At the top!!

This morning brought sunshine, I'm sure Her Majesty must have ordered it for her visit. From the photos of her on The Pride of Sefton it is obvious why she chose to visit Burnley rather than Blackburn, there is no way she could have worked locks in that outfit and it is always the women who do the work at locks!

We took advantage of the sunshine and collected a load of wood for our fire before moving on to Nelson, stopped for a few supplies, including a good stock of beer, thanks to a rebate from HMRC. Then we carried on towards the Barrowford Locks. At the bottom lock we met up with Sweet Basil, out of Snaygill Boats, and her crew who were enjoying a Monday to Friday boating break.

Barrowford Bottom Lock

We made rapid progress up the seven locks, with three crew from Sweet Basil and myself it was quite an easy passage. We stopped to empty our loo at the services and they carried on. We had hoped to stop for the night between Barrowford Top and Foulridge Tunnel but although the BW permanent moorings are largely unoccupied there are no decent visitors moorings so we carried on. At the entrance to the tunnel we again met Sweet Basil as the traffic lights which control the tunnel were on red. We eventually got a green light and followed them through the tunnel, about a mile and a half beyond the tunnel we found a suitable overnight mooring.

We are now at the top of the Leeds and Liverpool so it is downhill now to Leeds.

Today's journey 6.2 miles, 7 locks and 1 tunnel.


So far this year we have travelled 369.6 miles, 217 locks, 8 swing bridges, 1 lift bridge and 11 tunnels

In 2011 we travelled 461.4 miles, 444 locks, 3 swing bridges, 34 lift bridges and 15 tunnels

During 2010 we travelled 740.3 miles, 642 locks, 53 swing bridges, 4 lift bridges and 25 tunnels

Since Ray retired we have travelled 1571.3 miles, 1303 locks, 64 swing bridges, 39 lift bridges and 51 tunnels