Marple

In the past we've always struggled to get moored at Marple but when we arrived yesterday there was plenty of room on the newly refurbished visitor moorings and we even managed a warm evening stroll into town to buy carrots for the dogs and daffodils for the boat. The only draw-back of mooring here is the fact that there are no dog waste bins and the tow path is full of dog poo. Yuk!

Living on a boat makes it very easy to loose track of what day it is, so we've always tried to make Sundays special. Today we turned the boat round and cruised for an hour back to High Lane and moored just before the cruising club. The convenience store at High Lane closed down last year but a large well stocked Spar has just opened in its place, making this a regular 'stop & shop' place for boats once more. Our Sunday treat was  a quick walk up the A6 to the Red Lion pub/restaurant for a spot of lunch. We hadn't been there before but it looked good on-line here and we weren't disappointed. The very rare roast rib of beef with yorkies and all the trimmings (£12.95) was absolutely delicious, some of the best beef we've had for ages. The wine was quite expensive at £19.95 a bottle but it too was delicious.

The sun was still shining when we got back to the boat so we cruised back to Marple and moored up in exactly the same spot again. There are more boats here today and it looks like there will be a convoy going down the locks tomorrow. Knowing my luck we'll be last and there won't be anyone coming up so all the locks will be set against us but never mind, I need the exercise.