Now Cruising South for the Winter

 Well it's been a while since we last posted on our blog but that was primarily because we had a few days looking after our grandson and left Leo in the tender care of Sale Cruising Club while we were away. So this posting covers our journey from Sale (just south of Manchester) along the Bridgewater Canal to join the Trent and Mersey until we left that canal at Middlewich yesterday.

Last Friday we left Sale in the wake of storm Lilian and not surprisingly we had to dodge round quite a few fallen trees.This one at Altrincham left just a narrow space on the far left which we could squeeze through.

As we approached and passed this obstacle it became clear that people had already been allocated to clear the tree - pretty quick service from the Bridgewater Canal Company. To be fair Canal and River Trust are also pretty quick to tackle fallen trees on their waterways.

We stopped on Friday at Lymm. This small town is very attractive and I just managed to get this shot of the High Street without cars!

A stream flows through the town and forms two lakes. This is the lower one in the centre and makes an idyllic scene. Further up the gorge of the stream it has been dammed to form a bigger lake which we walked round ....

..... and we found this rather intimidating face carved in one of the trees in the woodland.

On Saturday we carried on west and south to reach the end of the Bridgewater Canal at the mouth of the Preston Brook tunnel. This tunnel forms the northern end of the Trent and Mersey Canal and this picture shows the south end of the 1200 yard tunnel. Boats cannot pass in this tunnel (it is only 9 feet wide), so we had to  wait for our timed slot of entry in the ten minutes following the half hour. Northbound boats can enter in the ten minutes following the hour.

We moored that evening on the site of a breach in the canal which happened in 2012. The notice right by Leo says "Centre line of the Dutton breach 6 September 2012" In fact we had passed the spot just a few weeks before the breach happened when water and trees and mud cascaded down into the Weaver valley below.

Making use of the well finished edge to the moorings at the breach site, Ian painted back the aqua blue marking on the tip of the rudder above the water. A tricky job but successful. We used to have this colour on the rudder before, but it had been painted over on previous blacking treatments.

This is the view from the site of the breach looking across the valley of the River Weaver which is also navigable and which we have cruised in the past. The railway viaduct in the distance crosses the Weaver. The famous Anderton Boat Lift connects the Trent and Mersey with the Weaver some fifty feet below. We decided not to go that way, though we managed coffee and cake in the cafe at the Visitor Centre for the lift.

Coming round Northwich we passed the massive Tata Chemicals factory. New bits are being built where the cranes are.

Coming into Middlewich we crossed the Croxton aqueduct over the River Dane which flows into the Weaver. The picture shows us crossing the aqueduct. There used to be a wider aqueduct to accommodate salt barges bringing salt from brine pumping and rock salt digging round here. However the aqueduct was replaced some years ago and now just takes narrowboats.

And so yesterday we came to the locks in Middlewich. Oddly the first lock is a wide one taking a pair of narrowboats (another hangover from salt barge days), and the other three are narrow locks. The picture shows Middlewich Big Lock.

And here is the first narrow lock. This is the first narrow lock we've been through since arriving in Manchester on 25 June! They are a delight.

Having climbed the three narrow locks we soon reached Middlewich junction where the Shropshire Union Canal branches off to the right. Having discussed our route south over the last few days we have decided to go via the 'Shroppie' so we turned right. This route takes us along the Middlewich Branch to Barbridge Junction where we will turn south heading eventually for Wolverhampton. But the story of that part of our trip will have to wait for later postings on this blog.

Finally off the Leeds and Liverpool

 This is just a short post bringing us up to date before we leave boating for a few days on 'grandparent duty'!

The last post took us up the East side of the Leeds and Liverpool and last Sunday through Foulridge Tunnel . Here are some highlights of the last week coming down the locks on the west side of the Pennines:

On Monday we came down the 7 Barrowford locks and through Burnley. The picture shows us near the east side of the Burnley embankment. Right by the boat we are crossing an aqueduct over a road down below. Ahead stretches almost a mile of embankment some around 60 feet high crossing two river valleys.

We moored on Monday near Hapton and this is the view from near the boat looking towards Pendle Hill

Waterweed has been a big feature of the west side of the L&L. This is just duckweed which is not too difficult to navigate, though it can hide other hazards under the water.

Here we are with narrowboat Violet Clare with whom we have shared many locks lately. We get on well with Judy and Eddy from Violet Clare not to mention their dog, Blossom. The picture shows us in the top lock of six at Blackburn.

Here is another weed picture looking behind us at the channel we have cut through the duckweed.

Jackson's Hillock near Chorley is another flight of 7 locks taking us towards Wigan. The picture shows Violet Clare following Leo down the locks.

Here at the top of the Wigan Locks is an altogether more difficult weed. As well as the duckweed there are huge clumps of Pennywort an invasive and rapid growing menace which does clog the propellor very quickly. To avoid problems and to try to stop the Pennywort coming down the locks with us, we pulled Leo into the top lock by hand.

