Through Burnley to Blackburn

We made our farewells with Geoffrey this morning. He’s going into Burnley for a look around before returning Scrumble to Lower Park Marina at Barnoldswick. We may meet up again, he has a boat of his own in the marina at Braunston, but chose to hire up here rather than make the long trip by water. We'll miss him, he's been good company these last 2 days.
From our overnight mooring we were pretty well straight into Burnley. The canal does a long loop around the town which is built in the Calder Valley, crossing the valley on a mile long embankment which affords fine views of rooftops.

More algae near Burnley
Back to back terraces entering Burnley
Burnley Embankment

Chimney pots and rooftops
Heading back out, the canal cuts through the Weavers’ Triangle. This is a preserved 19thC industrial area demonstrating the business upon which the town’s prosperity was built.

Weavers’ Wharf
From Burnley the canal crosses the M65 for the first time, in fact the first of 6 crossings today, 2 over and 4 under, as the motorway heads roughly east to west over bridges and embankments and through cuttings, while the canal loops around the hills, tenaciously following the 410 foot contour.

Over the M65
Gannow Tunnel takes the navigation into the suburb of Rose Grove, which has a useful BW sanitary station and moorings at the depot there.

Gannow Tunnel
Rose Grove BW depot
There’s a sort of rural section for a while, just odds clumps of recently built houses coming down to the canal.

We pulled in at Hapton Marina for diesel (at 58ppl) and solid fuel (at £6 for 20Kg) and a chat, then pushed on through a couple of miles of open country before running into Clayton le Moors, Church and Rishton.

Moorland near Clayton
Old mill in Church, looks like an abandoned development project.
We pulled over in another green zone between Rishton and Blackburn, near Bridge 106.

No locks today, but the long pound ends in the middle of Blackburn at the 6 locks that drop the canal down another 55 feet. But that’ll be tomorrow.

We’ve picked up quite a bit of rubbish on the prop today, as expected when running through urban areas. I’ve been head down in the weed hatch 3 times today. I reckon it’ll be pretty much the same tomorrow.

Locks 0, miles 15½

From Yorkshire to Lancashire.

Yes it’s official. Today we left “God’s Country”, and entered that other county that Yorkshire folk don’t like to talk about….

Geoffrey on Scrumble passed us not long after 09:00 this morning, just as we were thinking about getting going ourselves. So we set off in his wake, catching up at Foulridge Tunnel waiting for the lights to change.

Foulridge Wharf.
The once-derelict waterways warehouse is now a smart eatery – the Cargo Café
Foulridge Tunnel is one way only, alternating northbound and southbound every 30 minutes and controlled by traffic lights. We arrived just on 10, and the lights had just changed so in we went without a pause. At 1640 yards it’s quite short compared to a lot of canal tunnels, but, being wet, it has some impressive flowstone deposits, caused by minerals leaching through the roof.

Not a good picture, the white covering on the ceiling is a mass of short stalactites.
Foulridge Tunnel, South end.

Around 1½ miles on a long line of moorings indicates the approach to Barrowford Top Lock. Top lock because we are now dropping back down off the summit level. Not all boats could be classed as being moored though.

Wrecks at Barrowford.
Barrowford Top Lock
This is a pleasant flight of 7 locks, starting in fields and dropping down to a semi rural bit between Colne and Nelson, with a mess of bridges ¾ of the way down.

Barrowford Locks

Geoffrey and Scrumble.

We met a couple of boats on the way up, and made good time till the last but one. A boat was approaching the bottom, so Mags and Geoffrey waited in the pound while I filled the lock with the oncoming boat in. Unfortunately, this drained the pound enough to leave Mags high and dry on some rocks. A lock full of water from above soon had her floating again though.

Out of the locks and we were into Nelson, the first of a string of mill towns on the canal as it drops towards Liverpool. Geoffrey pulled onto the handy offside moorings at Morrisons, while we pushed on, finally mooring just north of Burnley. We’ve stopped here before, with long views over the Calder Valley.

Locks 7, miles 8½

We’re Off!! A long day starts us heading South.

After over a month pottering about around Gargrave due to rescheduled doctor’s appointments, we’re finally on the move again. Mags had her final check-up on Friday and was pronounced fit for another 12 months on the boat, so we’re now clear to toddle off. Unfortunately, due to delays up here, Plan A has been shelved. We’ll not be able to get back into the Midlands for Christmas as one of the tasks on the Winter Stoppage Program is Middlewich Big Lock gates. This will keep us north of Middlewich till the end of December. Still, there’re worse places to be…

One other consequence of being held up is that we’ve got to get south of Blackburn this week, or we’ll be stuck on the wrong side of a closure there, as well.

