Through Manchester in a day

This morning we had a choice to make - either moor in Manchester tonight or travel the 20+ miles through the city, fortunately lock and swing bridge free, to reach the pleasant Cheshire countryside.  Since we had no need or desire to visit the city centre again this trip we decided on the latter option.

When we traveled towards Manchester two weeks ago sections of the canal were largely covered in yellow water lilies.  So I planned to take a picture on the way back.  However having flowered the yellow lilies have almost entirely disappeared beneath the canal waters and so these white ones will have to substitute.

View of the empty Manchester Ship Canal and Barton Road swing bridge from Barton Canal Swing Bridge - sadly the bridges very rarely swing.

Having left the mooring at 8:45 we made pretty good progress as the canal is in good condition, and mostly straight, broad and fairly deep, averaging over 3mph, continuously on the move until our arrival near Little Bollington some 6 hours later.  The weather had started coolish, having rained overnight but became increasingly warm during the late morning and afternoon so we were hot and tired and ready to stop when we did.

As we are now a day ahead of schedule we plan to stay here tomorrow and visit Dunham Massey Hall, a nearby National Trust House.