The Wigan flight has 21 locks and is pretty intimidating as maintenance has been poor and there are few apart from willing locals to help. A Facebook group called 'Wigan Flight Crew' is well worth studying before going up or down. The more serious problems we had this time were with the pound between locks 72 and 73 which goes dry every night and where both boats went aground in lock 72 and took a lot of work to shift. A second problem was with a gate paddle at lock 81 which refused to close and made it impossible to open the tail (lower) gates despite four people pushing  one lock gate. We resolved this one by winding the offending paddle up and then down again forcing it to more or less close. These were the more serious issues but almost every lock leaks through gates or walls or has paddles out of action or gates are stiff.

We had promised Eddy and Judy some Chorley cakes that we had bought as an award when we finally got down the locks. Eddy certainly looks pleased!

Once down the Wigan Locks we turned left at the junction, descended the two Poolstock locks and then followed the Leigh branch of the Leeds and Liverpool which connects with the Bridgewater Canal. Here we are waiting for the Plank Lane Lift bridge to open for us. The bridge is normally operated by boaters but the roadway needs repair and at present this means that the bridge is only opened once a day at 10 am. So, at the appointed hour this morning, three boats went one way and four the other. This gives a good idea of just how few boats there are moving round here.

Later this morning we crossed the Barton Swing Aqueduct shown here. This takes the Bridgewater Canal across the Manchester Ship Canal and can be swung, full of water, to allow ships to pass underneath. Amazing.

Here is the view looking  west while crossing the aqueduct. The road bridge beyond also swings. The tower is for the bridge controller.

And that brings us up to date. Tomorrow we are travelling south by train for a few days looking after our grandson. Once we return, our canal travels will continue along the Bridgewater heading broadly south. We  haven't yet decided which way we are intending to go, so that will be for you to discover in later postings on our blog.

Returning over the Leeds and Liverpool - the East side of the Pennines

 As I type this update, we are heading down the locks on the west side of the Pennines on the Leeds and Liverpool, but this update covers the east side of the Pennines. First a recap. We had concluded, having reached Huddersfield, that the state of the canals was such that we would not be able to continue onto the Huddersfield Narrow or the Rochdale, both of which would have taken us back over the Pennines by a shorter route. And the route to the River Trent was affected by the sliding Vazon railway bridge having failed too.

So we decided 10 days ago that our only sensible course was to return the way we had come via the Leeds and Liverpool and preferably before that runs out of water as it does most years. So here is a brief account of the first part of our return.

Here we are leaving Huddersfield by first passing under the Loco Lift Bridge which Helen has partly lifted ready for the boat to pass underneath. It is electric so only finger muscles (to push the buttons) are required for this one.

This railway viaduct over the River Calder is known as the 99 arches, but it was the architecture of the castle-like turrets that took our interest this time.

Returning through Stanley Ferry, where aqueducts cross the River Calder, we took Leo over the modern aqueduct to get a better view of the old one shown in the picture.

Coming up the River Aire from Castleford to Leeds we passed this sunken narrowboat. This can be a dangerous river in winter floods but was quite easy when we passed.

On the mudbank at the edge of the river we spotted this Little Egret.

Closer to Leeds we passed 'Sheaf' a Sheffield size cargo boat. These were built to a length of 60 feet to fit the locks on the Leeds and Liverpool. This boat was built in 1938 and we have shared some of the large locks on the River Aire with her in past years.

Here we are coming into Leeds along the River Aire.

Having the afternoon spare in Leeds we visited the Armouries. This is always interesting and we concentrated on the section about jousting both historic and modern. This special suit of armour is purpose designed for jousting.

We left Leeds on Wednesday 7th August at about 7 am. This is a zoomed picture of Kirkstall Abbey seen from Kirkstall Lock on the canal.

We reached Dobson Two Locks later that day. This is a staircase lock where the first lock leads directly into the second. It is quite steep!

We were able to pass another boat coming down, something that is impossible in an ordinary lock. The other boat on the left had come down in the top lock as we had used the same water to come up in the bottom lock. It was then possible for one boat to pass the other. This is only possible if at least one lock has a single narrowboat in it. Think about it!

Either side coming through Saltaire are the wonderful mills built by Titus Salt.

On our second day out of Leeds we came up the two massive staircases at Bingley. Here is a view from near the top of the Five Rise which raises boats sixty feet through five locks in a staircase. Definitely a wonder of the waterways.

This stretch of the Leeds and Liverpool is famous for its innumerable swing bridges. This one is at Niffany Farm coming out of Skipton heading for Gargrave.

The last three of the 44 locks from Leeds up to the summit of the canal are at Greenberfield and the picture shows Leo between two of the Greenberfield Locks.

And here we are coming out of the top lock at Greenberfield. From this point, for a few miles we were on the summit pound of the canal at 487 feet above sea level.

We passed these cows drinking their fill of canal water.

In this picture taken at Foulridge we are waiting for the traffic light to turn green to tell us that we may proceed through the tunnel you can see beyond the boat in front. The Foulridge Tunnel is just under a mile long and takes boats under the last of the hills before descending the west side of the Leeds and Liverpool.

Here is Ian bringing Leo out of the west side of the tunnel 15 minutes later. Though it was a fine sunny day, tunnels are notoriously wet, hence the waterproof!

