Bosley Lock Flight and Harecastle Tunnel

Last Nights Garden

We set off early again to negotiate the Bosley Flight.  The last time we were here was on the 1st May and it was hammering down!  This time it was dry, so far, and down hill, which I prefer.  I didn't have a chance to take any photos till we got to the bottom of the flight as it was so busy with boats moving up and down that every time we got to a lock it was either in our favour or being  crewed by another boat crew that were coming up.  It made what could have been a very hard flight, a very easy one.   The heavens started to open at Lock 11 and by the time we were through 12 they were fully operational!!
  

Not much room for error!!

This seemed the perfect time to stop for lunch and watch all the boaters heading for the very wet upwards flight we had just come down in the dry. 
Next we had the second half of the Macclesfield Canal towards the Harecastle Tunnel which for us marks the start of the Trent & Mersey leg of our journey.  We arrived there at 5pm and thought that we would have to stop for the night.  Luckily, they were still letting people through and we carried on and did the tunnel in 30mins!!  Yogi said after the Standedge, this one was an outright doddle.  (he didnt actually say doddle, am sure you can imagine his actual comment though!!) lol  
We carried on till 9pm that night I think, Yog had estimated 3 days to do the Macclesfield Canal and he had done it in 2.  As I mentioned before, Yogi is on a mission, one which I probably need to explain a bit to you.

Marple flight to Bosley Flight

Lock 9 Where the brain woke up

How to occupy your mind whilst doing 16 lock flight and will my sewing machine work on our little plug in inverter? 
These were the main subjects occupying my brain this morning. I decided that percentage of flight completed would sufficiently excersice the brain cells and started trying to work out what 1 lock would be as a percentage.  By lock 2 I had given up and decided in fractions instead lol.
4/16 into the flight donna called me and I spent the next 3/16 of the flight on the phone to her. 

Special Horse Shaped Tunnel

Locks 7 -10 were pretty uneventful. But at lock 9 my brain woke up and I finally managed to work the percentage thing out by halving down from 100.  I made it 6.25% per lock. The pound between 10/11 was completely empty and BW were already there sorting it out when we got there. 11/16 into the flight and I would happily have killed for a cup of tea!   
At 15/16 I accidentally closed the lock gate in front of Yog, before he had even got in the lock! Lol. To say I was tired by that time would have been an understatement!  I was very glad the flight was nearly over as I was starting to make stupid mistakes and that's when it gets dangerous.  The end of the Peak Forest was in sight and I was pleased as punch to see it.  My photo is a bit blurry, but so was I by then!!

This is the view of the last lock in the flight
and very relieved I was to see it too!!

Directly after 16/16 there is a stone bridge and through it lies the start of the Macclesfield Canal and a well earned rest for me as there wasn't a lock for ages!!
I believe there are 28 miles of uninterrupted canal only punctuated by a 12 lock flight at the centre(ish).
We stopped briefly at the water-point and utilised the facilities whilst the kettle was boiling for the cup of tea I had been dreaming about for the last 2 hours!!  
Yog headed off again very much in mission mode and I, now with my second wind chose to potter in a boat-wifey way inside for as long as it took to get to where we were going.  First job was to see if the sewing machine did work on the plug in inverter.  YES, blinding it works so I can have a play without turning the genny on now, the idea of which gives me much pleasure!

Portland Basin Marina - Marple Flight

We had a fab evening at the Basin.  We were recognised by one of the residents there.  He had seen us a few weeks before.   He had been taking a walk up the Marple Flight while we were on our way down it and remembered Yogi was wearing his Bowler hat at the time.
We chatted next to his boat about music, boats and goldfish bowl syndrome before nipping back home for some pre-made Aldi lasagne that I had grabbed to make an easy dinner for that night.  Very nice it was too!!


We joined up again later to put the world to rights and swap stories whilst having a tinnie or two.  The night went far too quickly and it was 2am before we knew it!!  Was a brilliant night though.  I have discovered that I rather like Carlsberg Export and lime.  In addition to that I can manage to drink a couple of them and not have a hangover the next day.  Unlike poor Yogi, who was woken up, with a banger of a headache at 8.30am by the Diesel man and had to stagger around fuzzy headed and hungover without any tea consumption to sort out the gas and diesel.  I however felt fine and was most sympathetic towards Yog as you can well imagine. :0)


We had a nice long stretch before us of lock free cruising and most appreciated and well timed it was too.  We had a couple of short tunnels and a lift bridge and that was it.  I have spent most of the last few weeks trudging along the towpath and to actually be on the boat was a novel change for me!  The bridges are interesting along this stretch all stone, made from all shapes and sizes each individual one different from the next but still managing to make a perfect semi-circle as if they were made to be that way.  Aged from the weather and proudly wearing the marks from years of horses ropes.  The tunnels were lovely and short with wonderful high ceilings and with the headlight off so dark that you knew your eyes were open but could only see pitch black.  I understand how my mum felt now.  



