Best laid plans...

My intention was to publish a final blog for 2024 and wish you all a 'Happy Christmas' but time rather ran away with me. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the festivities and here's to a very Happy New Year!

We left you last time as we started our journey back from Liverpool. We enjoyed leap-frogging through the swing bridges, firstly with nb Warrior (who gave us some delicious homemade carrot cake - thanks Ali!), and then joining nb Layla, with Kristel's mum, Elsa, admirably walking from bridge to bridge to help us through. After Elsa had gone

back to Holland, Kristel joined us for a walk (including spotting a black rabbit!) and then came back to ours for a rather tasty (although I say so myself), vegan tagliatelle bolognese.

This time we had a mooch up the Rufford Arm and a quick drink at The Ship Inn before passing back through Burscough

and returning to Parbold, where we stayed over a week. It was quite a social spot, with friendly boaters, and we enjoyed browsing around the art gallery in the old mill, exploring the remains of

the dry dock, visiting Beacon Country Park, sampling the local chippy and pubs, carving a pumpkin and listening to ghost stories on Halloween and watching as hundreds of tractors tooted their way through the village for a Young Farmers rally! We got to know all the local footpaths really well, including walking to the Fairy Glen waterfall and the Parbold Bottle, built in 1832 to celebrate the Great Reform Act. We also hopped on a train for a daytrip to Southport where we discovered the excellent Atkinson arts centre and walked along the seafront with its - sadly closed - pier.

After a couple of nights at Pennington Flash we re-joined the Bridgewater Canal at Leigh and then headed back over the Manchester Ship Canal on the Barton Swing Aqueduct. This time, when we reached the Waters Meeting junction we turned left - to Manchester! We passed Old Trafford, spied the ship canal below us to our left, waved at the trams

overhead and marvelled at the old architecture and the many abandoned canal arms we passed. We managed to find the last spot in Castlefield Basin and, although the plan for the afternoon was to warm up by the

fire after a wet and cold cruise, I heard about a Christmas market at Salford Quays so jumped on a tram and headed down there. I met some lovely stallholders, picked up a few Christmas pressies and then headed to the Lowry for a warming cuppa and a look around the Lowry exhibition.

Despite being in the centre of a city, it was a really quiet mooring and we would have stayed longer but we had a dilemma... Our planned route was to head to the Upper Peak Forest Canal but we'd just heard that the Marple Flight was closed due to a culvert breach. There was the possibility of an assisted passage through it, but we wouldn't know if this was possible for a week. Did we want to risk doing the 9 locks of the Rochdale flight followed by the 18 locks of the Aston flight only to have to come all the way back if we couldn't get through? In the end we decided to bite the bullet and go the long way round - back down the Trent & Mersey and up the Macclesfield.

In the meantime, despite the biting cold, we explored the local area, walking up the Rochdale 9 to Piccadilly Basin, passing the site of the famous Hacienda nightclub and going along colourful Canal Street. We walked to Salford and visited the Art Gallery and Museum there, including Lark Place,

a wonderfully restored Victorian Street. We also went in the Science and Industry Museum and discovered the enchanting Castlefield Viaduct garden. Our stay was rounded off by going to the O2 Apollo to enjoy a great gig by American singer-songwriter Jason Isbell.

Only being allowed 7 days on the Bridgewater Canal, we had a few long, chilly (and occasionally sleety!) cruises to do this in time. We stopped in Lymm again and also in Moore, where we braced ourselves for Storm Bert, but we did manage a quick side-hop down the Runcorn Arm and saw where

Unlock Runcorn have grand plans to reinstate the canal down to the ship canal, including a marina, several locks and an inclined plane!

Then it was back through Preston Brook tunnel and onto the Trent & Mersey. A fallen tree (an large wild cherry) stopped us in our tracks for a day but once the contractors had cleared it, our neighbour was out like a shot and making light work of the wood. Before I set off (Rob was doing car-moving duty at the time), he kindly offered me a bag he'd already chopped up. I ended up tackling Saltersford and Barnton tunnels on my own, which I was very proud of, picked up Rob in Anderton and we then had a long chilly, evening cruise to the flash just past Oakwood Marina, where we'd moored back in August.

A frosty morning (see porthole pic) almost delayed our journey the next day as the canal was

frozen, but a passing boater told us that it was just localised to the flash and further on was fine. Back in Middlewich, we visited the Newton Brewery Inn - a proper friendly 'locals' pub - and got 'cruise by' chips from the famous Kings Lock chippie as we came through the lock!

Reaching Wheelock we had a walk to Sandbach where we had a wander around the historic centre before returning to Jasmine to put up the Christmas decorations.

Then we set off back up the 26 Cheshire Locks, also known as 'Heartbreak Hill' (although in reality it's a lovely stretch). The internet wasn't great so it was tricky with work, but luckily if this happens we can usually 'hotspot' off one of our phones. We spent a couple of days at Rode Heath and enjoyed a trip to Alsager and a chat to the stallholders at the indoor market. At Church Lawton we visited the church to see their Christmas tree festival and had a late visit from fuelboat Halsall, who appeared out of the dark on a wet and windy night and cheerfully topped us up with diesel and coal (what stars!).

And then it was on to the new waters of the Macclesfield Canal. For a short time we moored near to Nick Sanders on his boat Unspoilt By Progress, with his wife, Caroline's, butty Tewkesbury moored abreast. He's an adventurer with many years of impressive trips, by bike, motorbike and boat, under his belt - check out Nick Sanders | Nick Sanders Motorcycle Adventurer for more info. We braced ourselves for Storm Darragh. Our mooring was quite exposed but at least no risk of trees falling on us (others elsewhere were not so lucky, sadly...).

Annoyingly, we both succumbed to colds, but what with the wet weather and muddy towpaths, we didn't venture far from the boat. But we roused ourselves for our 'Jasmine Christmas'! The day started with a trip to visit Holly the Cafe Boat in Bollington, as we've followed their story from the start when they renovated an old boat to what is now a

really popular destination. It was lovely to finally meet Vic and Jo and to sample Vic's boat-roasted coffee and Jo's amazing cakes. It was particularly lovely as we bumped into boater friends Lynne & Nigel who we'd not seen since Wrenbury in the spring. And then who should appear but Denise & Georgie, their - and our - mutual friends! What a lovely gathering. Back on Jasmine we had mulled wine, watched a Christmas movie and later on enjoyed bubbles and a festive feast.

Join us next time as we explore the Macclesfield Canal and finally head to the Peak Forest Canal.

Salford Quays at night