Lydiate (and a bus trip to Liverpool)

Thursday was a really windy day as storm Hector passed across but at least there was no rain.  A disadvantage of there being very little rain lately is that the fields are very dry, and the wind was whipping the dust up into great clouds – from a distance it actually looked like it was pouring with rain.

After an early lunch we walked to Lydiate to catch a bus into Liverpool.  The route took us parallel with the canal most of the way and we could see the effect of the breach each time we crossed a bridge; very little water left in it. 

We walked down to the docks to find Dave & Barbara and Chris & Aileen.  They and all the other boats are now stuck there whilst the breach is fixed.  Dave & Barbara are quite happy about it as they live on their boat and have free electricity and water on the pontoon where they are moored.  Chris & Aileen, who live in New Zealand, are not so happy as they only cruise in the UK for six months each year and had hoped to get to York this year.  They are now considering getting flights to somewhere in Europe for a holiday whilst things are sorted out.

Having a cuppa with Dave & Barbara in Salthouse Dock

Later on, we all went to a pub for a few beers and a good chat with so much laughter that I think we caused some people to move tables.

With Dave & Barbara (all glasses discretely removed of course)

The wind had pretty well died down by the time we caught the bus home.  Poor old Buddy, we left well after his dinner time, so he was ravenous by the time we got back.

Buddy eyeing up someone’s large packet of corn flakes

During the day we heard that my mum should be out of hospital in a day or two and a home care package is being sorted out for her.  Now we are not taking the boat into Liverpool we will head for Gargrave as quickly as we can, so we can be at hand for my parents for a while. 

Our route to Gargrave - 79miles through 59 locks, 2 tunnels and a dozen pesky swing or lift bridges

I say pesky swing bridges because on the bus journey home I received an email from CRT saying that the swing bridge at Burscough is now closed due to a fault.  We were planning on getting well past Burscough on Friday but will now have to wait and see what is happening to the bridge.  The bridge is the one we had to have assisted passage through on the way down to Liverpool because of yet another fault ☹

As we missed out on getting into the docks we had the idea that we should go on our way back from Gargrave, which would be November or December.  Unfortunately, we had forgotten that the canal link is closed from November to March so that’s scuppered that plan.

This morning (Friday) I received a further email from CRT:

  

Hopefully this stoppage won’t be too long.  We will cruise to about 1 ½ miles before the bridge, moor up and walk down to see what’s going on – we never know, but they may be able to let us through manually especially as there very few boats on this stretch trying to get through.

The reason that we will stop 1 ½ miles before is that there is a winding hole there, so if it’s a protracted closure we can at least turn around and cruise back to Scarisbrick if we need services.