We were planning on moving out on Saturday or Sunday, but the weather was appalling, wet and windy, and Mags has not long got over a heavy cold. So we hung on and had an early start today. Not as early as some though, we were the 4th boat off the moorings, at 08:50.

Leaving Gargrave.
We solo’d Anchor Lock, then caught up with another boat at Scarland Lock. Geoffrey, on NB Scrumble, was on his own, so hooked up with us for the rest of the day to make it easier on the locks.

As there were a lot of hire boats about (½ term hols) there were also plenty of BW guys keeping the traffic flowing through Gargrave and Bank Newton Locks.

BW Mick and Richard.

In Bank Newton Locks
I’m not sure how much further NB Pendle Mist will have got. It’s the boat on the middle right in the picture.

Pendle Mist Smog?
I think it’s got a seriously sick engine. It’s one of Rosewood Narrowboats hire fleet, running out of Blackburn.

We cleared Bank Newton Locks by noon, and said our goodbyes to the lockies for another couple of years, then did the switchback section to East Marton. Our favourite mooring on this canal is along here.

Lovely spot, innit.
Under the Double Arch Bridge at East Marton, then another hour or so to the last locks on the climb up from the River Aire at Leeds.

East Marton

We waited at the bottom of the 3 Greenberfield locks, had a cup of tea while giving a slow hire boat in front a bit of a lead, then went up and out onto the summit level.

Greenberfield Top Lock, 460 feet above sea level
We parted company with Geoffrey here, he stopped to fill with water and will probably overnight here as well.

We’d made arrangements to meet an old workmate of mine at Salterforth, so we pushed on, through the outskirts of Barnoldswick (“Barlick” to the locals) and moored on the VM next to the Anchor Inn at just before 16:00.

There are signs about, and a BW notification, regarding Blue-Green Algae on the summit level. It was here when we last came this way and seems to have got worse in the intervening 2 years.

Blue-Green Algae.

While we’d been stuck at Gargrave I’d investigated methods of improving the performance of our battery charging. I’d got a local garage to repair the alternator that died in June on the Thames (so we’ve now got a spare) but was not happy with having to modify the units used for domestic charging so they could operate the regulator that the boatbuilder (half) fitted. The alternative was investing in Sterling’s Alternator to Battery system, which “fools” both alternators into thinking the batteries still need charge when their own internal regulators are ready to shut down. This ensures a deeper, more thorough charge than would otherwise be the case. Another advantage is that there is no alternator modification required, and in the event of a unit failure the alternator regulators pick up control. So I trawled the web, got one for a good price, and fitted it over last weekend.

Sterling AB12210 Charge Regulator
Does what it says on the tin? Time will tell. Seems to be doing OK at the moment, though. Pretty flashing lights…..

Locks 12, miles 9

PS
Balders, Katya and daughter Milana arrived about 7 and we had a good catch up. We’d not met Katya before, it was a pleasure to finally get to see her and their 18 month old. This was probably our last opportunity, at least for a while. They’re off to Bulgaria next month, starting a new business out there. Good luck, I know you’ve got the spirit between you to make it work.

Balders, Katya and Milana

A quick update….

Still not much to report from the far reaches of the Leeds and Liverpool. Towards the end of last week we headed off downhill to Skipton, stopping on route at Eshton Road to pick up a load of smokeless at the old wharf.

Coaling up, courtesy of Fred Green, Coal Merchant of Gargrave.
Heading out of Gargrave, Sharp Haw on the horizon.

The wharf buildings are now offices, and you have to tie up alongside the car park to load.

Apart from towing a solo boater through one of the swing bridges after he fouled his propellor, we had an uneventful trip to town, and moored up near Victoria Mill. It’s a shame, but the antisocial elements seem to be much in evidence along the canal here. During the night we heard voices out side the boat, and a scrape on the roof.
By the time I’d got out there was no one about, but loud voices could be heard further down the towpath. I couldn’t see anything wrong on the roof, so didn’t bother too much.

But by daylight the following morning I could see that the mop was missing. It wasn’t valuable, and probably finished up over someone’s wall, but it’s annoying none the less.

So I lashed the rest of the poles and plank to the roof brackets, and we turned around after filling with diesel at Pennine Cruisers. The gear was on the side furthest away from the towpath this way around, and any thing else loose was moved into the cratch overnight.

