Lancaster

Tuesday 11th August

Yesterday was an enforced layover day due to very unsociable weather. We had thoughts about going in the afternoon if it improved but the improvement did not meet with our approval! In addition I had been successful in changing our booking for the return trip down the Ribble Link. We were booked to leave on 24th but now that we have arrived up here we realise there are lots of places we want to see (some by bus) and we were beginning to think it would be very rushed. Luckily there were spaces in Sept so now we are here until Sep 10th. The last weekend (extended)of that I shall be down in London at a WRAF reunion and visiting family, but it still gives us over 3 weeks to explore.

We had one of our early starts (0645!) for the trip up to Lancaster. A very pleasant 5 hour trip (time off to water etc). Barney and I walked a couple of miles early on and Geoff and he walked a couple of miles into Lancaster.

Amidst mostly very rural area we passed some interesting bridges, including this very ornate pipe bridge.

Galgate Bridge

We came across this cruiser and thought it was a new way of mooring (a la Mediterranean)

Closer inspection revealed a man doing engine maintenance!

We passed a very large lovely house and grounds

But were not so keen on their signs, not sure what one should expect if you build your house alongside a canal.

We passed the entrance to the Glasson branch, which we shall explore later on.

So far this canal is not as busy as we had expected for August although there are a large number of plastic boats around. Some of them look quite nice and very suitable if you had a house up here and did not want to go too far afield.

It would be rather pleasant to have a house by the canal with a small boat in your own water garage!!! Maybe even automatic doors....................

And so to Lancaster itself. We tried to moor just before the Water Witch pub, but the space was just too short. However there was another space just past the pub and so far we are comfortable here. Geoff has just gone on his first explore of the city.

View from our mooring