Six hours there, six hours back...

My trip to Essex from Anderton was quite straightforward although pre-booking the train fare would have saved a pound or three...
Note to self, think ahead! 
A taxi from the Anderton Boat lift car park to Northwich rail station and then a train to Stockport, change there for a train to London Euston, usual cross London dash via the underground and then a train  from Fenchurch Street to Pitsea where my brother was waiting for the last hop to Mum's.  Six hours from leaving Yarwood and I was walking in the door at Mum's to a VERY welcome cuppa.
I hired a car the next day and we did lunch out an on the Friday I took Mum to Norfolk to see brother number two where we were staying for the night. 

Having access to wheels and being this close to Suffolk and a certain boater/ex-blogger called Greygirl, aka Sarah, I had arranged to meet her for lunch in Bury (Bury St. Edmunds).  The venue got changed to a pub in a village outside Bury but the hire car had Sat-nav and I had a smart phone so after dropping off Mother, I headed off to Thetford to fuel the car and then make my way to our rendezvous...only problem, the sat-nav had not been loaded in the in-car device and the phone had to signal in the wilds of Norfolk/Suffolk but Hey Ho, how difficult can it be to find a tiny village somewhere in Suffolk???

I headed for Bury and hoped for the best and with no elderly passenger in the car I had great fun driving hard and fast along the country lanes - (hard, fast and safe that is.)  arriving at Whepstead and the White Horse 15 minutes later than arranged but I had made it.

Whepstead White Horse

 

 L-R Sarah, aka Greygirl (who has just completed the BCN challenge as crew for Nb. Indigo Dream) and Me

 



The next few days saw me seeing family and friends before making the return journey back to Anderton, another six hours door to door.  On my first full day back I arranged for a delivery from Tesco and then on the Thursday we slipped out of Uplands Marina in the rain and headed out to Billinge Green Flash where we stayed over the bank holiday weekend.



 Moored on the flash, sitting out a weekend of torrential rain and strange angler behaviour?  At times we were the ONLY boat moored on the flash but on our first day two anglers turned up and one set up immediately on our bow and his mate immediately on our stern??  And when I say 'immediately' I mean you could put a fag paper between Yarwood and their fishing kit. Is this some kind of strange angler etiquette that we are not aware of??

All alone..