Susie and Stephanie's Big Adventure

Day 11 – Journey’s End

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We were up early for our push to the finish line, as we needed to get to Aspley Basin in time to try and arrange for an engineer to sort out a few little issues we were having with the boat.

We were helped through the first lock by the CRT who had arrived to reset one of the lock stones which was sticking out and scratching boats.  They gallantly worked all the locks and leaned on the boat to keep it from touching the offending stone.

There was a first for the day when an otter swam past me and up the canal before diving and disappearing.  It looked like a dark brown furry baby seal with a rounded face.  I tried to fire up the camera, but couldn’t organise it fast enough for a photo. It was probably a refugee from the adjacent river.  I was really suprised and wondered if I’s mis-identified it, but an internet search revealed that there are indeed otters in the river round here: http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/how-greenstreams-improved-huddersfields-river-4985849

We also saw another family of ducks with 5 ducklings who tried to run across the water to get the crumbs of bread  I threw for them.

The locks down from Linthwaite were very pretty, until we came into Huddersfield.  The industrial outskirts of the town were not very nice, and apart from Milnsbridge, where there is (shallow) mooring, I didn’t fancy stopping for long.

Footpath, Boat Path (past Kirklees College) looking forward

Central Huddersfield is, however, rather interesting by boat.  It’s certainly a different view from anything I’d ever seen before. This particular stretch through a channel just wider than the boat was particularly unusual,  it really looks like at one side we have the footpath (not the towpath, just a footpath) and on the other side the boat path.  Most of the people who passed us seemed slightly bemused to see a boat on the path, and several told us we were the first barge they’d ever seen on the canal.

Boatpath, footpath looking back

The approach to the University, through a channel which was barely as wide as the boat was unusual.

With 200 yards to our destination I thought we might not make it. Is the channel wide enough for this boat? and is there any water in it?

We reached our destination just after 4pm, Mum was waiting for us as we came out of the final bridge.  We parked up, packed up and were driven at the dizzying speed of 30mph (10 times faster than we’d been going all week!) back to Ashgrove for our first night on dry land.

Arriving at Aspley through a very low bridge

Time and Distance:

Started at 9.10, arrived at Aspley at 4.10, 15 locks and 2 3/4 miles.

Travelling time: 6.25 hours

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Day 10 – Let Them Eat Cake…

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After our night at the Standedge Visitor Centre we were joined again by Mum and Alastair who arrived in time for Stephanie’s jolly excellent bacon, egg and mushroom sandwiches. A breakfast to set us up for the day  – which was what we needed given the rigours ahead.

As we’d exited the tunnel, our CRT chaperones had explained to us that coming down the into Huddersfield it was very important to fill the lock ahead of the one we were in before emptying the water from our lock.  Basically we were emptying a lock’s worth of water from the pound before we replaced it with the water from the lock we were in. This was to avoid flooding the houses which were beside the towpath.

As we had booked to go through the Guillotine lock at 24E at 3.00pm, it meant that for efficiency (and the fact that most lock landings were too problematic to use), we decided to put one crew member 2 locks ahead to start preparing the lock,  one crew member 1 lock ahead to open the gate once it was full, one driver and one crew to open the bottom gates, drop the paddles and close the gates again. This worked superbly, we had a well oiled machine which rotated through the locks as quickly as possible. This resulted in no flooding and no shallow lock pounds.

Most unusual sight of the day – a unicyclist wizzing along the towpath.

And 10 minutes later he was back – just as we passed the lock which was restored with help from Blue Peter (40E)

Until we caught up with other boats of course at lock 32. Then we grounded and slowed down to a painful crawl.   Having chatted to them at lock 30, they suggested that we should overtake as we were so much faster, however they seemed to change their minds as they proceeded down the locks pretty slowly.  They also didn’t look to be filling the advance lock first, and this is probably why ran aground lots once we’d caught them up – and how come the skipper of the first boat was able to show me a photo of the house who’s garden was newly flooded…

I was not very happy about the possibility of not getting through lock 24E as Mum and Alastair had left a car at 17E and it would have been a long walk down.  I also didn’t want to risk a delay in our arrival at Aspley Wharf.  As we were at back at work on Monday I needed to make sure that the boat was sorted out and an engineer arranged to sort out a few issues which we’d been having throughout the journey. This meant a working hours on Friday arrival would make everything much easier for us.

