Oct 24th

Normal 0 false false false st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} We had a lovely time last night.  Heather and Les came to the marina to pick us up and take us back to their home for a treat ? a Chinese take-away ? yummy!  It was really great to see them both again and to hear all about how Heather managed to break her leg whilst on holiday in Australia!  Heather and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves catching up on all the news and reminiscing, whilst Clive and Les went to look at the boy?s toys in Les?s shed!  We reluctantly took our leave in a taxi at 1.00am!!  We haven?t stayed up that late for a very long time!   This morning dawned bright and fair yet again, in fact it was absolutely glorious.  We had a leisurely breakfast and finally set off at 10.15.  By this time we had been passed by several boats going in both directions, in fact it was beginning to get like the M1 motorway!  We were both amazed at just how many craft were cruising the canal at this time of year, however it could be that they are all charging back to their winter moorings before all the stoppages kick in!   We only had two locks to pass through today, both very close together and not particularly deep so they didn?t take us very long.  It was an absolutely dream just cruising along on such a beautiful day in such stunning surroundings.  Actually though, although we had a really lovely day there is very little to put in the blog!   We finally arrived at today?s destination, Audlum.  We moored up just before the first of 15 locks at around 1.00pm in a really lovely spot overlooking the Weaver Valley and a pretty little lake. We secured the boat and went for a walk up the towpath to see exactly where we are, as  Vicki is driving up from Cambridge this evening to join us and we wanted to see where she could park the car.  There is a pub at Lock 13 called The Shroppie Fly (how convenient!)  ? we popped in for a drink and asked if it would be OK for Vick to leave the car in their car park overnight and they very kindly said yes.  We also got the post code so that Vicki could put it in the Sat Nav to help her find it.  We already knew about this pub because we had been informed back at Aspley Marina by Brian (from the narrowboat Invicta) that there is a very good folk night held here every Monday night.    Tomorrow morning we will be driving up to Huddersfield.  My niece Alison and her husband Mike and their baby son Harry are emigrating to New Zealand on 3rd November and they are having a farewell party at my sister Thelma?s tomorrow night, which is why we are going back up there.  (It's also Thelma's birthday!)  We will be back at the boat on Sunday and hopefully will go up through a couple of locks and moor outside the pub.  We intend to go to the folk club on Monday night and are looking forward to it already.  Better practice on Sunday!   So, probably no blog for a few days as there won?t really be anything to report ? but don?t go away!