Your Floating Hotel

on the Canals and Rivers of the UK

Our cruises for 2011.

26- Autumn Bliss on the Monty. Llangollen via the Montgommery to Nantwich. This cruise is now fully booked.

Thursday 22nd September to Friday 30th September. 8 nights for £755 per berth.

The Llangollen is justly described as one of the most attractive canals in the UK and is very popular with visitors from throughout the world. As an extra bonus on this cruise we explore the section of the Montgomery Canal which has been restored and re-connected to the main line.. Charm lies around every corner. Variety is a key note of both of these canals.

Thursday night at Llangollen; Friday New Marton; Saturday Queens Head; Sunday Frankton; Monday Blake Mere; Tuesday Grindley Brook; Wednesday Wrenbury; Thursday Nantwich.

Highlights.

> Two tremendous aqueducts, one world famous. There will be time not only to travel over but also to explore the area, (and walk over them if you have a good head for heights.)

> Miles of canal clinging to the mountains which soar above us. Narrow, shallow, rock cut canal which we slowly wind our way along.

> Three short tunnels, all have towpaths in them if you wish to walk through.

> Eleven lift bridges, with the chance to help work some of them if you wish, and hold up the cars as we pass through!

> The 'lakes' of the Ellesmere region add a charm to the scenery of that area.

> Lunchtime mooring on a great peat bog, now a Nature Reserve, with the chance to explore it a little.

> Grindley Brook staircase locks. People drive over to look at them, you become part of them as we climb up.

> The staircase locks at Frankton which we will travel through both ways, up and down .

> The beautiful quiet of the Montgommery Canal.

> A chance at lunchtime to explore the current restoration work which is extending the Montgommery Canal.

Return to the list of all our cruises.

27- Grand Victorian Engineering. Nantwich via the River Weaver and Worsley to Manchester.

Saturday 1st Oct. to Saturday 8th Oct. 7 nights for £665 per berth.

This cruise celebrates two of the greatest achievements of the canal engineers, but also offers miles of standard canal cruising. There is something special every day.

• The first day is largely spent on the Middlewich Branch. Often seen just as a connection between two canals it supplies miles of beautiful rural cruising, a high embankment and three deep locks.
• The second day sees us descend through the narrow and broad locks of the canal settlement of Middlewich then cruise through miles of countryside before passing through the salt industry of Nantwich.
• Our third day is spent exploring the River Weaver. We descend, in the boat, down in a Victorian Boat lift to the River and spend the day exploring the centre part of it, before going back up the boat lift to the canal.
• The Fourth day see us go through three tunnels as the Trent and Mersey canal clings high to the side of the Weaver valley, then joining the broad waters of the Bridgewater Canal, the first true canal to be built in the UK.
• The Fifth Day sees us travel over a movable aqueduct. When the Manchester Ship canal was built to pass the Bridgewater Canal this was the solution. The Bridgewater Canal was built to swing out of the way. We will moor that night at Wordsley where the canal used to go underground to the coal mines.
• The Last days cruising sees us go back over the Swing Canal to travel into the heart of Manchester. We moor in the Castlefields district, so called because it was the site of the Roman Fort which preceded the town which was to grow into Manchester City. On the way we pass between Manchester United Football Ground and the Old Traford Manchester docks.

Saturday night Nantwich; Sunday Middlewich; Monday Anderton; Tuesday Anderton; Wednesday Lyme; Thursday Wodsely; Friday Manchester.

Highlights.

> Travel down and up the Anderton Lift.

> See, and travel over, the Barton Swing Aqueduct.

> Explore Worsley, the birthplace of the canal age.

> A day on the River Weaver.

> Country isolation and city canals in contrast.

>Mooring at the end in the heart of the city of Manchester.

Return to the list of all our cruises.

28- Come with us up to the Hills. Manchester to Stoke via Bugsworth Basin. This cruise is now fully booked.

Saturday 8th October to Saturday 15th October. 7 nights for £665 per berth.

Start in the heart of Manchester. Travel under office blocks to the rural isolation of the Macclesfield canal, on the way visiting the great canal basins at Bugsworth.

At first, on the broad Rochdale canal, part of the time we go under the office blocks of central Manchester! Then we follow the Aston Canal as it slowly climbs up to join the Lower Peak Forest. A day packed full of locks, but there are only two more sets of locks, flights which take us half a day each, plenty of time for gentle cruising. That first day the canal is Urban all day surrounded by buildings, but much of the rest of the canals that follow are set out in the countryside as a compete contrast.

The cruise also has three tunnels, including one of the longest on the canal system, several lift and swing bridges scattered over the days. We moor one night in a huge restored canal port, another outside a mill with a towering chimne, another on an embankment high over the river. There are several great aqueducts as well.

There must be something for everyone.

Saturday night Manchester; Sunday Dunkinfield Junction; Monday Marple; Tuesday Marple; Wednesday Boseley; Thursday Congelton; Friday Stoke.

Highlights.

> Join us right in the centre of Manchester at Castlefields.

> Inner city canals and isolated rural canals in one trip.

> Several tremendous aqueducts.

> Impressive broad and narrow lock flights.

> The restored inland port of Bugsworth basin.

> Lift and swing bridges to pass through.

> Cruising along the edge of the Peak Forest hills, high above the Cheshire plain.

> Three tunnels, one amongst the longest on the UK canals.

Return to the list of all our cruises.

29- Autumn Colours on the Caldon. Stoke via the Caldon Canal to Stone.

Saturday 15th October to Saturday 22nd October. 7 nights for £665 per berth.

Join us for this our final cruise. We start in the centre of the potteries on the Caldon canal as it follows a wooded valley. Its course is narrow and secluded, civilisation is kept at a distance as we travel back in time, to the possible accompaniment of steam trains! Part of the time we are out on the river itself, much of the time we are on a canal which seems almost too narrow for our boats. A tunnel, flights of locks, aqueducts, lift bridges all add to the charm

For the last couple of days we return back through Stoke, after exploring all of the Caldon canal, to go down the Trent and Mersey Canal and finish up at Stone where the Trent and Mersey canal had its origins and its operating centre.

Saturday night at Stoke; Sunday Hazelhurst; Monday Consul Forge; Tuesday Chedleton; Wednesday Stoke; Thursday Barlaston; Friday Stone.

Highlights.

> The only staircase lock in Staffordshire.

> An unusual canal flyover.

> Miles of very narrow winding wooded canal.

> Cruise along the River Churnet.

> Three lift bridges to pass through.

> Operate one of only two working side pounds in the UK.

> Explore the preserved Flint Mills.

> A few miles of the Trent and Mersey Canal.