It was touch and go whether or not we would make out rendezvous with the gentleman from the CRT to get us through what they said was the last remaining hand cranked guillotine lock in the country at Lock 24E.  However, I jogged ahead and met him to assure him we were nearly there.  We finally got through the 24E at 3.30.

Guillotine Lock 24E

After that we definitely needed a cup of tea and reward for our valiant efforts.  So we stopped for half an hour at Slaithwaite moorings (below 22E) for tea and cake from the Handmade Bakery Company’s shop on the canal side by Lock 23E. We enjoyed Apple and Olive oil cake, and Tunisian spiced orange (with spiced syrup), both were absolutely delicious.  We also popped into the Co-op to source dinner.

Slaithwaite Bridge 44 – Are you sure the boat fits under here?

We had to push on to Titanic Mills at Lock 17, where our hard working and by now pretty knackered crew had left one of their cars this morning. We continued down 1 further lock before mooring for the night where the CRT people had advised.  I moored up and we packed up for the night,  However, after a short while it became apparent that we were grounded with the boat heeled over at quite an angle, so I unpacked again and moved the boat down half onto the lock landing of 15E where we I could rock the boat to check we were floating properly.

Titanic Mills

The sections of canal that we covered today were extremely pretty and I’m looking forward to seeing them again when we return.

Time and Distance

27 locks, 4.25 miles.

Started at 10.20, finished at 7.00pm, approx 8 hours travelling time.

 

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Day 8 – Roaches Lock to Standedge West Portal

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We were joined again this morning by Mum and Alastair.  Mum’s family originally came from the Saddleworth area and she’d spent a lot of time round here as a child so it was going to be interesting for her to see a different view of the countryside.

These ducklings were very cute

However the first order of business was to photograph these very cute ducklings who were having a dustbath with Mum, while Dad had a stand off with 2 Canada geese.

Once we finally got going, the countryside was indeed very pretty and we also passed beside some beautiful back gardens which is always a joy.

The canal went under Saddleworth High Street and straight into a lock at the end with the most unusual lock beam mechanism we’d seen so far,

The light at the end of Saddleworth High Street Tunnel – old and new tunnel linings

 

Stephanie winding the lock beam closed. It was very stiff and we hope the CRT will grease it before we come back!

After stopping by the museum car park for lunch, we set off to do the final flight of locks up to the east end of the tunnel.  The houses fell away and the view got wider.

And finally we were there…

Mum and the boat at the tunnel entrance

Distance

17 locks 3.5 miles to the tunnel entrance.

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Day 7 – The Start of the Huddersfield Narrow

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Junction with the Peak Forest, Ashton and Huddersfield Narrow Canals

And so onto the Huddersfield Narrow.

Ashton under Lyne looks grotty from the canal, and the first half of Stalybridge isn’t very pleasant although unlike later on it was easy to get off the boat at lock landings.

 

This was the day of Supermarkets.  We went under the Asda Tunnel (I suspect the frozen food section as it was very cold) in Ashton-under-Lyne, passed Aldi at Lock 4W and parked up for lunch in Stalybridge outside Tesco’s after 6W.

Mooring outside Tesco in Stalybridge

I popped in for a few essentials and some hot chicken thighs for lunch, and then popped back in to pick up everything else we’d thought of over lunch. They do good Staffordshire oatcakes in the bakery section, not quite as nice as the ones we got in the One Stop in Barlesdon, but still an excellent lunch snack.

After lock 6W the canal became much more pleasant, less plastic bags in the water – having to get my arm down the weed hatch to dis-entangle anything from the propeller was my constant fear.

The canal goes under the electricity pylon at Grove lock

The countryside because more picturesque as it because less urban. The locks were hard.  Deep, stiff paddles and with severe byewash. It was very difficult to get off the boat at lock landings. We grounded it a few times and I had to scramble to get off the boat getting more involved with brambles that I ever like to do.

Handcuff keys are required for a lot of these hydraulically wound locks. But at least the winding is easier.

We were exhausted by the time we pitched up at our destination below Roaches Lock (15W). We moored up in the designated spot opposite the winding hole and made the most of the evening sun by opening the hatch so Stephanie could feed the ducks and geese.

The pub we parked by is reputedly very good, but we were too tired to check it out.  Perhaps on the way back…

 

Time and Distance

14 locks 5 miles and 1 lift bridge
Started at 9.15, finished at 6.45, stopped for about 1 1/2 hours at Tesco’s between 6W and 7W.
8 hours.

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