The Cheshire Ring

Today's the day ............................. to take to the water

Well done to everyone who guessed that it was time for the annual narrowboat trip.

I meet up with four friends from my Hull student days (now more than forty years ago - how has that happened?!) - and for the last four years we have navigated a stretch of the inland waterways in a canal boat. This year we had decided on The Cheshire Ring - a circular route taking in four different canals - namely the Macclesfield, the Ashton & Peak Forest, the Bridgewater and the Trent & Mersey. It is 97 miles of canal with 92 locks and would take about 50 hours of sailing to get round.

As well as taking in lots of quiet, unspoilt countryside, it also involved sailing right through the centre of Manchester which was quite an exciting prospect. There was a time - not so long ago - when this would have been quite a dodgy thing to attempt. But armed with lots of good advice from various sources, we felt ready for anything.

The adventure had begun .......................