Saturday 30th March

A bit more packing to do, loading the car etc doesn't put us off having a cuppa in bed on the last day. Then back to the jobs. Defrosting the hose being the main one, after half an hour in front of the stove it started to make gurgling noises so we could top the water up. At about 9am Guy turned up and was having a chat with the owners of Dragonfly. We loaded the car as it started to snow again, this was settling nicely on the ice in the marina. Our vacuum bags seem to have lost all their sealability so the car was fuller than when we'd arrived. Final checks and a quick hoover before the lady doing the valet turned up at 10am and that was us done.

A little farewell to WD and then we were off in search of breakfast. When we used to finish at Elton Moss we'd head into Sandbach for breakfast at Peppers, but with no idea of where to head, we aimed for the M1 with the hope we'd find somewhere. Well there's a lot of Tesco distribution centres around but they weren't going to provide a full english. So on to brave the M1 speed and stop at a service station. The breakfast here was better than the one we'd had in Birmingham, a lot more expensive though. Our three weeks of peace and quiet was shattered by all the cars going by, conversations, cutlery on crockery, trolleys going by and the incredible sound of chairs being dragged across the floor! We couldn't help laughing at it all.

Then back onto the M1, M18 and M62 then across the wolds to home to unpack, start on the mountain of washing and collect Houdini (my cat) from her holiday. Normal life in a big house with more than four steps and passing space in the kitchen, Strange!



Our three weeks on Winding Down had been cold, cosy, quiet but excellent and a fitting way to say goodbye to her. Our share in her is for sale and our next planned week not til November, by which time we hope to have sold up and moved onto Oleanna our very own boat.

We would like to thank Father Christmas last year for providing us with pure lambs wool socks and heat holder socks. Other thanks should also go to thermal underwear, fleecy lined trousers, water proofs, gloves, hats, chocolate and banana loaf, boat biscuits and last but not least Taybrite coal!

In total according to canal plan we did
171 miles 3.25 furlongs
200 locks
9 moveable bridges
12 tunnels