May Day bank holiday in Chorley

Saturday we strolled into Chorley to go to the shops and market, it’d be rude not to have a pint at the Bob Inn as we were in the market. Ada & Dale met us there as it’s a short walk from their house. We all meandered via The Railway pub back to the boat. We’re moored in the same spot we stopped at 3 years ago, the M61 runs near by but isn’t too intrusive.

Sunday Heather & the children came over for a litter pick. Our stretch of the towpath & canal is amazingly litter free. I whipped up a picnic and the 6 of us headed up the hill to walk along the shore of Anglezarke Reservoir. It was wonderful as the bluebells are out and smell beautiful. We could see Blackpool Tower in the distance, but it didn’t come out in the photos. As we climbed over a stile a herd of sheep must have mistaken us for the farmer & came stampeding towards us. As we were on our way back we came across eggs for sale at a farm entrance, so we got a dozen, the prettiest eggs I’ve ever had. We ended up with a very heavy black sack of rubbish from our 4 mile walk. The footpath came out in Cowling behind The Spinners Arms, so we had a drink and packet of crisps and Ada & Dale joined us. Then all 8 of us back to the boat for tea.

Monday was a bit overcast but luckily we only had a couple of spots of rain once we started our BBQ. We brought a disposable BBQ to augment our lovely little bucket one, as we needed food for 9 of us. Both Heather & I made a cake (you can never have too much cake). I had a huge dilemma, which eggs to crack as they were all just so beautiful.

 

 John and the children ended the day by blowing bubbles.

 

Yesterday John and I headed off for a walk, on a similar route to Sunday, but we went higher to the edge of Anglezarke Moor. We had our picnic after a very steep climb up a disused quarry on Stonstray Bank. There was an amazing view and on the horizon we could see the Ribble Estuary glistening and we guess the tide was in as we could see the River Douglas too, with the binoculars. Our route back down the hill took us over the Black Brook, which also runs by where we’re moored. There was an open lead mine entrance that John took a peek in.