Matchbox tractor and Playmobil student

I knew that we'd be going to Wigan on this trip so I'd downloaded the text of 'The Road to Wigan Pier' before I got to the boat and for the last couple of evenings I've been selecting extracts and building an English-learning class around them and George Orwell. As a result, when we got to Wigan this afternoon the 18-year-olds were keen to find vestiges of the appalling conditions they'd read about so the three of us spent our time looking for back alleys and converted back-to-backs. I was almost sorry not to see slag-heaps and subsidence.

This is swing-bridge land and two students have been running ahead to open the bridges, close them after the boat has gone through then leap back onto the boat. At one extremely rickety wooden bridge we were surprised to see a tractor crossing. We were asked to wait as two tractors carried hay bales across from one field to another. I confess I took two hundred pictures hoping to catch a tractor fall into the water. I was foiled so you get a Matchbox tractor instead.

I couldn't work out this evening why the moon was such a small orange fingernail after having been almost full a couple of days ago. Until we overheard someone say 'lunar eclipse'. Ah.