We didn't know if we would be able to do the 16 lock flight as well today, it would depend on the time and how we were feeling when we got to the bottom of it.  We arrived at the bottom of the flight at about 1.30pm and had some lunch and liquid to try and rehydrate Yog.  As we ate our lunch it started to rain.  Shortly after, another boat arrived in front of us and by this time it was teaming down. We felt a bit sorry for the kids in their canoes paddling about in the terrible weather.  They seemed happy enough though shouting and laughing at each other whilst getting soaked from every direction.  Don't think we'll be going much further today.   

Roaches Lock to Portland Basin Marina

Stalybridge is our next port of call.  Left Roaches about noon after the next bout of rain had stopped.  As each hour passed the surrounding area became more and more urban.  Yogi is liking this because it means we are getting closer to the end of the Huddersfield Shallow Canal.  
Also there is something wonderful about getting to a single figure lock, so you know you have less than 10 to go before you are on a different canal.

We got into Stalybridge at about 3.30pm which left loads of time for me to make sausage toad, which had been haunting my taste-buds all day lol  The next day I planned to meet up with Pam to pick up my prescription so we had a nice relaxing time ahead for the next 24hrs.  I spent the rest of the day pottering around and Yogi had a bit of a War.
Pam texted me the next day to let me know that my prescription hadn't arrived!! I only had 2 days worth left so I had to find a local GP surgery to get an appointment to get it sorted.  I NEED my tablets and Yogi definitely needs me to have my tablets!!  So that was priority number 1!!  I found a GP and managed to get an appointment for 4pm that afternoon.  I decided to do a ring around the town covering the Doctors, Post Office and Aldi.  We decided to do the remaining 5 locks on the HNC that evening when I got back from wandering. 

The last few locks are nice and close 

together and it didn't take us long to put them behind us.  This is probably the most built up part of the canal next to central Huddersfield.  Here though, things are a lot less restored and a lot more industrial.  It is quite difficult to describe, its almost as if you are passing through a preserved area of decline.  All the grass has been cut, there is hardly any litter on the ground as it's all in the canal around here!!  Loads of fishermen sitting beside a litter strewn, dirty dank 8 foot width of water.  With empty keep nets and half empty cans of Strongbow. 

It sounds really horrible I know, but if they could get a handle on all the rubbish in the canal it would actually be really nice.  The atmosphere of the area really gives you an idea of the hard work that went into building your surroundings and the litter just lets it down.


We made our approach to Lock 1W, through a series of neighbouring bridges which made it feel like we were travelling through some kind of portal to another world.  I suppose in a way we were because this lock would take us off of this canal and embark us onto a very short journey along the Ashton Canal. A journey which lasted approximately 7 boats in length before we turned left onto the Peak Forest Canal! :0)
We planned to overnight at the Basin as we could get Diesel and Gas there.  Yogi did the most impressive reversing manoeuvre between loads of moored boats into the marina to moor up on the diesel point ready for the next day, earning himself a round of applause from the crowd of gongoozlers that had gathered to watch the spectacle before them lol.
  

Wool Road to Upper Mill to Roaches Lock

We've  had our coal delivered by a very helpful lady from The Coal Shack 4 x 25kg delivered for £36 and I also managed to get a Tesco delivery together and delivered to Wool Road so am feeling pretty pleased with myself lol
Uppermill was our next destination and it was only 3 locks away so a nice easy day for me :0)
We knew the weather was due to be bad, amber rain warnings on the news.  We had had yellow alerts before, but amber was a new one for us.


We arrived at Uppermill just before the rain started and it didn't look like it would be stopping for a fair while so shopping was done in Yogi's stock-mans coat, rain hat and with umbrella!!  Had a load of parcels to post so it was unavoidable.  Decided to nip in the butchers for some of their pork and apple sausages which are YUMMY and some nice dry cured bacon.  The co-op to get daily boring shopping and the charity shops because they are there!!

