Steadily up Bosley

This morning was much better weatherwise, so we made an eight o'clock start on getting up Bosley Locks. Sheila and Graeme lockwheeled, some of the time assisted by Daniel and Alex. It was the boys' first chance to help with the work, rather than being passengers in the boat, and they did very well, considering their ages of five and three.

We had them both in lifejackets, naturally, but still kept a very close eye on them; they can't be expected to be completely sensible yet. We had another boat going fairly slowly up in front of us, which was just fine – we weren't looking to break any records today. It took just on two hours, in fact, and we paused at the top to transfer luggage to Graeme's car in the layby.

Then we boated on to Oakgrove, home of the Queen's Head swing bridge and the Fool's Nook pub. Once through the bridge, we stopped for lunch, after which Graeme and the boys left us to walk the mile and a half back to the car.

We ambled on another mile or so to the towpath moorings at Lyme Green, where we'll stay tomorrow, recuperating. It's been great having our visitors to stay, and particularly encouraging that the boys are getting much better at coping with boat life; there was very little problem with settling them down in bed last night, for example.

It'll be a couple of years before we're happy to have them stay with us on their own, as two adults really can't work the boat and watch over two lively youngsters in safety until the kids are reasonably reliable. It's noticeable that five year old Daniel gives less worry in that regard, but three year old Alex still needs a lot of supervision.

Sheila put in a lot of time clearing up whilst I boated the last bit, so since arriving here we've been able to relax, drinking tea and finishing the flapjack.