Wetly to Bugsworth

Sheila did one of her early starts this morning, setting off at seven (the days are getting shorter) and leaving me loafing in bed to drink my tea, then get up and shower. Fortunately, she tells me, I'd stopped pumping out the shower before we passed the fisherman…

/sweat

I'd barely got breakfast organised before we were at Marple, so I went out on the bow in my slippers (makes a change from a slipper stern /wahaha) to do lookout through the junction. As she slowed for the narrows and the acute turn, an Alvechurch boat following sounded his horn at her, presumably because she was going too slowly for him. Dashing round the Cheshire Ring, no doubt. It was flying the Swedish flag, must have been the Viking blood coming out…

We chugged gently along the Upper Peak Forest, not having any option, what with it being shallow and overgrown, and we'd managed to eat breakfasts and so forth before the first lift bridge turned up. I walked it from there to the second lift bridge and so onward to the first swing bridge, then took a well earned rest whilst we worked our way through New Mills and the Proustian moment that always comes with the smell of cheap sweets as you pass the Swizzels Matlow factory.

There was a time when a packet of Refreshers was the highlight of my weekend. (Sad, isn't it?)

After the final swing bridge at Furness Vale, I took over for the run into Bugsworth. The weather had been very mixed, pleasant sunshine one minute and seriously heavy showers the next. We got a mooring in the lower basin no bother – it's a lot less busy than had been reported last weekend – and walked back to the Tesco, where we got b___d and p____r, and also pasties and a "two meals for £6" deal for tonight, as I'm feeling lazy.

We've been loafing since then, mostly, though we did have a wander round the basin in between the showers. A quiet night tonight, methinks, and a lie in tomorrow before walking into Whaley Bridge to try out our Treasure Map.