I got back into the warm and waited for the rain to stop.  Poor old Buster even gave up and had to go out into the rain and he proper hates getting wet!!
Whilst I was walking him I noticed that the stream that I had used the stepping stone bridge on previous visits was running very fast and was a lot bigger than normal.  The picture shows were the stepping stones were.  An hour later the water was up to the top step at the back of the picture and right up to the foreground.
Yogi was in and out all night and whilst in the high street saw that the river was so high it was lapping up at the window sills of the houses that were next to it!!!
The locals were horrified, they had never seen anything like it in 40 years!!


It was a very stressful evening and we were both very relieved when the rain did finally stop at about 1am.  The next morning it was dry thankfully and the stepping stones were just popping back through the water of the river.
At about 4pm on Saturday I had done all my jobs and still had some energy left so we decided to carry on for a bit and headed for Roaches Lock.  We had passed there on the way up, but didn't stop as the visitor moorings were full up.  It was only about 9 locks so it was easily do-able in a few hours.   We had our trusty pallet now so it didn't matter if there was no room, we can moor where we like now. :0) 


It didn't take long to get there and we were moored up at the visitor moorings and in bed by 9pm.  


By 9.30pm we were up again as SB was listing terribly to the left.  To such an extent that Yogi half got out and half fell out of bed. So we  both had to get up and lever her off of the ledge she had managed to get herself stuck on.  All the other boats moored there were ok.  Just us at a 45 degree angle (well not quite, but it felt like it).  
Wish we had used the pallet now!!  

Diggle to Wool Road

Left at 8.30. By 10.30 we were between 27w and 26w having a cuppa.  The last couple of hours had been a tad stressful due to the boat behind us basically tailgating us.   So we decided to let 'Mr I want to get my boat through the tunnel first, and then break it' go past us. The reason being he didn't seem able to keep 1 lock between us. The pounds are very small and a lock full of water can overflow it very quickly.  The picture on the right is the size of one of the pounds which gives you an idea.  He kept on emptying his lock into the pound above us. This would cause the water to overflow the pound,  cascading it over the gates behind Yogi.  

This is what happens when you open the top paddles

Imagine being at the bottom of the lock with Niagra falls coming at you from the top of the gates straight onto you and your back deck! I had to run back up the towpath to shout to him to close his paddles!  He made me swear, I was very cross.  Bloody irresponsible and dangerous!! As I say, personally we didn't fancy doing the flight at a gallop with the chance of a terrible accident So we stopped and let Mr Idiot go passed.


We decided that when we got to Wool Road we would lock up and walk into UpperMill which wasn't that far.  We wanted to grab a fry up and some supplies.

We only had 3 locks to go till we got to Wool Road which is where we had stopped on the way up.  There is an old Trans-shipment Shed here which has  been converted into offices and the Navigation Inn (we had it recommended to us but didn't try it).  Both originate from the building of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal opened in 1811. The basin at Wool Road was used to transfer goods from canal boats to packhorses whilst the Standedge Tunnel was being built. 


Poor old Yogi says he feels like he is in Lilliput, and sitting in the cafe eating his fry-up he did look like he was sitting on an infants school table and chair lol Poor Bugger.  Dont laugh, makes him cross. lol ooops lol 


We have managed to find a company that delivers coal in the area.  Yes Yog is still lighting the fire and yes it is very hot in here!! We should be having our coal delivered tomorrow, so if it all goes well I will post the number up here.

Hand Signals and Other Ramblings

As we have been in Diggle for a couple of days 
I thought I would use this opportunity to tell you stuff I had meant to tell you before.  We are heading to Upper Mill tomorrow so if you are wanting boaty type of post then check in after tomorrow and your prayers will be answered.  If , however you are happy to carry on reading my ramblings then feel free to do so :0)


The first thing I wanted to show you was one of the things that had been made by the women at the Craft Cafe in Marsden.  It was sitting on the stairs as we made our way up to the cafe. 

I also spotted some pretty orange flowers next to one of the locks.  I thought they may have been wild marigolds or something.  But it turns out that they were Orange Hawkweed.  No medicinal qualities that I can find which is a shame, but apparently the name Hawkweed is a slang name taken from folklore which says that hawks would chew on the plant to improve their eyesight. They look nice next to the sink anyway and they brighten my day when I look at them.

I also collected some Red Clover Blossoms between the reservoir and Marsden.  I knew they had medicinal qualities but couldn't remember what they were.  When I checked I found out they are traditionally used for menopause issues!  lol ideal for me at the moment ;0)  They help balance the oestrogen levels during that time. Also it can apparently be used in herbal cancer fighting treatments. So I am going to have a play with that and see if it helps me with the hot flushes.