So that brings us to the summit of the Leeds and Liverpool. We are in fact now well advanced down the west side but we will update this blog once we are down out of the hills and down the long flight of locks at Wigan. We hope they are working properly!

Huddersfield Narrow Canal and some big decisions about where we go next

The story so far is that we had reached Huddersfield and were hoping to go further travelling over the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, through the Standedge Tunnel and down the other side to the edge of Manchester. While waiting for some better information from CRT we spent Friday 2nd August catching the train up to Marsden at the summit of the 'Narrow' and walking about 9 miles back down the canal to Huddersfield. So here is the story of that day and some more information at the end about where we are travelling next.

Right next to the railway station at Marsden is Lock 42E shown here (the 'E' is for east as in the east side of the Pennines). 42E is the top lock on the east side before reaching the tunnel.

Half a mile upstream at Marsden is the entrance to the Standedge Tunnel. This is the longest (at over 3 miles), highest (at 650 feet above sea level) and deepest (at 650 feet below the hill it goes through) in the country and possibly the world. The strange looking vessel moored beside the Visitor Centre is an electric trip boat which takes people into the tunnel, though not all the way through.

From the tunnel, after cups of coffee at the Visitor Centre, we began our walk down the canal. Here we are at the next lock down (41E). There is a fine view forward from here.

This is the Blue Peter Lock. In 2015 this lock featured on the children's TV programme in which a new lock gate was made and fitted.

Below 33E the canal (shown on the right of the photo) passes Sparth reservoir (on the left) which is a source of water to top up the canal.

We worked our way down the canal to lock 24E on the edge of Slaithwaite which is curiously pronounced 'Slow' as in 'cow' followed by 'itt', so 'Slowitt'. 24E has a guillotine gate on the downstream side which needs to wound up by hand.

Before the canal was restored, some parts around Slaithwaite had disappeared altogether and, as spare room was short, some of the sections of canal here are only wide enough for one narrowboat. Problems might arise if a boat is coming the other way, but there are passing bays.

Below Slaithwaite where we had lunch at the Little Bridge Cafe, the canal passes through Linthwaite where this huge old mill is to be found. Known as 'Titanic Mill' for obvious reasons, it is now converted to flats or should I say apartments.

As we grew closer to Huddersfield we began to see why we were not being allowed further up the canal. Here below 13E it was clear that the canal was running dry.

The canal follows the valley of the River Colne and at Golcar it crosses the river by means of an aqueduct.  This aqueduct has apparently leaked water into the river for over a year and it has not been properly repaired. The tarpaulin here was a stop gap solution but is no longer working despite countless gallons of water being pumped up from the river into the canal.

We walked down below the aqueduct and in this photo you can see water leaking from the canal into the river. And this is with only a few inches of water left in the canal. Imagine what it must be like with another three or four feet of water in the canal.

Here's another photo below the aqueduct and you can see spurts of water coming into the river.

At lock 4E the canal crosses the river again in another (non leaking) aqueduct and then immediately goes into the lock and soon after under a very tall railway viaduct.

Passing Kirklees College there is another section where a new channel has been built for the canal and a brand new lock at 3E.

After 3E the canal passes through two modern tunnels under buildings and this section cannot be walked as the towpath does not exist. Out of sight in this section is lock 2E and then another tunnel. People like us following the canal on foot must take to a signposted route along roads and here is where the path rejoins the canal. You can see the entrance to Bates Tunnel and the strengthening bars holding the walls apart.

These strengthening bars continue above the narrow channel of the canal as far as Lock 1E, the last on the east side.

This photo shows the channel just above 1E. Stop planks prevent the canal water above reaching the lock. Without these the lock leaks so badly that the channel above would soon be dry! Again probably due to lack of maintenance. We remember problems with this lock when we brought Leo this way in 2016! You can see in the photo above the lock gate and before the stop planks the stone floor of the lock. Usually there would be so much silt that you could not see the stone construction of the lock floor but here you can. The water in the Huddersfield Narrow is wonderfully clear although peaty from its source on the moors above. Once past this lock we were quickly back to Leo moored in Aspley Basin where Huddersfield canals Broad and Narrow meet.

 On our walk down the 'Narrow' we had met a CRT engineer who told us that it would be at least 2-4 weeks and quite possibly longer before the Golcar Aqueduct is repaired. We have therefore reluctantly decided that the 'Narrow' is not a viable option for us. The Rochdale Canal whose course is nearby has all sorts of problems too. A return via the tidal River Trent relies on passing under the Vazon Sliding Railway Bridge (another wonder of the waterways). That bridge is also in need of repair, this time not by CRT but by Network Rail. So we are presently retracing our outward route to go back over the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. There will be fewer blog updates partly because you will have seen this before, but also because we fear the L&L might run out of water as it has done most years and we want to get over it before that happens. So our pace of travel has gone up considerably. Today (Wednesday 7th August) we have come west from Leeds covering 10 miles, 16 locks and 7 swing bridges! That's a lot more of each than we have been accustomed to travelling lately.