Walking in mist, and boating in glorious weather

11th & 12th October

After the excitements of Saturday, we’d planned a relaxed and lazy day on Sunday, although that’s not quite how it turned out. We'd both had a rather broken night and so found ourselves in a dozy not to say dopey condition after a late breakfast. The weather forecast suggested that the cool mistiness of mid morning was probably as good as it was going to get, so we decided to take a walk into Lyme Park to blow the cobwebs away.

We took a rather roundabout route, first going down Anson Road to the Council Tip and offloading a lot of the packaging which has been cluttering the boat. Then it was a plod uphill into the park. Despite the weather, it was very pleasant and just what we needed. Although you can hear the jumbos taking off from Manchester Airport if the wind is in that direction, it feels very remote, with sheep bleating and the mist blowing down from the tops.

We didn’t go far; next time we must use the map and the Garmin and try exploring some of the paths we’ve not found yet. On the way back down, we became aware of increasing numbers of youngsters heading towards us. At first we thought they might be a Duke of Edinburgh’s Bronze training expedition, but when some of them began to appear in mini skirts, sparkly tights and face paint we had cause to revise this hypothesis.

It seemed to be some sort of charity walk, as after a while fancy dress costumes began to manifest including pirates, Kids from Fame and teddy bears. We never did find out what it was all about; I must do a bit of internet research to see if I can.

Back at the boat, it was just nice time for a soup and sandwich lunch. After running the engine for half an hour we turned to and did a minor service, changing the oil and filter, replacing the fuel filter now that we’ve got the right one, and topping up the batteries. Sheila did the heavy work, so as to spare my still tender right shoulder, leaving me with the lighter stuff such as dribbling de-ionised water into the battery cells.

After these exertions, we did have a quiet evening and an early night.

Today was a fairly steady start; we wanted to go to Marple to shop and to leave the mooring free for Iain Bryceland to dredge it, if he gets round to it. He was on site as we left, so there is some hope.

It was an absolutely glorious morning, sunny, still and cold, and we made good time along the familiar route. By the time we got there, we had decided to extend the trip to Bugsworth Basin over the next couple of days.

BW were engaged in scrub bashing around the arch of bridge 2, so that at first it looked as if there would be no room on the visitor moorings opposite the service block. We therefore stopped just before going through the bridge but a quick recce on foot showed that there was in fact a spare length, and we popped through onto it.

The decision to go on up the Upper Peak Forest means that we shall have a chance to shop at the Whaley Bridge Tesco, so we confined ourselves to stocking up on meat from the butchers and essentials from the Co-op.

We got back to the boat at about half eleven. We’d tied bow to bow with Up Spirits, Braidbar number 102, and as I was packing stuff away and loading the meat into the freezer, Sheila had a chat with Shirley from that boat.

After lunch we made a bit more progress towards Bugsworth, and have tied just beyond bridge 21 where there is a quiet mooring on Armco.

We’ve spent the afternoon playing with the computers. The internet signal is very patchy, but I’ve managed to get the iBook and the Mini talking via their onboard WiFi, and to get the iBook able to access the internet via the Mini’s connection.

It’s going to be another quiet evening this evening, and we’ll run on to Bugsworth in the morning.