With regard to hand signals and communicating with each other whilst at opposite sides of the lock I would like to share this with you :0)  


Over the last couple of months Yogi and I have developed a basic understanding of each others had signals for transferring information to each other.  ie 'the lock needs do empty apx 3 feet out of it before you can go in so wait there' This would be signalled by one hand on head and other at waist, to show the approximate amount of water in the lock.  'The gates are closed' would be slapping finger tips together whilst hands are in shape of gate.  LOL this is really hard to describe LOL  Anyway, the reason I am telling you this is because I had a new one the other day.  'That noise that you can hear is not coming from Silver Blue, its coming from the blow hole next to the paddle gear'.  I wont even try to explain what I did I will leave that to your imagination lol

To the left is my state of the art blister prevention device.  I am pondering taking out a patent to protect my marvellous idea!!  Its just a tube of felt over the windlass, I know it looks a lot more complicated than that, but really, its not. lol


Lastly, I took the opportunity to grab some shopping in town.  I  arranged to meet Pamela  there on Saturday for a spot of lunch and supply collecting.
It was at lunch  when it all went a bit pear-shaped!  The journey there took 40 minutes on the bus, highlighted by the driver stopping on route to have a fag, which felt most unusual I have to say!!  
As I said, it was only supposed to be lunch, sewing shop, butchers, Tesco's, home. Unfortunately it turned into lunch, 3 bottles of wine, sewing shop, butchers, another bottle of wine, miss last bus back, get bus to Marsden, wait at bus stop in torrential rain for a cab to take me the rest of the way.  Needless to say I wasn't the most popular boat wife in the world when I got home at 9pm :0(


So today I have been nursing the most enormous hangover, feeling sorry for myself and basically being a pathetic excuse for a human being.  Hopefully we will be back to normality tomorrow. Normality??? What am I saying!!! 

O M G Standedge Tunnel

As you know we were planning to go through the tunnel on Monday. As BW were fully booked we did it today. We were advised to be at the tunnel mouth by 8.30am. We had already moored outside the BW office last night and were up nice and early ready for the off. We had just suffered a night of no phone or telly signal. You don't realise how much you rely on technology until you are devoid of its luxuries!  It was that bad I even walked up to the top of the nearest hill to see of I could get a phone signal and still no joy!!
At about 8am another boat pulled alongside and managed to squeeze his 57' boat into the 56' space in front of us. We thought his determination to be first through the tunnel was quite amusing. He obviously wanted it over and done with as much as we did!!
We waited for 'Mr I'm First so there!' to go through and 30 minutes later we were ready for our turn.   Standedge is the longest and deepest tunnel in the UK and you have only recently been able to drive yourself through it.  BW provide a bod to escort you through and supply you with hard hats and life jackets as well as help navigating your way through, help that is much needed in this tunnel!


It was bad enough last time, but we agreed afterwards that this time was definitely worse. I think the fact we are 66.5 feet long didn't help the situation at all. They say max length of 70' but judging by some of the corners within the tunnel, a 70' boat would definitely struggle. We certainly did.  There are a couple of dog leg corners which left very definite scars on Silver Blue and how she isn't banana shaped now I will never know! Our first journey through the tunnel took 1hr 20mins, this one took longer and felt a lot bumpier and scrapier! There was also less room as The water level was 2" higher.  We have since found out that the chap in front of us badly damaged his boat.  He managed to smash his rudder and tiller up as well as picking up about 3tons of rubbish from around his prop!  The insurance assessor is coming tomorrow to have a look. :0(


The tunnel itself is actually round so what you see above the waterline is pretty much the same below. And when you see rock jutting out from the wall of the tunnel, chances are that rock is also under the water so you get a very unnerving 45 degree tilt effect when you are unlucky enough to pass over it.

Buster barked the whole time we were in the tunnel. So much so that I came out of the tunnel with a headache which I didn't have going in. He was less stressed this time though as he didn't wet himself like he did on our first trip through, he just barked the place down instead! Lol
It was such a rough passage that anything hanging up within the boat was swinging like a pendulum! At the 2nd dog leg we were swinging about so much that my coveted Le Creuset Wok full of cooking oil, went flying off the side onto the kitchen floor. I had to try and mop up all the oil whilst sliding all over the place with a now strangely quiet buster watching my every move with amused interest!
Meanwhile the wind changed in the tunnel and yog spent ages breathing in diesel fumes from the back of the boat.




