THURSDAY. On Rufford Arm, above Rufford lock
The 2008 trip thus far: 319 Locks; 589.5 Miles; 62 Swing\Lift Bridges. Bus pass journeys 21
Looking back on the recent blog entries; we have slowed to a crawl. We were eating breakfast at 9.20 today and moved off at just gone 10am. We had two locks and one swing bridge, then moored up above Rufford lock.
We had been told of two good farm shops, between the swing bridge and the lock. It the best traditions of the towpath telegraph, this information was wrong. The two farm shops were ½ mile before the swing bridge! We had a wander around Rufford and then a mile walk along the main Liverpool road. The farm shops were worth the walk, as we now have a boat full of vegetables (apart from us!).
After supper, we were joined on Martlet by Dave and Sue, who live on their boat near Rufford. Dave was a working boatman, on ‘Ambush’ from Liverpool. We learnt a lot from him, in common with a lot of boatmen we have met; they enjoy reliving those days and are good at telling yarns. We had a lovely evening and will see them tomorrow before we move off.
Weather – Dry all day, some sunny intervals.
