Welcome back I hear you say !!!! ( Part One )

Hi All,
Yes we're back and hopefully we'll be here on a more regular basis than of late.This week I will try to bring everything up to date since our last blog back in December.

We're currently moored in Bugsworth Basin at the end of the Peak Forest Canal,we've been here a week and we're staying for another week because the Peak Forest is currently closed and will be till Friday.For a small donation to Bugsworth Basin Heritage Trust it's possible to overstay the usual CRT mooring restrictions. We're using our time here to continue our recuperation from some nasty Flu like illness we both came back to the UK with in March.It's good here in Bugsworth,there's a Tesco and a few shops at Whaley Bridge,which is just a short walk along the towpath,there's all the boaty facilities we want just a few yards away and,of course,there's The Navigation Inn.What more could any boater want ? Neither of us feels much like drinking just now though,this flu thing sure knocked us both about.

Leaving Wheelock on a cold and frosty morning in December and heading up the Cheshire Locks on the T&M.

Waiting our turn at Hall Green Lock on the Macclesfield.Swamp Frogs in front on the water point.

Since December we've really been about quite a bit.We left Nantwich at the beginning of the month and slowly made our way along the Middlewich Branch,right onto the T&M and then right again at Hardings Wood,onto the Macclesfield canal where we had booked moorings in Lyme View Marina for the New Year.Heading up the T&M at Crows Nest Lock,near Sandbach,I managed to fall into the canal for the very first time ever and it wasn't a pleasant experience,in fact it's taken something like four months to get my back to how it was before.It was my own fault and I wont bore you with it,if you're a friend on Facebook you'll have got the gory details at the time anyway.We were with Rob and Suzie off Swamp Frogs again by this time and together we had a great journey up to Higher Poynton where we planned to meet up with Lorraine and Mark off  The Mad Hatter,Lisa and I hadn't seen them since Alrewas last year and a good few beers where consumed in the Boars Head when we arrived.Congratulations Mark on your award from RCR,you deserve it.

Rob doing a few running repairs to the front Button as we head up the T&M

Suzie the Lockie on the Bosley Flight.

December also came with some bad news,Lisa's Brother in Law,Gordon,was diagnosed with cancer so we hired a car from good old Enterprise and went down to Wimborne to see him,sadly things didn't look too good but there was still cause for optimism.We came back for Christmas which we spent with Rob and Suzie here in Bugsworth and had a wonderful time,another Christmas to fondly remember,rounded off by snow on Boxing Day.We moved back to nearer Lyme View for New Year,because the ice was beginning to form overnight on the cut,stopping at High Lane with it's choice of pubs and had a great New Years Eve with Rob and Suzie in the Horse Shoe Inn.That brought December and 2014 to a close,a great year with just the odd sad bit,what more can you ask for ?

Christmas on Chyandour.

A walk through Lyme Park on a winters day.

January was the month that would bring another mixture for us.The pain in my back from my fall last month got so bad I couldn't walk to the pub on the Saturday night,but that proved to be the low point and thankfully things started to improve from then on. January also brought another couple of firsts for us as we moored in Lyme View Marina,from where we would leave our boat and the UK to explore somewhere else,this time it would be Fuerteventura.Our friends Pete and Val off Tadpole 2 go out there every year for the winter and during our travels together through the summer the possibility of Lisa and I going out there was discussed.We decided that as neither of us had been there before,though just about everyone we knew had, a month would be long enough to see if we liked it so,on the 9th of January we flew out of Manchester terminal 3.

Val & Pete from Tadpole 2 with Lisa on the day we went to Puerto del Rosario

The view from our apartment in Corralejo.

The Volcano outside Corralejo viewed from the Bell Tower at the El Campanario Centre.

 We stayed in Corralejo and had a wonderful time,thanks to Val and Pete we met some great people,if I miss anyone please forgive me,it's not intentional.There was Jules and Claire who ran The Blue Rock Bar where we enjoyed the odd drink or two and some great laughs,Richard and Geraldine from Kirkaldy,a lovely couple with whom we enjoyed a number of meals .One of Richards hobbies is Marathon Running and thanks to his training runs he found us a relatively easy route up onto and over the volcano that dominates Corralejo.That was a first for a few of us,particularly the embryonic Blue Rock Ramblers.Then there was the Chillies from Leeds,Dianne and John,another amazing interesting couple who had me crying with laughter on more than one occasion.Gazza and Tommy Two Doors,both of them are from around the Manchester area.Keith and Janey from Southampton,Eileen from Liverpool,Hildegard from Germany/Ireland,Yvonne and Danny from Ilkeston who so kindly lent us their spare room for a couple of nights.Eddie and Nancy from Birmingham,Howard and Jean and many others both British and Spanish.Finally it would be wrong of me not to mention Chris and Eileen from Coralejo or Nigel from Alderney who also helped make our stay on the island so special.

On the Glass Bottom Boat for a days fishing on the island of Lobos.Well,fishing for Nigel,Pete & John.Richard & I were going for a walk around the island.

The fishing village on Lobos,the only inhabited bit of the island.

The Blue Rock Ramblers in the early days at the top of the volcano.From LtoR we have John,Val.Lisa,Geraldine,Dianne,Pete at the back,Yvonne,Janey & Richard and there's a couple off the photo'.

From the top overlooking Corralejo with Lobos in the background

We flew back from Fuerteventura on the 6th of February,landing in Manchester to a cold wet British winters afternoon.
(To be Continued)