When we finally emerged from the tunnel on the Diggle side. All battered and bruised from the journey. Our first words to earth other were "never again!!".  Yogi has had to hoover out apx 7 buckets of water from the bilge too, so we may have caused ourselves a problem as well.  We are monitoring that one and will keep you posted.
All that being said, and taking into account the places we have seen and visited at this end of the Huddersfield, it has been worth the effort.  Saying that, I for one am most glad we wont be going through the Standedge Tunnel again for a very long time!!

Reservoir to Marsden

Not such an early start today. Weather window according to Yogi is 10am-1pm. Today is much chillier and the wind is picking up. Yog reminds me to wrap up warm and I am glad I did as the wind is pretty bracing.  Increasing in strength each lock we go through.  It rained for most of the night and huge puddles had formed next to the boat.  Ok until you get the cyclists whizzing past and splattering your windows with mud!!  Also, Buster seemed to insist on walking through said puddle every time we took him out, he has the whole of the towpath, but wouldnt you know!!
The mill in the background of this picture is called Cellars Clough Mill.  It was built in 1888 and now like so many other mills on the canal stands empty.  Is still a beautiful building that one day will be transformed into something new.

Today there are 11 locks between us and Marsden all within a mile.  The water comes in at a hell of a rate, we only open one paddle most of the time, keeps it nice and steady and easier to deal with.  Plus saves me running round either side of the lock to open the other one.  Mind you I have got the confidence to go accross the roof when the boat is half way up the lock now which i am quite proud of. :0)

Noon and we are at half way point. The sun has come out and it's comfortably warm and less windy. We actually met some other boats today!!! Three of them within 3 locks it felt most surreal and very unusual!!  I had to take a picture to prove we had seen them!!

I have to say, it is much nicer to know where we are headed.  The adventure of heading into the unknown comes a poor second to actually knowing where you can moor and where the dodgy bends are.  A couple of times i wondered if we would even get round some of the bends and I could tell by Yogs face that he wasnt sure either!!  Todays plan is to stay in Marsden for the weekend and go through Standedge Tunnel on Monday morning.

Ha ha famous last words. Just called BW to book tunnel and its fully booked for Monday so we are traversing the tunnel tomorrow now lol.

3 Locks to go and we are well within schedule so we stopped for a cuppa and a quick rest. Theres a cute little shop right next to the lock where I decided to stock up on bread and milk etc.  I didnt fancy climbing back up the hill at Marsden carrying shopping bags after doing 11 locks!! (We learned this lesson on the way up and wouldnt be doing that again). so I supported local industry and stocked up there instead.  











1.30pm we arrive at Marsden visitor morrings.  Pretty crummy they are, no TV reception and full of boats booked in for the Tunnel tomorrow.  The only place there was to moor was under the railway bridge which was less than suitable so we tied Silver Blue up under the bridge and wandered upto the Tunnel mouth to see if there was anywhere to moor near there.   Luckily for us there was a space outside the BW office which would be ok for us to moor at after 4pm (according to BW man).

I had spotted a craft place on the opposite side of the canal to the tunnel and as I knew that there wouldnt be an option to go there tomorrow I dragged Yog there on the way back to the boat lol.  The downstairs part was an information centre for the Tunnel with lifesize waxwork manekins dressed in period clothing etc, antique trollies, wet stones and bizarrely a BW work boat!!.  

Upstairs was the The Craft Cafe  With loads of different crafts on display and events every month.  This one is definately going in Ronnis little black book.  I am so glad that we booked the tunnel for tomorrow now because neither of us can get any phone signal, or TV signal which means no telly, no facebook, no ebay, no nothing!!!
Thank god were not here for the whole weekend!!

Slaithwaite to Sparth Reservoir

Early start needed this morning, was up and off by 6.30am. The place where we moored last night was impossible to moor at on the way up, we had to go through 2 more locks to the basin before we found water deep enough to stop in.  It also helped that Yogi used his pallet, push boat away from bank tool.  Has proved most useful and made a lot more places accessible for us.









First lock of the day is the guillotine lock. Very hard work it took 128 turns on the windlass to open it, then the same again to close the damn thing!! At least we got it out of the way first thing.  This part of the canal is really pretty, lined with loads of oak and  sycamore trees.  Punctuated by huge rhododendron bushes.  We have a good day today, dry and cool for the duration of our travels.







