From eo75@dial.pipex.com Mon May 3 23:29:22 1999 Date: Fri, 29 May 1998 21:43:26 +0100 From: Iain and Ann STREET Reply-To: canals@blacksheep.org To: Canals List Subject: Trip Report [The following text is in the "iso-8859-1" character set] [Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set] [Some characters may be displayed incorrectly] Hi everyone, at last the trip report. Trip Report ^Ö Ann & Iain Street on Copperkins from 1st to 22nd May 98. Route ^Ö starting at Great Haywood, we went north on the Trent & Mersey and Bridgwater. Across the Leigh branch to Wigan and then to Liverpool. We retraced our steps and went down the Rufford Branch (turning on the river Douglas). Back to Wigan and the Leigh Branch. The plan to complete the rest of the Chexshire ring but, as the Rochdale nine were closed we went south on the Bridgwater and Trent & Mersey to Hardings Wood junction and then up the Macclesfield and Peak Forest to Whaley Bridge. We returned to Hardings Wood junction and continued south on the Trent and Mersey, past our moorings at Great Haywood and on to Fradley where we did a side trip to Huddlesford junction (cos the Plough does excellent meals) before returning to Great Haywood. Weather ^Ö very little rain and lots of sunshine. No wind to speak of. People we met ^Ö Terry and Sue Waldron (Stella) drove over from Sowerby and joined us for a meal in the Rufford Arms ^Ö nice to meet you both. David Kitching who took us to the Macclesfield Canal Society meeting where we met Tim Boddington. We had phoned David to see if he could join us for a pint and he invited us to the meeting where the topic for the evening was the history of the Macc. A most interesting evening where we were made very welcome ^Ö I even won a prize in the raffle! Having attended this meeting made the rest of our trip on the Macc much more interesting. Thanks, David for taking us along. Drew ????? at Stone (working on his boat which has a Kelvin engine) Iain is still drooling. He had just stopped talking about the ones he saw at Braunston last year! Roger Murray and Pete Neville (or Sue, as (s)he is sometimes called) on Monarch and Archie (the archaeologist?) We were moored at Stone when we heard Monarch^Òs whistle as he came in to moor. We introduced ourselves and later spent a very entertaining evening in the Star. Joke of the evening ^Ó How long have you had Monarch, Roger?^Ô ^ÓSince new^Ô was the reply before Roger got a chance to say anything. The next night when we were moored at Fradley and chatting to the couple on Arden (on it^Òs way to Braunston) Monarch arrived again. Sadly, this was as far as Monarch got before turning back. People we hoped to meet but didn^Òt ^Ö David Long who had a rush of funerals, an occupational hazard, I suppose. Andrew Lawton, although we did see your boat and saw your name on the posters about the trip to Liverpool. Hope it went well. Best pub meal ^Ö the Dover Lock pub on the Leigh Branch Best restaurant meal ^Ö Trattora Baci in Lymm (thanks to Chris and Gillian Hunt who recommended it in a post about the Cheshire Ring. Surprises of the trip ^Ö How trouble free it was getting to Liverpool and how much birdlife there is on this stretch. I think BW should advertise their escort service more and thus encourage more boats to make the trip. We only found out about this service when we found a notice on a swing bridge saying that we had to give BW 24 hours notice before proceeding beyond the next bridge. A bit of publicity around Wigan would have been helpful. We were perhaps fortunate that we saw not a hint of trouble, in fact, people appeared to be very pleased to see a boat passing. Children were lifted up to get a better view and wave to us. The mooring at the end is very pleasant and secure and although you can only turn a boat under 52 feet, it is only a short reverse to get plenty of room at the top of the locks. Best off boat experience ^Ö this must be exploring Buxworth basin. If you have not been there and ever moor at Whaley Bridge take time to walk down the arm and explore the basin. It is marvellous and we spent hours trying to work out how all the wharfs (there are lots of them) and tracks (rail, and horse and cart, we presumed) worked together. The area is being restored and we will certainly pay it another visit in the future. We later met several boaters who had moored at Whaley Bridge and when we waxed lyrical on Buxworth they looked at us blankly. Again, more publicity needed, even some information on the board near where the trip boat operates from would be helpful. With the reopening of the canals in central Scotland now looking much more hopeful we spent a lot of time discussing the type of boat we will have up here. About 40 feet, tug front, portholes, trad stern, seem to be the favourites at the moment. But there is still room for negotiation, I feel. All in all a great three weeks and we are looking forward to our next trip in July (only a week) when we plan to go to Trent Lock and back ^Ö Chris, is the Thai restaurant still at Trent Lock or has it moved yet? Ann Street.