Moving along the Leeds & Liverpool.


The blogging has been a bit hit and miss lately as we have had to put in a few very long days indeed.
The reason for this is that we have had to pass through two places that are quite close together but very large and spread out, Blackburn and Burnley. Every boater we have met along here has warned us not to moor anywhere near these places if you still want a boat left in the morning, nice......
So we made a plan of mooring safely in the country within an hours chugging of the centre, then getting a very early start to get through each place in one day. It did work but even at ten in the morning there was an awful lot of drunks along the canal and at the locks, what it must be like late afternoon and evening doesn't bear thinking about.

Crossing the border and here we go!Not a good omen, we passed this just after the sign. As it turned out there were more bikes, traffic cones and general rubbish in the canal than we have seen since setting out.

The boat has been hitting things so often its a good job its 12mm steel, I have been visiting the weed hatch on a regular basis removing the plastic bags etc that have to be chucked in the canal and not in a bin.
There are some nice buildings around but the blue palisade fencing topped with razor wire does nothing for the ambiance.There are still lots of these old chimneys around, this one looked as if it would topple over at any moment.
Here we are passing through the "Weavers Triangle" part of Burnley, this bit has been made to look nice but it is devoid of visitors. That boat belongs to the centre and is of course chained to its moorings. In these past three days we have seen five boats and they were rushing through as well.The other side of the triangle.

After Blackburn we found this fantastic mooring overlooking the Pennines, yet again the canal surprises you as this is only half an hour away from the city and an hour away from Burnley.

This was the view from the kitchen window. We had breakfast in the cratch then.........
Back to reality as we approach another town.

One last look.

Still we are through there now in one bit, we are meeting many more boats now as we are back into the country and heading for Leeds, if the reports other boaters are giving us are to be believed, we are in for a good trip.

We need it after those few days.

Until tomorrow.................

PS: Its our wedding anniversary today, I remembered (Just).