Plank Lane (ambulance on the lift bridge)

Tuesday promised to be yet another fine day here in the north west.  We walked the mile and a half into Leigh in the morning to have a look around and to stretch Buddy’s legs before we set off for a cruise.

  Speckled wood butterfly on our morning walk  

There don’t appear to be many butterflies in this area and we haven’t seen an orange tip for two days which is really strange considering how abundant they have been elsewhere.  There are a few speckled woods on the wing and they really live up to their name in that they fly along woodland edges and glades in the dappled sunlight.

  The underside of the speckled wood

We set off for the water point at Plank Lane which was about ¾ mile away.  When we got there, Kevin was moored there – we had come down the Ashton with him over the weekend and moored together for the night in Manchester.  He is staying in Plank Lane for a while as he is looking after his daughter’s dog for a few days and doesn’t want to cruise with it in case he loses it 😊

  Setting off on Tuesday morning

The water point is next to a lift bridge carrying quite a busy road.  Whilst we were filling up an ambulance came through with its siren on and reminded me that we have always wondered how awful we would feel if we had a bridge up and an emergency vehicle had to wait ☹

After taking on water we successfully got through the bridge without holding up any emergency vehicles and moored up about ¼ mile further on.  We were moored by Pennington Flash (Penny Flash to the locals) and, after yet another al fresco meal, walked the four miles round the perimeter.  I know it wasn’t far but with the heat of the recent days we feel that four of five miles is far enough as we don’t want to get too knackered before walking up Ben Nevis at the weekend.

  Penny Flash

Penny Flash is well known in the birding community and over 230 different species of bird have been recorded there.  As with most ‘flashes’ this one was also caused by mining subsidence over the years. 

Birders are quite excited at the moment as a Temminck’s stint is present and they are rarely seen in the UK, especially away from coasts.

Of course, we hadn’t realised it was half term so the touristy bit, with all the activities, was packed when we walked through.  Back home we did the usual pottering about consisting of plant re-potting, boat cleaning and painting.

Our mooring on Tuesday night

Oh, and still no rain, even though it clouded over in the evening