We had a very pleasant afternoon though, on Friday, with an ex work colleague and his wife coming for lunch. Fred and Mary are now retired, and live just the other side of Skipton. It was good to catch up with the news, we’d not seen them for a couple of years.

On Saturday morning we headed back to Gargrave, avoiding the floating bin in the canal near Gawflat Swing Bridge. That had been dumped in on Friday night.

Around the bin.
BW had been advised, but I expect it’ll be low priority as there is room to go around. I wonder if they charge the local authority for retrieval? After all, if it had been dumped in the middle of the A65, or the kiddies play area on the park, the council would have had to get it, wouldn’t they.

We moored up for a couple of nights below Holme Lock on the edge of Gargrave, before moving back up the 3 locks to the moorings above Higherland Lock on Tuesday.

The ducks are very tame along here, they peer in the windows expecting to be fed.

Teatime?
We’ve got a hire car for a few days; Mags had her first doctors appointment this morning (hurray!) and we’ll make use of it (the car), visiting family and friends in the area.

Locks 6, miles 10

Taking Root….

Yes, we’re still at Gargrave! Although we’ve not been here all the time. We had a very pleasant few days out “in the wilds” above Bank Newton, then a couple of very windy ones on Friday and Saturday. The foot high waves were running past the boat, the ducks stayed under the bushes, and most of the boats stayed tied up. There was the odd intrepid crew out and about, but it must have been a struggle, with 70 mph gusts recorded. One hire boat crew actually called out BW, having been blown into the shallows at the edge of the channel and not being able to get afloat again!

Walking the Pennine Way back towards Gargrave.
Lamp-post painting

After the wind we had a couple of fine days, so on Sunday had a gentle meander to East Marton, turned and came back to our mooring spot. Now, with the right hand side of the boat bankside, I was able to clean and tidy that side of the cabin. I’d not been able to do this since the towpath changed sides at Dowley Gap, the other side of Bingley.

Double Arch Bridge at East Marton
A couple of years ago we were moored at Ellesmere, just off the Llangollen Canal. I was busy using T-Cut and then Turtle Wax polish on the cabin side when a woman off another boat told me that she uses Johnson’s Baby Lotion! I thought at the time she was taking the mickey, but several boaters seem to do the same, so I thought I’d have a go. Tell you what, it works! The gloss isn’t as good as with polish, but it certainly restores the colour depth of the paint, especially on the red. And it’s a lot easier. I’ll just have to see how well it lasts, now.

We were intending to move back to Gargrave on Tuesday, but the forecast was poor so we took advantage of the second day of fine weather and dropped back down the 9 locks and 2½ miles to the village on Monday instead.

Bank Newton Top Lock
Monday night was clear, but the predicted rain arrived by morning and it was pretty miserable all day.

Moonrise over Higherland Lock before the clouds gathered.

Once again, most boats wisely stayed tied up, only the hire boats out of Silsden and Skipton braved the elements.

Today it’s a fine day again, but a bit raw after out first frost of the autumn. I actually wore a jacket over my shirt on my morning run, and was glad of it.

Talking of running, I’m not sure whether to be relieved or disappointed. I didn’t get an entry through the ballot for the London Marathon next April. Still there are alternatives if I really want to put myself through the punishment of 26.2 miles. There’s one down in Stratford Upon Avon on the 25th…… I’ll have to think on it.

Just picked up my email alerts from BW, and it appears there’s a slug of pollution heading down the River Trent from up Stoke way. A mixture of untreated sewage and cyanide which has already had a major impact on fish stocks. It’s due at Burton on Trent this afternoon, so I expect the river section of the Trent and Mersey Canal at Alrewas will be shut for a while. I hope there’s no long term damage, I always enjoy this short section between Alrewas Lock and Wychnor. Express and Star report here.

We’re heading to Skipton tomorrow, and maybe a bit further on. I’ve an old workmate who now lives at Bradley who I’d like to look up. We’ll stop at Eshton Lock to pick up a load of solid fuel from Fred Green on the way past.

Since last post, locks 9, miles 5½.

A nip in the air….

I guess autumn is close on the horizon now. They’ve been drifts of leaves on the surface of the canal as we travelled today, and the trees are starting to turn red and gold.

Mags' cold is much better now, so we decided to move out of Gargrave, into the country for a few days.

We intended to move on Monday, and reversed to the service block above Higherland Lock to fill and empty before we left, but the rain came on and I didn’t want Mags out in the weather going up the locks out of the village. So we postponed the trip. Yesterday was quite breezy, so we held off till today.

