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Our first year on the 'All Right Now' |
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| July 1997 - June 1998 |
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| Easter at Chester |
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| Inside the 'All Right Now' |
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| 1998-1999 |
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| Second year on the 'All Right Now' and then 'CuŁtural Confu$ion' renamed 'Cutworks' |
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| Easter on the Middlewich Branch
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| Stopping for the night at Bramble Cuttings
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| 'CuŁtural Confu$ion' and 'All Right Now' at Bramble
Cuttings
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| Our 'old' and 'new' homes side by side
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| 2000 |
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| July 2000, leaving for the summer cruise.
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| A watchful eye from our junior helmsman
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| Our mooring under the railway bridges in
Castlefield
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| Looking from the quayside across the
basin
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| It was a bit like living in a gothic
horror film set
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| The 'Vision' centre, now used as office
buildings
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| Liverpool boat 'Isis' to the left under the railway
bridge
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| The start of the restoration of the Art Deco
building into very expensive flats by Urban Splash
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| A view back towards the Castlefield
basin entry with the 'Urban Splash' building being... restored or at
least rebuilt...
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| The area being prepared for the additional flats for
the Urban Splash complex
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| At the Middlewich 'flashes' with a few friends
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| Church Minshull lock
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| Church Minshull viewed from the towpath
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| The stable block restoration underway
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| Pound just a touch low?
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| And they wonder why we love being out on
the cut?
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| Mid-July we visited Baltimore Marina in
Todmorden and decided to change our mooring to the Rochdale.
We left Castlefield with just 11 days to make the entire trip via the Leeds-Liverpool canal, with a crew of 2. Well, 3, but Brendan was still too small to do much but look cute. |
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| A last look at our old surroundings in
Castlefield
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| One last spin through the arm, to look
at the bottom lock of our new home
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| At 6am (!!!!) in August, it's already light
enough to travel
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| Sunrise over Duke's 92, and the end of the (then unrestored) Rochdale Canal |
| We now had to travel over 160 miles and the same
number of locks to end up only 27 miles from where we started
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| Looking back towards Castlefield one
last time.
The next time we'd be back by boat would be via the restored Rochdale
Canal
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| The new and the derelict.
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| I wonder if those trees have a
preservation order!
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| Away from Castlefield and towards
Water's Meeting
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| With apologies for a large gap in time, there wasn't much energy for photos up the Wigan flight! Until, at least we reached the top. |
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| Phew!!!
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| Lovely wooded areas surprised us between
the top of the Wigan flight and Botany Bay
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| Blackburn swans planning a short surfing
trip in the locks
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| Can it get any nicer?
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| Well....
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| Maybe it can? Hapton at sunset
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| And again.....
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| Who put the boat there? How are we
going to get the groceries up?
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| Burnley Embankment from the top
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| Classic northern canal scenery
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| Traffic lights at the Foulridge
Tunnel. Not a cow in sight.
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| Exiting the Foulridge Tunnel with the
roof garden intact.
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| Our amiable companion from Wigan to
Skipton. Ray on 'Ere Be Bliss' out of Bristol.
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| Somewhere in the beautiful Airedale
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| The Bingley Five-Rise
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| And our near-disaster therein.....
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| The less water in the lock the bigger
the gates look
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| Bank holiday tourists at Bingley getting
an education in fluid dynamics. One lady asked 'Should the boats
be that low in the lock?'
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| 'Erm, sir? Should the boats be
leaning like that?
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| The ground paddle sluice ... sluicing
into our exhaust vent. Right then, the question for Mike was 'Do I sink or
do I climb the ladder?'
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| Needless to say, we were a bit uncertain
about the prospect of another staircase lock but the guys on the
Three-rise were great and very helpful.
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| Peace at last. A quiet mooring near an
excellent chip shop, suitable for restoring shattered nerves.
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| More to follow as the pictures get sorted.... |