Another long day to Lymm

These long days are getting to be a habit, however there were no locks today.   The goal was Lymm where we were meeting John & Rosi who had booked into the Lymm Hotel for the night.  Soon after leaving Pennington we went through Leigh where the Leeds Liverpool Canal seems to metamorphose into the Bridgewater canal......however there are no signs confirming this fact, it is just what our Pearsons Guile indicates.   WE were on the way before 6.30 as we wanted to be in Lymm by mid afternoon.  Surprisingly the morning was much warmer than of late....only 3 layers required for my early morning walk and one of those was stripped off before long......could summer be making a guest appearance??

The Bridgewater is fairly wide, no water shortages and lots of long straight stretches through some rural and lots of light industrial.   It first took us in an easterly direction towards Manchester and then we turned away and skirted the south west suburbs of Manchester.

Approaching the aqueduct which took us over the Manchester Ship Canal

over we go...looking toward Manchester

and the other way

Some new buildings since we were here last........not the worlds best outlook from their balconies

As well as being one of our longest days in time it has also been the longest in distance.......I doubt if we have ever reached the speed limit but we certainly were giving it wellie at times!

We met our first boat of the day after 2 hours travelling but we then saw a few more than recently.
The sun shone most of the way and the rain only put in an appearance towards the end of the trip.

We paused briefly at Worsley to empty the loo cassette and found the facilities there as gross as we remembered. So much so in fact that we decided not to fill up with water.

The was a convenient water tap not far short of Lymm so we decided to stop there. However as we were pulling in we picked up something around the prop. With the aid of the bow thruster (we don't use it much but it has its uses) we managed to get close enough to the side for Geoff to do a mighty leap ashore and pull us in. His investigation revealed a ladies dress wrapped around...thankfully not the body!

On reaching Lymm we stopped short of the main moorings and I went ahead to see what space there was.   By now it was pouring with rain.....and lo and behold the main moorings were full, where have all the boats come from?  So we settled for where we were although it was not ideal for Barney.  A small amount of traffic comes past so he cannot be left safely to his preferred reclining place alongside Petroc watching the world go by.

Later I decided to stroll up to the Lymm hotel to meet John and Rosi.   Foolishly I relied on Geoff's directions to find the place.  Unfortunately he had directed me to what he thought he remembered was the hotel and turned out to be a different establishment altogether.   When I eventually located the hotel it had taken me about 45 minutes to do what on the return journey was a 10  minute walk!.  Next time I will be sensible and consult my google maps instead of a retired navigator.

The hotel is one of a chain but extremely pleasant, not very busy, and we had a very good dinner there.

Total distance:22.47 miles 

Elapsed time:7h13m17s

 Locks:0

Bridges:68 
Average speed:3.11 mph (3.11 lock/mph)