Garstang

Overnight it had rained quite heavily but by the time we awoke it was dry, although rather overcast. We set of at a more reasonable time than yesterday - around 9 am.

It was a warm morning as we cruised along typical Lancaster Canal. With no locks, most of the navigation is one bridge after another - around 45 today.

The clouds occasionally cleared and some blue skies emerged.

 

Glasson Junction

Before long we passed Glasson Junction where the branch heads off down the flight of locks to Glasson Dock. This time we carried straight ahead.

And so we continued, bridge after bridge but at least this meant that two of us could sit comfortably at the front and read, in between the occasional round of coffee!

House with a view

This house had an interesting bay window as we approached. When we could see more, it looked as if this was a recent conversion and might be holiday lets. Sadly it looked as if the bay window was not used for sitting and watching boats passing on the canal!

Just another lovely lily

Although there are some interesting looking fells not far to the east of the canal, so far today we had not seen any as the near terrain blocked our view. At last some came into the picture.

By 12:20 we reached Garstang - we moored for lunch before walking into town to take a look at the recommended street market.

Garstang Parish Church

Christine had an urgent need to find an optician that could repair her spectacles (although she had remembered to bring her older spare pair) but it was more in hope than expectation that we called it at one that had advertised repairs on its web site. Somewhat to our surprise they said that they could do it but that it would take fifteen minutes! When we returned a little later (more than fifteen minutes) they only charged £5 for the repair so Garstang went even further up in our estimation.

Street Market in Garstang

The market was a little disappointing with almost no food stalls, certainly no fresh fruit and veg. However, we could not complain as, with our food stocks about as high as we could accommodate, there was little room even if we had seen things.

Nevertheless, we did succumb to some Garstang pork pies (for tomorrow's lunch) as well as a couple of local cheeses and some biscuits. Mike topped up his treat box!

We noticed a number of blue plaques - apparently a local scheme that matches the more famous one in London. In this case the plaque is probably more impressive than the actual building itself!

Garstang Liberal Club

After collecting Chrsitine's glasses and a diversion to Sainsbury for a newspaper, we returned to the boat and set off once more.

Wyre Aqueduct

When we came across the Wyre Aqueduct on the way up we did not have time to take a closer look. This time Mike hopped off and walked down to see the arch from below.

Will they pick him up?

The others continued with him expecting to be picked up at the next bridge (which they did!)

Dark Rain Clouds . . .

. . . and the result!

Dark clouds gathered quite quickly and suddenly we were in the midst of a very heavy shower.

As quickly as it arrived, so did the rain disappear to be replaced with bright, rather hot, sunshine which lasted the rest of the day.

Brock Aqueduct

Brock Aqueduct is another of Rennie's pieces of engineering design - this time the path down for a photo involved a few more nettles and brambles!

After we moored - only about 300mm from the bank this time! - Chrsitine went for a walk and returned with a portfolio of pictures.

15.4 miles - 0 locks