of course, any seat is mine. He's okay with that. She isn't!

After negotiating the Middlewich Arm and going through the locks at Middlewich (including the notorious Big Lock - see my earlier blog) we headed north along the Trent and Mersey Canal towards the Bridgwater Canal.

We stopped for lunch at Bramble Cutting and passed the lakes where the heron ignored us.

Then, we went through a winding dark tunnel to emerge in an idyllic spot where kingfishers flashed past then posed in the trees (sadly no zoom lens so no proof).

The next day, aften anothe dark crooked tunnel, we went past a dry dock that looked like a railway awning and then into a big tunnel nearly a mile long.

We were now on the Bridgewater Canal and our next stop was Lymm. This canal proved to be very attractive with lots of wild flowers along the tow paths and pretty villages and towns.

In Sale we were joined by Her schoolfriend and young grandchildren who helped with the steering.

Then it was onto Manchester passing interesting architecture and Old Trafford before entering Castlefields where we spent a noisy night. After the nightclub noise and the sirens came the geese.

There was a lot to see in the city - Piccadilly Circus (good food!), Viaduct National Trust Gardens (dogs not allowed) and a suffragette statue - but I was glad to get back to the boat.

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Penmon Point to Pentraeth beach

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To the bottom of the Lleyn peninsula

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Aberdaron to another Towyn

It started very well with a rabbit in the path but I wasn't able to follow it so continued along the path by a stream until we came to a road. No sign of the sea yet. We crossed fields of cows, a bull and lots of sheep. Then we reached the top of the cliffs and I had to take care - narrow path, steep drop down to the sea and gusts of wind. Looking back we could see Aberdaron in the far distance. Looking forward we could see the hill we had to climb over to reach Ian. Before we reached that mountain, we got lost! She did find an interesting building that was once a mine working but had to walk cross country to find the road we should have been on. I kept a look out so we didn't get lost again. Then we reached the top and there were horses. We had lunch (I stole her sandwich!) then continued down hill and found Ian who'd cycled up the road. He went back on the road and we walked down to a cafe where...

Life's a Bitch by Stitch

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