As I waited for Yogi at the next lock, I spotted a couple of squirrels chasing each other from tree to tree. They were proper funny, I could have watched them for ages but Yog was approaching and we had to get on.  Each lock we fill empties the pound above by apx 6" You can literally see the pound above falling in height before your very eyes and 3 or 4 lock-fulls into the day the pound is about 12" down.  Hence the early start ;0).  The York stone locks and bridges are really pretty all very similar but different in their own way. Health and Safety has completely bypassed these locks.  You really have to watch your feet when you are opening the gates, lose your concentration and you risk breaking something important. It is a long drop!! 


I hate to admit it, and I can hear Yogi laughing in the background, but it is so much better travelling early in the morning on this canal. I just wish I was a morning person.  He has so much trouble getting me out of my pit some mornings.  I am surprised I haven't been dragged out of bed by my toenails yet!!
Since starting to start early we haven't scraped  the bottom of the boat on the canal bed as yet. The way up was horrendous, we hadn't learnt that if you didn't set off for your destination by 11am don't bother setting off.  Because by the time 2 or 3 boats have moved up or down the canal there won't be enough water for you to be able to float. We were seriously considering fitting caterpillar tracks to the boat it was that bad!  But now leaving at stupid o clock we don't have any of that stress, pukka!!

Huddersfield Narrow From Aspley Basin

Hello again, Sorry for the gap in Blogs.  I think the hectic schedule knocked the stuffing out of me and I needed a bit of time off but I am back now. Hope you all missed me :0)
Well, as you know last blog we were on our way up the Huddersfield Narrow Canal heading for the centre of Huddersfield, which is the furthest we can go before we have to turn around.
Well, we've done it and are now on our way back at a much slower pace thankfully!  
So you are going to get blogs every few days now; ie when we move cos we are resting for a couple of days between flights of locks.  I think we may be getting old!!

The Reed Path

So..........Aspley Basin - Slaithwaite
The thing we have learned on this canal is don't bother trying to pull in anywhere unless you can see other boats have been there before.  Just because there are rings, DOES NOT mean it is deep enough to moor.  Don't moor up to open or close locks as if you do manage it, you will get stuck in the mud trying to get out.  In fact you cant moor anywhere on this canal other than the BW mooring sites and some of them don't even bother!  It is such a shame. because the scenery alongside this canal is breathtaking and it would have been lovely to have been able to stop in some places for a couple of days but it is just impossible!  I am most unhappy about the situation, I cannot begin to tell you.

Pretty

Milnsbridge

Aspley Basin, excellent for facilities, there is diesel , gas, coal, Sainsbury's and Hudds town centre which is brilliant for the nightlife.  Its just not pretty. :0( We didn't stay there long.  There are 2 mooring sites, one in the grounds of the University, which is ok if you want to get on and off your boat via the roof.  Not sure if its due to lack of water or it was made like that but not the place to be if you want to be able to see out of the windows on both sides of your boat.  




The other is just past the marina opposite Sainsbury's.  Considering you are in the centre of Hudds, it is reasonably quiet apart from one night when the police helicopter was flying round and round and round till god knows when.  The next day the towpath was full of police mucking about jumping over walls etc. We moved shortly after that 10 or so locks to Milnsbridge, purely because its the next place where it is deep enough to moor .  This is a nice little town, with all the necessaries and a really nice cafe that does a sterling fry-up.

It was worse than this on the way up!!! The lock was
underwater and the towpath was flooded!!

Next day we are up and off again heading towards the lovely Slaithwaite,
I would live here for the rest of my days if I could. Its lovely.  The high-street runs along the canal, there are 2 charity shops, a butchers that do the best steak and onion pies we have EVER tasted, a laundrette, co-op, proper local grocers and a narrowboat converted into a cafe.   On the way there, we go past the Titanic Spa, its a huge converted mill that was originally built the same year as the Titanic, hence the name.  Then its Lock 17!!.  Our first experience of this area the pound was so flooded that the towpath was 4 inches under water and you had to paddle to get to the lock paddles.  The picture was taken on the way back.  A lot better dont you think lol.

This is Yog when we first got to Slaithwaite, in bright sunshine, hot hot hot.  To the point YOG HAD SHORTS ON!! He also burned his legs whilst sunning himself on the roof of the boat.  
When we returned a week or so later, it was POURING and has been for days lol. But we have a clear day tomorrow and are going to have an amble back to the resivoir where we moored on the way up.  Another 10 locks out of the way.