At the edge of Liverpool

Just 3 miles and 4 swing bridges before we reach our planned mooring point just outside Liverpool.  This gives us until 9am tomorrow morning to get the 1 mile and 1 bridge to the meeting point with the C&RT people who will accompany us to Liverpool docks, it being considered prudent not to moor within the city area.

We started moving later than usual at 9:30 as, although the weather first thing was cool and cloudy, blue skies were clearly on their way.   And that is how it worked out, as we set off the sun began to shine and we had good weather the whole journey.

The Leeds & Liverpool Canal near to Maghull

Most of the cruise was through the, I guess, residential dormitory area of Maghull, and so of little interest. However the 4 swing bridges did provide some diversion.  Each one was different - the first provided electric barriers and traffic lights but the opening of the bridge was manual.  The second had manually operated barriers that had to be in place before the electric swing bridge would operate.  The third was just a footbridge operated completely manually, and the fourth was fully electric and on a busy road.  As regards this final bridge, I didnt like to block the road whilst there was approaching traffic in sight.  It took several
minutes before I had the opportunity to open the bridge and let Denise driving Densie through.  By the time I reopened the bridge to traffic there were queues of about 6 vehicles waiting on each side.

The convoy gathers

We arrived at our mooring point, a pleasant rural spot perhaps a bit close to a couple of motorways, at 11:40 to find that two other boats were already there. Three others have since joined the convoy.  We spent the afternoon crafting, playing games, reading and watching the fish in the unexpectedly clear water.