Tuesday 21 July 2015

Would there be room in Castlefield Basin?

We were a little late setting off from Little Bollington as a phone call from Jan's dad confirmed the date and time of his sister's - Jan's aunt's - funeral in Truro. I then immediately set about researching and booking a train journey to get us there from Liverpool. We will have arrived in Salthouse Dock only the day before. At least the boat should be reasonably secure while we're away. We'll end up having all of one whole day to explore the city before our booked passage out.

It took me two and a half hours to book the right splits - a right palaver! Still, it got the cost down from about £400 to £165.80 with our Two Together railcard.

Back to today. We cruised the rest of the Bridgewater Canal to Waters Meeting in Stretford where we turned left so I could go to the Trafford Centre and John Lewis. It was easy to get to by bike from Parkway Bridge - south west along the path and turn right at the traffic lights onto another cycle path until you see it in front of you.

Back on board we retraced our steps to Waters Meeting (we'd tied up near a winding hole) and turned left towards central Manchester. The Manchester Ship Canal gets very close; this is Hulme Lock Pomona Lock which connects to it.

As we approached Castlefield Basin we could see end-to-end moored boats. Would there be room for us anywhere?

Well, yes, right at the end. Behind us the water gets pretty shallow.

That's Jubilee on the right, under a clanky metal footbridge!

This evening we walked along Deansgate to Albert Square and St. Peter's Square. Tomorrow I'd like to visit Salford Quays. Perhaps we'll cycle along the towpath to Throstle Nest Bridge and cross there.

edited to correct error - thanks Debby of nb Chuffed

2 comments:

nb Bonjour said...

Hi, I think we must have missed you by a day or so - we came up from the Weaver on Monday, now in Anderton marina. Enjoy Manchester!
Best wishes
Debby
PS that's Pomona lock, Hulme lock is closer to Castlefield and is derelict.

Halfie said...

Debby, you spotted my deliberate mistake, then! Thanks for that, and sorry we missed you.