We escaped in time.

British Waterways have announced that the Leeds and Liverpool Canal will be closed from the 2nd August between Lock 30 (near Gargrave) and Lock 85 ( the bottom of Wigan Flight). That is the stretch we did last week. The rest of the network just seems to have cautions about reduced water levels.

Today we moved on from Ince Moss to Astley Green. As we were getting ready to leave we saw 6 or 7 black mink playing on the opposite bank. It wasn't a very long journey, no locks and just one swing bridge. We did have a bit of rain on the way, and then a thunderstorm while we were at the pub but I don't think that was enough to make a difference to the levels in the reservoirs. It did give us an excuse to stay for another pint though!

We may stay here tomorrow so we can visit the mining museum, then I think it will be a longish run to get past the Manchester suburbs.

Today's journey 6.5 miles and 1 swing bridge.


So far we have travelled 427.8 miles, 446 locks, 53 swing bridges, 4 lift bridges and 11 tunnels.

23 locks and fishing for kittens!

Chris made it back to us nice and early then all we had to do was wait. There was no problem with BW letting three boats down so John and Jackie took the lead and we all set off. It was warm but not too hot thankfully and with John on his boat and Ray taking Morgana and Almyne that left Jackie, Chris and I to work the locks with a bit of help from BW.

It seemed to be a well maintained flight, some of the paddles were a bit stiff but not many. Our only problem was one we knew about before we started. One lock halfway down has a gate that doesn't open, so we had to separate the boats and take them out one at a time. We made good time and got down through the 21 locks in less than five hours. We turned the corner onto the Leigh Branch, down through the Poolstock Locks and met Kathy who had brought Destiny up to meet us. Then we headed back to Ince Moss to moor up.

When we all settled the kittens came out onto the towpath, Gwynhwyvar had fallen in yesterday and while we were sat relaxing Lancelot took a dip. Albert, the kitten we aren't having, fell in twice. At least they can all swim! We took Lance and Gwynie home with us for the first time. Gracie, the oldest cat, who likes to visit us for some peace wasn't amused when we made her leave before feeding time. The kittens seem to be settling in OK, they have managed to take up a lot of space on the couch for two small kittens!

Today's journey 4.2 miles and 23 locks

So far we have travelled 421.3 miles, 446 locks, 51 swing bridges, 4 lift bridges and 11 tunnels

At the top of Wigan Flight

We have made it! We are now sat at the top of Wigan Flight, we might be able to go down tomorrow but there is one boat in front of us waiting to go down so if BW are only allowing one passage per day we will have to wait until Sunday. Chris managed to find a bus service that took him to Plank Bridge where Kathy is so he went to see her and stay the night, hopefully he will be back early enough in the morning if they do let us down the flight tomorrow.

Today's journey was uneventful just Johnson's Hillock Locks to interupt our smooth passage to Wigan. Even they were unlocked early so we were able to go straight through even though we reached there at 9.30.

If we are stuck here for the day I may go and investigate the delights of Wigan.

Today's journey 14.7 miles and 7 locks.
So far we have travelled 417.1 miles, 423 locks, 51 swing bridges, 4 lift bridges and 11 tunnels.

Blackburn and beyond!

Blackburn was every bit as exciting as I expected. It's only redeeming feature was a fairly new large Morrisons close to the canal. After stocking up we carried on to Blackburn Locks only to find them padlocked. Last entry is supposed to be 4pm and this was at 3 pm. I went off down the flight on foot in search of a lock keeper while Chris phoned BW. I found a lockie and yet again there seemed to be confusion about the restrictions, however he did come and unlock the gates for us so we could carry on. I wonder if mentioning my communications with Debbie Lumb (NW Waterways manager) had anything to do with his willingness to help.

Now we are back in "urban sprawl" the canal is exhibiting the array of bottles, cans, bikes and supermarket trollies that I have come to expect. I can now recognise trollies from all the major supermarkets and DIY store by an eight inch portion of their handle protruding above the surface. Any seats along the towpath seem to be occupied after noon by various enibriated Scotsmen. Why are they always Scotsmen even in Lancashire?

We emerged from the suburbs of Blackburn and moored up near an old papermill with acres of woodland surrounding it. Only about 13 miles and 7 locks to the top of Wigan Flight now, so we should we down the flight on Saturday, water levels permitting. Although it has been raining I doubt it has made any impact on the water levels.

Today's journey 15.7 miles, 6 locks and 4 swing bridges.
So far we have travelled 402.4 miles , 416 locks, 51 swing bridges, 4 lift bridges and 11 tunnels.

