I have had Abz visiting for a few days and the blog has fallen by the wayside.:-) Better things to do.
.The summit pound has a local arrangement whereby only four boats are allowed over the top per day unless the local BW staff think that there is sufficient water to open up the locks and allow boaters to make their own way through from 0930 to 1500.
Up here one doesn't find shopping trollies dumped but the wheels that look like they came off a coal tub.
The valley is much flatter here and there is a good mooring. I am moored at the end of the access to the lock awaiting visitors and ready to move on.
Visitors have arrived and there is just time for a cuppa and a feed for little Izzy.
And we wave them off as they head back to the road. The Summit pub is in the background.
The journey down to lock 45 was diabolical. We thought we had had it rough with low water on the eastern side of the Pennines but this last lot took the biscuit. I spent more time hitting the bottom than moving. At one point I was at the entrance to a lock and stuck fast on the bottom. The only thing to get off was to let more water through from the lock above.
I read in some brochure that there is a boat rally at the summit. Now if two boats can't easily get through the short pounds what are they going to do if ten boats turn up and try to get to the top.
During the trip down Abz managed to give her knee a nasty bump on a lock gate. But true to form she was soon back to running around and we took the chance to go for a short walk to the top of a hill nearby.
Lock 45 is on the outskirts of Littleborough and by the time we reached this point we had had enough so moored up for the night.
The daffs are out on this side.
If she is not running around she can be found half way up a tree. Dash took the opportunity to have a go at the same time.
Another walk and another view of the more rounded valley.
The lambs are out in the fields and for the first time I noticed that each one was clad in a plastic bag. An effective way of keeping them dry. In the same field we saw some Pink-footed geese.
Lock 46 has a small loading bay off to the side. Large enough to get two boats in it would have been an ideal place to moor for the night.
Shortly before reaching Littleborough I spotted a sunken pride and joy. The sad thing is is that it isn't a wreck and its licence is still in date till the middle of the year.
I moored up next to the railway station and through the arch to its left there is a passageway through to the large Co-op.
Found that there were sheep next to this mooring too. Rather more life-like than those at Hebden Bridge :-)
Checked out the Heritage centre in the Old Coach-house and bought the odd pressie for Abz to take back with her.
Swimming around the boat at the mooring were loads of Canada geese and a Mandarin duck which had latched onto one of them. The pair swam about together and in the evening flew off to roost and seemed never to be apart.
Saturday April 10
Abz is now home and we head off towards Rochdale. On what looks like a building site there is the renovated Clegg Hall
No locks for a few miles now but swing bridges are a problem. The operating mechanism is on one side and the mooring is on the other.
Into Rochdale and a very low bridge at the end of a lock. We have to take down the wind genny to get underneath. The canal is a dump. There is rubbish everywhere and no-one seems to give a damn. There is nowhere decent to moor and it is not inviting to visitors in the least. We keep going.
Castleton is no better and probably even worse for rubbish.
The only decent stretches are the new bits that have been concreted. It is not possible to have two boats pass in these sections but they are not very long.
The culvert under the motorway is of the minimum width to let a narrowboat through.
Eventually we are out the other side and coming up to Slattocks were there is safe moorings.
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