After three nights at Litherland, Sunday at 11:30 saw us leaving on the last, short stretch to Stanley Locks. It's odd that boaters on their way to Liverpool aren't actively encouraged to moor at Litherland. Instead, it's implied that the place to moor for the night before descent is at Bridge 10. We're very glad that things turned out differently for us, and that all that remained now was a four-mile saunter.
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OK, so the scenery's not THAT great... |
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but we saw far worse on the way into London. |
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And though there's some rubbish on the water... |
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the housing and gardens are pleasant. |
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Some of the graffiti is by decent artists - children in this case, |
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and an older artist here, I should imagine. |
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The water is remarkably clear. |
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They measured to THAT degree of accuracy? |
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Like many, the canal's not without its derelict factory buildings |
We arrived at Stanley Top Lock half an hour early, and the only other boat going down that day was running a bit late, but this gave us time to wander around the site. It was a lovely day, and we were in no hurry.
As soon as NB Brutus Maximus joined us, the two CRT staff took us right through the journey to Salthouse Dock, dealing with all of the locks for us, and finally meeting us at our berths in Salthouse.
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Down the four Stanley Locks... |
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into Stanley Dock |
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That's Brutus Maximus in front of us |
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Collingwood Dock... |
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then into Salisbury Dock, and turn left... |
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into Trafalgar Dock Passage |
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and the Central Docks Channel through West Waterloo Dock, Prince's Half Tide Dock
and Prince's Dock |
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Prince's Dock Lock |
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Can you believe that chairoplane?? You should have heard the screams! |
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Buildings here are old, huge and beautiful |
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Now some tunnels - nothing
compared with Braunston! |
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Mann Island Lock |
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Huge, modern architecture now dominates the scene |
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and finally into the South Docks... |
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where new meets old... |
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and some of the boats are ancient |
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Avoid that lock - it leads onto the Mersey! |
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Albert Dock |
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and we berth in Salthouse Dock. |
The two CRT men met us here, answered our questions, told us what was where, places we might want to visit, and made us very welcome. The trip down had taken us one and a half hours, and it had been fascinating!
I want to do it!! This looks absolutely wonderful! Thank you for the tour, Roger and Grace!
ReplyDeleteI'm certain you'd love it, Val! Thanks for journeying with us! :-)
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