Friday, May 13, 2011

Back to BW Canals

Wigan Locks - DONE ….. And re-confirmed, I will never do them again.    If we do come back to the Leeds & Liverpool Canal ---- which is glorious between Foulbridge Tunnel and Bingley 5-Rise  ----  then we will come onto it the other way round.     As I write this the Wigan Flight is closed as one of the locks in the middle has to have some emergency work done on it.   Are we surprised?   Err, no.    They are without doubt  the worst lock flight we have done for leaks, heaviness and cranky paddle gear/gates and today we are up to 1005 locks done in last one year and 44 days.    


So, we are now off the Bridgewater Canal having come through Preston Brook Tunnel this afternoon and onto the Trent & Mersey Canal.    Thinking of making our way now to the Macclesfield Canal.   


You will have seen the photos of the “Jandai v Mrs Cow Race” last week ---- what I forgot to mention was - yes, she did manage to get back onto terra firma.    Her mates in the field walked alongside the canal en masse making sure she stayed at that side of the canal and just as we were going around a bend, spotted that she had found a break in the bank to climb out of the water ----- probably it was the same spot that she fell in at !


Thanks Anne for confirming on your comment here last week that I’m not really that old - certainly don’t feel it !!    But obviously to Barnoldswick teenage girls, I am ancient!


I managed to escape last Friday to wander around The Trafford Centre ---- window shopping until Dai phoned me asking if I could be back on the boat by 3 pm as another boat had just passed and told him “Wouldn’t stay there overnight mate” --- so we upped the pins and ended up going all the way through Stretford and Sale to moor at Dunham Town which was, in the end, a good thing as we ended up eating at the local pub “Axe and Cleaver” that evening - and they had Black Sheep Ale as a guest beer !!


Since last blog we have done …  48 miles and 24 locks
This makes total since Setting Off ….. 1216 miles and  1005 locks  


passed us this week

Gifford was being towed by Shad

both together

sign on Gifford
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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousMay 18, 2011 at 3:21 PM

    Agreed the Wigan flight is one of the most pooly maintained flights I've come across. We're stuck in Wigan until Lock 77 is repaired and boats can make their way up the flight. It's taken British Waterways 9 days to come to the conclusion that they need to bring in a specialist contractor to carry out the repair. The information in the Waterscape stoppage updates is really poor too. There's no estimate of when lock 77 will be up and running again! We could be stuck for weeks.

    Rant over... love your blog. Keep the posts comming ;o)

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  2. jampot55May 19, 2011 at 5:45 PM

    dear anonymous
    oh dear, oh dear, oh dear ---- you are actually stuck in Wigan Flight cos of lock 77? I so feel for you. Saw BW email just now saying further update on May 27 --- thats ages away ---- if we were a bit nearer would come and try and cheer you up!
    cheers, Janice

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