37418

Hello all ! thanks all of you for your very useful replies - I only get to go on the forum sneakily, whilst working, as my husband HOGS the computor at home, and I never get the opportunity to look at it in the evening. I will look at all your suggestions more thoroughly at lunch time - thankyou ps - 37418 is a locomotive - class 37, which my husband painted, voluntarily, with a friend last year. (stupid boy!!) I would have logged on as something else, but there you go !! 37418

My husband and I have booked, from Middlewhich, for 1 week. The plan was to do the cheshire ring route, but having spent hours working out distances and stopping points both clockwise and anti clockwise, using both the Nicholson and Pearson maps, I can't work out - a) nice and SAFE places to stay, in a reasonable time period, particularly round manchester - is it really unsafe to moor up between Castlefield and Ashton under Lyne? is it achielvable in 1 week? - I keep over running so would not be back at Middlewhich by 9o clock, even though its supposed to be a good beginners route, so should be achievable by us. We have been on 1/2 a dozen trips, and I'm usually good at sorting out a route, but we have never done a 'Ring', usually we do 'out and back', and we always plan to take it easy, and always end up doing full 10 hour travelling days. Is it possible to take your time and do the route with stops at places like Dunham Massey ? 37 418

Can anyone tell me if we'll hit any snags (apart from the weather)? A crew of 2, in s**t awful weather and holdups, isn't going to help us do the ring in a week! Beckie

Thanks for the advice ! - we have used the same hire co, from Penkridge, Stafford the last 3 times, and have gone 3 different routes so far, including the Caldon and 1/2 the Macclesfield, and over toward Nottingham on the Trent & Mersey - all out and back trips, so doing a circular route will be different, although a portion of the 4 counties we've done before (Harecastle tunnel to Penkridge). Do you tend to stick to the same hire company, or mix and match? We will need ideas for our next trip, so would appreciate some feed back on good reliable firms - we live in Preston, Lancs, and fancy experiencing some further away routes, before we hopefully can save up enough money for our own boat (like you, family business, doing ok, but need more bonus money to afford it) Beckie (37418) PS - I hope you get the opportunity to go on another trip soon

Salty, My hubby and I are planning to do the shroppie anti clockwise, from Penkridge, last week in September. How did your trip go and are there any others out there who could tell me is it do-able with just 2? (4 yrs hired, 40 yr old, enthusiastic and don't tend to hang around) 37418