We did one of our flying starts this morning, after a very good night on Congleton Aqueduct. We were the only boat there, which is unusual, but didn't feel at all at risk. There were the statutory numbers of of walkers and joggers, but once it was dark, the principal noise was that of the owls.
Several tawnies called on and off all night, and one was still going at six this morning. Sheila got up and started boating whilst I made and drank tea, then I took over so that she could get her breakfast. Not only was our overnight mooring deserted apart from ourselves, there were no boats on either set of Congleton town moorings, nor were there any on the Little Morton Hall ones.
Indeed, when we got to the north portal of Harecastle, the tunnel keeper remarked on how quiet it was. The top pound of the T&M is 3 inches down from its already reduced level for this year, which gave us a bit of hassle getting into the tunnel mouth. There's a ledge off the towpath side right in the mouth, and we took two goes to get round it.
Once in there, Sheila was able to make a steady pace, closely pursued by two Black Prince boats. The crew of the first was clearly in cheerful mood, as songs and shouts persisted from them for pretty well the whole time. We emerged around 35 minutes after entry, so a decent speed despite the low water.
We've come on to Westport Lake for the night, as planned. We had a pleasant stroll round the lake after lunch; the bird life here is more abundant than unusual, though there are more coots than you usually see on urban water. We've just been joined by Martin on Ice Breaker, who's had a long day from the bottom of Bosley.
Tomorrow, we'll carry on down our usual groove; we aim to be at the Wedgwood or Barlaston moorings before lunchtime.
1 comment:
I was amazed by the number of coots in London. They were abundant at Limehouse basin, and when we did the East London Ring there was a group of about 15 near Three Mills. There seemed to be more coots than ducks, which struck me as unusual.
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