Cruising the Bridgewater Canal

I went for a wander along the moorings (2 miles form Preston Brook) before taking off the other day and found out why they weren't marked in my Pearson's Canal Guide. These mooring were put in after September 2012, a plaque in the concrete and a search on the CRT website explained why. Apparently the breach made a huge hole of the canal that is usually around a metre deep.

Twenty minutes and one stop lock of less than six inches depth and we were right on time to enter Preston Brook Tunnel (1138 yards). This tunnel is a lot straighter than the previous two we have passed through. We exited the tunnel on to the Bridgewater Canal and made a short stop at Midland Chandlers, not that we could find what we were after!

Another short cruise on Friday, a couple of hours to Lymm got us on to the 3 day moorings around lunch time, the 48 moorings were reserved for working boats involved in the Transport Festival on Sunday. Not too many boats moored there just yet but it soon started to fill with some big boats. In the meantime we went for a wander into Lymm. The centre of town was marked by 'The Cross', a Grade 1 listed building erected in the 17th Century 

The Transport Festival exhibits began appearing from Friday afternoon. I took some pics of a few interesting vehicles.

We set off from Lymm on Sunday morning before things got too far underway with the Transport Festival, we'd already seen our share! A bit of a squeeze through the working boats and then we were on our way again.

The sunken boat near Lloyd's Bridge, mentioned by Irene on NB Freespirit back in May, was still there as we passed. I guess it has been left for the Bridgewater Canal management to get rid of.

Missed the mooring I was looking for at Dunham Underbridge to head off to Dunham Massey Estate so a mooring at the Dunham School Bridge was the next logical stop. It was a nice walk to the estate, about a half hour or so. After a cuppa at The Lavender Barn, we wandered through the grounds among the fallow deer and then on to house. We easily spent four hours wandering around the estate and could have spent longer, always easier since we are National Trust members and it was all free.

The house

The stables

As seems to be normal procedure now, it poured rain last night and this morning (Monday) looked bleak so I donned the full wet weather gear in preparation to scare the rain away for a two hour trip to Sale and it worked well; no rain today!

Cruising the Bridgewater has tossed up a few new experiences for us with water, rubbish bins and mooring rings very limited but we have enjoyed the wide canal and wide bridges.