We set out bright and early (8:00) on Thursday morning, so that we could complete the whole of the Ashton Canal in one go.  We followed Mac on Cygnet, who we spoke to at the pub on Tuesday evening.  As he is single handed we are going to go into Manchester together so that we can share the work of the last nine double locks from Piccadilly to Manchester.

A long day but we stopped for lunch to break the day and made it to Piccadilly in good time to find a mooring.  All reports suggest that it is not wise to moor on the Ashton Canal as it runs through some less than desirable neighbourhoods.  However it seemed ok to me.  Met several people dog walking, cycling etc.  All seemed very friendly and the tow path and surrounding area were clean with very little graffiti.  However we decided that it was best to take the advice.  Passed Manchester City football ground which is nowhere near as big and impressive as Manchester United ground, which we passed today (Sunday).  Mooring in Piccadilly was an experience.  At one point there was a guy, possibly a rough sleeper, asleep on a bench next to the boat, and a couple, possibly Eastern Europeans, sitting on another bench drinking Costa coffee.  At least I thought it was coffee until I saw them refilling it from a bottle.  They got a bit loud but did leave eventually.  Arranged with Mac that we would leave for Manchester at 9:00am.

Friday morning set out at 9:00 as planned.  The trip into Manchester is interesting.  The first few locks are through tunnels under buildings and are a bit scary, especially the notices about lewd or obscene acts being illegal.  However after this things improved and it was a fairly easy trip.  Mac worked like a demon and is the best single hander I have been through locks with.  Often they just assume the other boat's crew will do all the work and do very little.  Mac did at least his share of the work, which made things much easier and quicker for all of us:-)

Made it into Castlefield by 11:30 am and found moorings although there are lots of boats moored up.  Moored up intending to stop for two nights and move on again on Sunday.  Had a look round Manchester which is a very busy and buzzing city, manged to buy some trainers as mine have fallen to pieces and also visited the Museum of Science and Industry.  Also went into the John Ryland Library, which is the University library.  A very impressive building in the Gothic style, which looks like a Church, but was built as a library.  Well worth a visit and I wish we had had longer to look around.  Lovely moorings at Castlefield, highly recommended!

Working steam train at Museum of Science and Industry 

Mooring at Castlefield

This morning (Sunday) we left the moorings at Castlefield and headed along the Bridgewater Canal.  This was originally the link from Manchester to Liverpool until it was superseded by the Manchester Ship Canal, which can be glimpsed from here.  It is raining today and is also cold.  Bit of a shock as we have had a few warm and sunny days with occasional showers.  Glad to stop today to get warm.  However the sun came out this afternoon and we had a warm evening.  Tomorrow we should get to Preston Brook, where we get onto the Trent and Mersey Canal.  Graham has discovered that there is a Midland Chandlers at Preston Brook and is busy making a list, including a new exhaust chimney to replace the one I squashed on the Erewash.  We are looking forward to a few days boating where we don't have to stick to a timetable and can chill out a bit.