Leaky pound and an early finish

I had a walk down the Slattocks flight of 5 locks with Meg, and noticed that the first pound was a little short of water. About 3 feet short, in fact!
So the first job of the day was to run some water through the lock from the mile long pound above.

Filling the pound.
That done, we were able to carry on down the flight. It’s a pretty setting, running down through trees, but the buzz of traffic to the left reminds you that civilisation is not far away.

Slattocks Locks
We had another 5 locks to descend, spaced out over the next mile, then arrived at our overnight destination where the canal is carried on an aqueduct over the River Irk.

Irk Aqueduct Mooring.
It’s not a place we would normally choose to stay (again!) but it’s the closest to Manchester BW advise boaters to stay over. The towpath is very busy with walkers and cyclists, no doubt more so because of the fine sunny weather.

Carol took the dogs for a ball playing session in a nearby field while Mags gave me a haircut. The idea is that a close crop makes me look tougher should we encounter any hoolies tomorrow……

Playing Ball
We’ll be off at 7 in the morning, 1 lock, 1 lift bridge and a couple of miles to go to meet our BW escort at Lock 65, to take us down into Manchester, through bandit country. Looking forward to it.


Locks 10, miles 1¾.