Getting very wet

Today's weather forecast was for light showers, Lancashire must have a different definition of light showers to me. We left our moorings at Barnoldswick about 8.00 to head down through the Foulridge tunnel and reach the Barrowford Locks by the time they opened at 10.00. At this time the rain was light so no great problem. When we reached the locks we found they were already open at 9.30 so we made swift progress down through the seven locks and on towards the "delights" of Nelson and Burnley. By this time the rain was, in my opinion, neither a shower nor light, it was chucking it down! I'm not complaining, we need the rain. At least once we were through the locks I could make the excuse that I had some baking to do and disappear under cover. The idea of me baking always goes down well with Chris and Ray so they had no objections. The rain got so heavy at one point they contemplated stopping but decided they couldn't get any wetter so carried on. It is a pity the weather wasn't better as some of the views once we were clear of the urban sprawl were fantastic even with limited visibility.

From Burnley the canal meanders along never far from the M65, I had intended to moor as far as possible from the motorway but it was impossible to hammer in mooring pins there so we ended up only about 200 yards from the motorway, luckily not too noisy.

Tomorrow we will have the pleasure of visiting Blackburn, a place my brother holds a low opinion of (understatement of the century), at the time of writing I'm not in a position to offer an opinion. A supermarket stop is in order as there is no shop near our intended moorings once we go down Wigan flight. Apparently the locals welcome you with a skip yard which stinks and is fly infested.

The sunset tonight held a promise of a better day tomorrow.

Today's journey 16.6 miles, 7 locks and 2 tunnels.

So far we have travelled 386.1 miles, 410 locks, 47 swing bridges, 4 lift bridges and 11 tunnels.

Back in Lancashire

I didn't blog yesterday as the signal was a bit dodgy. I suppose you can't expect too much when you are up in the Yorkshire Dales.

Sunday ended up as a no-travel day, the wind was blowing a gale and the rain came down. We did visit the Village Hall for tea and scones in the afternoon, very civilised. I have to say the locals in Kildwick are very welcoming, we spent an amusing hour chatting. The churchyard at Kildwick is heaven for a family historian, they seem to like relating every detail on the gravestones, even the fact that a husband was buried somewhere else. Pity that none of my relatives were from here.

On Monday we started out early, headed through Skipton and on towards Gargrave flight. The restrictions because of the lack of water mean you can only enter the lock flight between 10 am and noon then between 2pm and 4pm. Although we arrived before noon we missed the morning slot because there was a queue of boats waiting to go up the flight. We were the second pair of boats to go up in the afternoon and got part way up the flight only to be told "you won't complete the flight by four, you'll have to moor up". After we had stopped I re-read the restriction notice and it clearly says "enter the flight by 4pm" not complete the flight by 4pm. An email to BW followed, I received a prompt reply and it appears my interpretation was correct and that we should have been able to complete the flight. The delay didn't stop us enjoying a pleasant evening on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park. We saw the first curlew I have seen in years. It wouldn't come close enough to us for me to get a good photo.

Today we carried on to Barnoldswick which took us back into Lancashire. One stretch of the canal is very bendy, it has a couple of hairpin bends on it. We had the amusing sight of Chris, on Almyne, travelling in the opposite direction to us the other side of a field. 

You can just see Chris, passing right to left behind the moored boats as we were heading left to right the other side of the bend.

The lock keepers today were telling us that unless there is a substantial amount of rain the Leeds and Liverpool could be closed to navigation in just over two weeks. I found out today that the Rochdale Canal is closed at Sowerby bridge due to the lack of water. Generally it was a good day and we still hope to make it to Wigan on Sunday. The other canals don't seem to be suffering as much with water shortages.

Yesterday's journey 10.1 miles, 4 locks and 9 swing bridges.


Today's journey 7 miles and 11 locks.


So far we have travelled 369.5 miles, 403 locks, 47 swing bridges, 4 lift bridges and 9 tunnels

I need to learn to turn pages!

On my last post I said it was downhill from here - wrong! I managed to turn over two pages together, we have another eleven locks going up before we start going down.

After my baby-sitting duties we moved on again today, it was a bit windy but dry and fairly warm. I was steering Almyne as Chris is away with Kathy this weekend but we did have Chris's sister Belinda with us. Belinda was doing the swing bridges as she has never steered a narrowboat. We did manage to temporarily close the canal! One of the bridges was very stiff to open and when Belinda tried to close it - it stuck! It wouldn't close fully but it wouldn't re-open either. It was possible to cross the bridge on foot so I rang BW and told them the bridge was stuck closed, they said they would get someone out.

The water levels made it hard to get Almyne into the bank in places but we managed. Morgana's water inlet got blocked with weed so she overheated and Belinda and I had to wait about an hour for Ray to catch up with us. As always the wind made steering hard. Apart from that it was a good day. We have moored for the night at Kildwick, we may move on tomorrow depending on the weather, some forecasts are predicting a nasty day. We need to make sure we are somewhere Chris can get back to us easily.

Today's journey 5.4 miles and 7 swing bridges.
So far we have travelled 352.4 miles, 388 locks, 38 swing bridges, 4 lift bridges and 9 tunnels.