We got away around 10:00 and met a boat coming down Anchor Lock so that was a good start to the day. The remaining 2 locks of the Gargrave flight were against us, but we were at the bottom of the Bank Newton 6 around 11:00.

In Scarland Lock

Above Stegneck Lock the River Aire is crossed on a stone aqueduct.

Over the River Aire
It’s hard to credit that not too far south the same river carries the 450 ton tankers that we encountered earlier in the month.

Filling with water before going up the 6 locks at Bank Newton.
This is a very pretty flight of locks, lifting the canal 58 feet to the long pound between here and Greenberfield.

In Bank Newton Locks
There was no-one else in the flight, so we had the exclusive help of Edward, the lock-keeper looking after the flight today. He’s having a boat built at Castleford, and we spent the time while waiting for the locks to fill chatting about things nautical.

Bank Newton Top Lock, Edward on the left.
Above Bank Newton is a 4½ mile level pound which I reckon is the best on the canal. The channel twists and turns, following the 450 foot contour around the dips and ridges in the terrain. It must have been a nightmare to survey the route!
The 2¼ miles by water to East Marton is actually only 1¼ as the crow flies.

We pulled over on a spot we’ve used before, with open views through the windows and a good, wide grassy towpath. We’ll stay here till the weekend now, before heading back to Gargrave.

Open country

It’s still been breezy today, and we’ve had the odd drizzly shower, but it’s not been too bad. The forecast tells us it’s going to get a bit cooler over the next couple of days.

Locks 9, miles 2½

Still at Gargrave

Well, we’ve been really idle these last few days. I finished my preparation for the Great North Run and collected the hire car from Enterprise over at Keighley, then relaxed.

Mags went down with a really bad cold towards the weekend, so I had a solo trip up to South Shields and Newcastle on Sunday. She wasn’t fit to be standing around all day watching a bunch of loonies running 13.1 miles.

And I’m beginning to think I must be one of the loonies, to continue doing these daft things. Apart from my first race of the year at Liverpool in March, I’ve performed considerably below par this season. The GNR was no exception; starting well but I ran out of steam around 10 miles and finally staggered across the line in a time of just under 01:52. That’s nearly 12 minutes longer than my PB for the distance!

Needless to say I was disappointed and frustrated on the way home. As some of my end of term reports used to say – “Must try harder!”

We’d kept the car for another couple of days, to take Mags across to Bentham for an appointment at the surgery. Every year we come back up for her annual check-up, which takes 2 visits. The first is with the Practice Nurse, to take blood etc, then she has a review with the Doc to discuss the results. This year there was some confusion about dates which we’d resolved early in month, or so we’d thought!

On arrival at the surgery she found that both appointments had been cancelled, without notifying us. Then new appointments had to be scheduled, and slots weren’t available till November!

This is the 3rd time they’ve managed to make a cock-up with Mags’ check-ups, we arrived up here 2 years ago to find that they’d put back the appointments by 2 weeks, then earlier this year they failed to set a date for a visit to the Doc.
I was pretty tee’d off, we could have saved a couple of days car rental if they’d let us know.

But instead of losing my temper, I took Meg for a good walk up to Malham Cove.

Approaching Malham Cove along the Tarn.
The vertical limestone face at the back of the Cove

It's a long way up, Dad!
And a long way down...
View from the top.

I felt much better after blowing off steam up the steps to the top.

Malham Village.
This was only my 3rd visit, would you believe. The first was way back when I was around 11, on a field trip from school. We stayed at the Field Centre at Malham Tarn House in bunkrooms, and it was my first sight of what the Dales has to offer.
The second visit was 32 years ago, when a friend and I walked the Pennine Way. The path goes up the side of the cove, and I remember it was hard work with 45lb rucksacks! I spent my 21st birthday a couple of days later at Middleton in Teesdale.

I don’t think it’ll be so long, next time.

Mag’s cold has steadily got better, though she’s still coughing and spluttering occasionally. We going to hang on here in Gargrave till it’s clear. I don’t want to risk a relapse by having her on the tiller as we head up through the locks out of the village.
She’s been on the phone and managed to get the November appointments moved forward to October, so we’re going to stay on the L&L now for the next month. All being well we’ll head off into the country early next week for a few days. There’re some lovely moorings out in the wilds we’ve used before above Greenberfield Locks.

So, like us, the blog won’t be very active for a while. I’ll post if I’ve something to say.

Oh, and a final reminder. The sponsorship webpage I’ve open to raise money for Cancer Research will remain active till December…..

Locks 0, miles 0.