Wednesday 11th May
After another rest day yesterday when we did a few more useful things and went into the village again, we have come another 10 miles and 4 swing bridges today and after turning round are moored at Halsall. It is just like being on the broads here, flat country side and the reed lined canal looks very much like the River Ant. There are coots and reed warblers so it even sounds like the Broads!
On the way here we did a ‘facilities’ stop in Burscough and have decided we will stop there again on the way back to go to the very convenient Tesco’s for a stock up.
When we got here we made a bit of a cock up and miscounted the bridge numbers which meant we went straight past the place we wanted to moor up. We weren’t going to turn round until tomorrow as it was really windy but now we would have to. However, before we did this we moored outside the Saracen’s Head and sat outside with George while B and B went and turned round. George lasted until the end of the crisps and then buggered off back in the boat! As it was a bit nippy outside we went in to the pub. Just as we were leaving B and B turned up so we had to have another one, would have been churlish not to!
After this we went and turned round and came back to moor behind B and B. We are a little way out from the bank here as it is sloping but we aren’t banging on a shelf, like on the Shroppie, so we haven’t had to get the big fenders out. Ken and Barry then had to go and re-moor a boat behind us after it came adrift and ended up across the canal. The chap on the boat immediately behind us said he had already checked it and it was ok – but obviously not!
I like it here and wouldn’t mind staying here tomorrow, must be the Broads thing. Will have to see what everyone else wants to do.
