Catching Up

We've been slowly making our way back to Sale, Manchester stopping for the night at the Travelodge on the M6 just north of Wolverhampton. This is a very familiar Travelodge for me as it's where I stayed whilst recovering Waiouru from Ben Harp.  I paid for two nights but spent one of them in the hedgerow overlooking Ben Harp's premises as part of our plan to ensure the boat didn't get moved without our knowledge.

After a good nights sleep we drove to Rode Heath for a lunch appointment with a well known continuously cruising couple.

Yes, Pip & Mick on Oleanna.  We ate canalside at the Broughton Arms and whilst the company was great the same could not be said for the food. After four hours of conversation we realised we'd overlooked the most important subject spending several minutes talking about their composting toilet!

I also have to mention the "Moored like a Twat" who arrived in front of Oleanna to moor in the Winding Hole.  There was plenty of available mooring space but they managed to get the bow of the boat on the first mooring ring and drive a pin in at the stern.

Plenty of mooring space

Red arrow pointing to the "No Mooring- Winding Hole" sign.

Happy cruising Pip & Mick

We had two lunch days in succession with us meeting Peter & Margaret (nb Kelly-Louise).  If you've read about our experience in 2011 may recall Peter & Margaret very kindly allowed us to use their boat (Kelly Louise) as accommodation whilst we attempted to sort out our boat building issue.  Little did we know at the time they would experience their own boating problem when Kelly Louise was sunk whilst in the care of Swanley Bridge Marina.  These days Peter & Margaret do their cruising on something much larger!

They know this part of England very well and took us to a lovely venue where we had a delicious lunch spending several hours catching up on news.

Toilets were not discussed!

The Owls at Standish is a restaurant in the former rectory of the church of St Wilfrid's, Standish.  And so we are back in Sale to spend the weekend with the family.