Today ended up as a bit of a disaster! As advised we started out early so as to avoid the scumbags and without difficulty, despite the rain, arrived in Manchester.
So far so good, however, we then missed a turning. After carrying on for half a mile and running aground a few times we ended up on a not very salubrious housing estate at a lock which was locked! We had to turn round in a pool that was not very large, I was using a pole to push at one end and Gill was heaving ropes at the other. It took an hour just to get us facing back down the canal. By this time the propeller was no longer working so I had to open up the weed hatch and pull out what I could – two carrier bags of rubbish, cable, clothes, an old spring were wrapped around it. We managed to get back into a better area and moor up for the evening absolutely knackered.
On the plus side we found a Brazilian restaurant which was interesting. You pay a flat fee (£21) and order vegetables / side dishes. The chef then comes to your table with a large skewer of meat and slices you off a few bits. A few minutes later he returns with a different cut of meat and you do the same, beef, pork chicken, lamb, sausages, it kept on coming, whenever we ran out of side dishes more were supplied. We were stuffed after an hour.
Tomorrow we have to try and get back on the right canal, this might be tricky as the water is very low in the canal we are in.
So today all the things were were warned about by the “neighbourhood watch” brigade were not a problem, they should have warned us to look out for the right turning!