Canal Walk: Haskayne

Today I had a 4 and a half hour "lunch break" so I went to Haskayne to eat my lunch and have a walk. I parked by the Pride of Sefton's moorings and after my ham salad bagette set off for a short wander towards Liverpool. Approaching the Scarisbrick Arms the Pride of Sefton came through the bridge on its way back home. I walked up to the winding hole near the 17 mile milepost and turned around just before the swing bridge. There were lots of ducks and ducklings about enjoying the sunshine and some baby coots and moorhens that could only be loved by their mothers, not pretty things. Plans are afoot for a bigger walk this Saturday and a new stretch of canal on Sunday.

Liverpool Dock Walk

Today I went for a walk along the river front in Liverpool. There is a lot of building work going on in Liverpool ahead of the city being the Capital of Culture in 2008. I went looking for any signs of the proposed canal-dock link which will allow boats to enter the docks at Stanley Dock and pass through the other docks up to Albert Dock. There was work going on around Princes Dock and Georges Dock area but nothing that looked like a canal being built. Still it was a hot sunny day and where better to be than by the Mersey? ("in a pub" is the answer). Not far away from Princes Dock is Old Hall Street the former and original terminus of the Leeds Liverpool Canal, now only one building of a coopers yard remains of the old basin. It will be nice to see boats coming from the canal to the docks if the link is built. I dont think it will make the Liverpool end of the canal busy but the number of boats using the Liverpool end each year can be counted on your fingers so anything is an improvement.