Trub Bridge

Today's Canal -Rochdale

It was a brilliant clear blue sky to greet us this morning - but the temperature made it feel more like late September then mid August. Still, the day remained one of the best for a while but by nightfall it was cloudy so perhaps it will not be so cold in the morning.

The views looking and down from the first lock were still scenic.

It was so clear that we could see more con trails than for some time.

Many of the locks sit alongside well established factories, many of them former mills, ye with views of the hills in the distance.

Several of the locks today had cranked balance beams that resulted from bridge widening when the canal was closed.

Jess helped with all sixteen locks today with a mixture of holding the boat steady as it descended, opening and closing gates and working some of the paddles.

Not all former mills have found new uses - this one sadly remains almost  ruin.
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We aid she did paddles as well!

At most of the pounds we found them more than full  as this cascade illustrates.

More views.

So much water here that it flooded part of the towpath. Jess found her own way across! However a walking couple said that it was dry when they came up a little earlier so it much have just the effect of lour lock-ful of water.
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This lock was overflowing at the sides.

A mill still working - as car as we can make out it is part of a company that manufactures industrial  textiles.

Above this lock is an unusual dock or wharf.

The former lock cottage above has been extensively extended and developed, so much that it is not easy to make out which parts are original!

Someone will no doubt come along and remind us of which type of aircraft this is. We only had one shot at capturing it - by the time the camera had reset for another photo, the plane had gone behind the shrubs!

Another wing bridge. This one had an unusual lock mechanism but we mastered it. Then, Jess was able to open the bridge to the  navigation all on her own. This was just as well as soon a crowd gathered to watch but Christine was left with a boat that would not leave the shallows on which Mike and Jess had been dropped off. So, the bridge was closed, Mike went to help - by which time Christine had freed herself at the third attempt! - but only Jess was on the right side to open the bridge once more. All the onlookers just stood and watched her!

Much later came to another swing bridge - we knew that it would open as a boat had just come thew other way (the only boat we had seen moving all day) but we just could not lift the unlocking device. Mike returned to the boat for some heavy tools and eventually, with a little 'persuasion' we were free to pass through.

The passage through Rochdale was not especially pretty but this was the most weedy pound and the only problems we encountered were discarded cans and chips/burger polystyrene clam shells.

One of the locks has had to be fitted with this device to open both top and bottom offside gates. It looks as if a narrow strip of land that once belonged to the canal was sold during the closure to the adjacent factory who erected its high steel security fence just where boaters want to stand to push a full size balance beam!

As part of an ingenious scheme to thread the restored canal through new roads and a motorway, one lock had to be relocated - this is the original location.

We were very relieved to find a mooring just below Trub Bridge but the obvious place with a good edge was just a marsh alongside and we doubted whether moorings pins would hold in the sift ground. However, going a boat length further meant that the boat could not come anywhere near the bank. For the first time we deployed the rescue ladder as a gangplank.

Although Mike and Jess had started to prepare tonight's roast as we came through Rochdale - interrupted by several locks - a mistake with the oven meant that we were very late eating. Nevertheless, hardly anything remained! After the main course, a pause for Christine to clear the debris before we tucked into Jess's brioche and fruit  cooked pud that included a good portion of blackberries that Jess picked only just before we stopped for the day.

7.7 Miles- 16 Locks