The Big Cruise Day 39: Objective achieved. Hooray!

Nine years ago we visited Bugsworth Basin by car and enjoyed a good meal at the Navigation Inn. Then, you could not get to it by boat - it was under restoration by the Inland Waterways Preservation Society. I then vowed I would return some day by boat.

Bugsworth Basin is a vast industrial archaeological site within a tranquil setting, Once, 80 boats a day would visit, to bring coal and to take limestone away. All the smoke and grime associated with the Industrial Revolution can now only be imagined. The limestone was processed on site in the massive kilns and had been brought in along the tramway from Doveholes Quarry 6 miles away.

Selecting a blip from our adventures this day was never going to be easy. One picture of Bugsworth could not do it justice. It might have been of New Mills, Furness Vale or Whaley Bridge or even a picture of the pile of old rope, clothing and plastic bags which I spent most of an hour having to cut off our propeller with me up to my armpits down the 'weedhatch'.

So the selected picture sums up 'Objective Achieved', as we enjoy an excellent lunch in the Navigation to celebrate. It just so happens it's my birthday too.

[Explanation: Big Cruise Blips begin on 9th April [u](where there's an introduction)[/u] and last nearly 8 weeks with a break in the middle. I am catching up with the back-blipping]