Tuesday 11th August

Playing catchup due to having no signal, so this is all about Tuesday. Having left the Trafford Centre (having walked a total of 5 miles to, from and around it, our total purchases were a lemon, a bottle of soda water, a pack of sausages, 2 croissant and a loaf!),  we headed towards Dunham.

The Trafford Centre from our mooring

This was a strait forward 3hr run and we set off mid afternoon, being the last of the four boats moored at the Trafford Centre to leave. At Waters Meet the only option was a right turn due to the Bridgewater being closed before you get to Manchester should you have turned left.

Waters Meet having turned right

Up through Sale and past the rowing club and it's easy to see why they picked this stretch of water, it's amazingly straight!

A rower's paradise

As you head through Broadheath you pass these apartment blocks lurking by the canal side. On even a moderately breezy day these can catch you unaware as they create strong localised winds that have pushed many an unprepared boater into the bank. No problems today, though.

Who lives in a home like this?

Perhaps the most disturbing thing we saw was the latest section of the Bridgewater Way under construction.

All in the name of progress?

The aim is to create a leisure route for walkers and cyclists (funny how boaters don't get a mention, despite paying their annual fees). Don't Peel Holdings know that there is an existing leisure way in place? It's called the towpath! If they achieve their aim of paving the entire towpath they will take away a huge element of canal's charm in its rural areas and great swathes of the canal will be swamped with MAMILs (look it up) charging up and down the towpath at 20mph. So much for peace and tranquility but we can't have people running the risk of getting mud on their shoes, can we?

Anyhow, at least they haven't got around to destroying the towpath at Dunham quite yet.