Susie and Stephanie's Big Adventure

Archives for April 2017

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 9 – Passage Through The Standedge Tunnel

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We started the crossing at 2.08pm and emerged blinking into the sunlight at 3.52pm.  The tunnel is 3 1/4 miles long and took us 1 hour 46 minutes.

Going into the tunnel – with additional lighting on the front of the boat

Our guides, Terry and Will brought us hard hats, extra lights and a fluorescent jacket for me.  Terry was incredibly  knowledgeable and explained not just every twist and turn, but the history of the tunnel and about all the plaques on the wall and everything.

One of the many different tunnel linings – Notice the light at the end of the tunnel…

I steered the whole way and thanks to Terry’s excellent guidance, we emerged without a single scratch on the newly painted cabin!

Will, Terry, Me and Stephanie – Hard hats essential, as even I was too tall to get through without bashing my head!

 

Emerging blinking into the light

After the excitement of the day we decided not to start the next flight of locks but to moor up for the night outside the vistor centre.

We made it!  Photograph by Alastair who enjoyed his 4th trip through the tunnel…

We’ll be leaving first thing in the morning before the trip boat needs to moor here.

 

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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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Day 6 – The Marple Flight and the Hunt for Moorings…

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Mum Driving into a lock on the Marple flight

I rarely resort to an umbrella, but it was chucking it down.

A tiring day as much of it was done in the rain.  As I mentioned before, it’s been a cold week.  Each day the forecast temperature has been lower than the previous one.  Despite that we had a very enjoyable day as (Susie’s) Mum and our friend Alastair joined us for the day.

We met at Braidbar boats in High Poynton and after a cup of tea, set off for Marple Junction.

We did stop for lunch and to water up before starting the Marple flight. We started that around 2pm and finished at 6.30pm.  We couldn’t have done them any faster as we only had to turn 1 and thanks to Mum and Alastair joining us, we had enough people to send an advance party to prepare each lock and everyone had a turn at doing everything.

Marple locks are a game of 2 halves,  the top half runs alongside the streets of Marple and includes some very lovely gardens.

The bottom 8 locks are in a much more countrified setting

The danger of a spinning windlass

I had a very nasty moment when in the wet my hand slipped off the windlass as I was winding down one of the paddles. Although I was holding the safety catch, I wasn’t quick enough at dropping it to stop the windlass spinning and my arm was badly bruised from the beating it received.  I was very, very lucky not to have been an ambulance case with a broken arm.

We dropped of Mum and Alastair near Hyde railway station, pulling up outside a row of houses.  The lady in number 4 very kindly called us a taxi which saved a lot of effort.

We would have stayed there overnight but I couldn’t find anywhere where I could hammer in a mooring pin.  The bank side path looked grassy but was solid stone from about 3 inches down.

After another couple of hours cruising looking for the nearest mooring point, we gave up and moored on the landing of the lift bridge just before we were due to join the Huddersfield narrow.  By this time it was 9.10, pitch dark and we were both very cold and tired.

According to the CRT man we met the following day, if we’d have gone through the swing bridge and traveled another 300 yards there were about 100 mooring rings we could have used.

Time and Distance:

4.5 miles on the Macclesfield canal before turning onto the peak forest canal.  7.25 miles on the peak forest including the 16 lock Marple flight.
11.75 + 16 = 28  9.3 hours.

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Day 5 – The Macclesfield Canal

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I’d just like to point out that it was a very cold week, so I was wearing at least 5 layers of thermals, jumpers and coats in all photos!

We enjoyed our mooring spot so much that we had quite a late start, it was 9.50 before we set off up the Macclesfield towards Bosley Locks and onwards. We had decided as the weather forecast was good, that we should push on as far as possible so we’d have less to do in the morning before meeting my Mum and family friend Alastair.

The Macclesfield up to Macclesfield is the prettiest canal I’ve been on so far,  even nicer then the Shropshire Union.  There are some very tight width restrictions which make for interesting driving, but on the whole we enjoyed a morning’s gentle cruising in the fine weather.

We arrived at the bottom of the Bosley flight at 12.45 and had a brief pause to get ready for the activity ahead.  The flight was unusual in that there were double gates at the top of the locks as well as the bottom and no gate boards, so to raise the boat I resorted to opening the paddle on 1 side and then waiting until the roof was level with the lock side before striding over to finish the job.  Undoubtedly slower than walking round, but less tiring overall.

The scenery round Bosley Locks was lovely

Thanks to a little help from some passing and interested walkers, we got through the lock flight without incident in 2.5 hours.  We didn’t have to turn many locks fully which helped although a lot of them were very leaky and filled up very quickly without help.

After the locks it was a straight push to Macclesfield and beyond.  The journey from Macclesfield was difficult as the boat felt like it was going against the flow the whole time, and it was difficult to steer. The time taken for each section bears this out.

We finally stopped for the night at 8.10pm.

Time Taken:  10 hours  (3 + 2 1/2 + 4 1/2 hours)

No Locks: 12

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Day 4 – Through the Harecastle Tunnel

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The 4th morning of our trip was Good Friday. After stopping to pick up a few supplies at the One-Stop across the road bridge we set off.

We left out mooring at 9.20am and cruised north past Wedgewood – into the potteries.

This could be one of my favourite offerings: Tackle, archery, boats and line dancing

The Stoke flight of 5 locks was our first real challenge.  Some deep and heavy locks to contend with.  At the last and deepest lock, Stephanie couldn’t raise the ground paddle, so I had to climb the ladder and help her.

Stock Locks – with two boaters who are moving to Slathwaite

After this adventure, we motored on to Harecastle Tunnel at a stunning 3mph.  We were lucky that we didn’t have to wait long for the tunnel and, as we’d been through the tunnel before, we were asked to go first in the convoy of 4 boats going through the tunnel.

Brick Bottles in the Potteries

At this point we discovered that the tunnel light appears to have been wired in backwards and we couldn’t make the the rear navigation light work, so Stephanie sat and held a torch pointing backwards to show the boats behind where we were.

Once out of the tunnel it was a short hop to the junction where the Macclesfield Canal joined the Trent and Mersey.  We needed to make a sharp right hand turn, which I completely messed up – and we ended up wedged across the canal.  One day I’ll get the hang of it!  I had to clamber off the front of the boat and push it round into the junction.

Looking down on the Trent and Mersey from the Aquaduct on the Macclesfield. Last time we were here we went through those locks on our way round the Four Counties Ring.

The Macclesfield canal has some very narrow bits in it where it looks like bridges have been removed.  Shortly after turning into the canal I slowed down to tickover to negotiate one such restriction when a couple came out of the cottage next to me.  The man held a long stick with a plate on the end of it on which was placed a carrier bag.  “For you” he said to me, pushing the stick in my direction. “We’re giving these to all boaters today just to say Happy Easter”.  I thanked them and took the bag, which we discovered held 2 hot cross buns.  It was very sweet of them and the hot cross buns were delicious.

We called at Heritage Marina to get gas and a pump out.  The pump out was £17 per tank, (not by time) and they did it for us which is nice. It’s more economical for us to get pumped out by time as we have 2 small tanks fitted instead of big one.  The very nice chaps there recommended a mooring spot nearby and 15 minutes later at 5pm we were moored up for the night.  Our earliest stop yet this trip.

10 minutes later the heavens opened.  Had we continued as per our original plan we would have been soaked through. Some days you just get lucky.

Parked up just in time…

Total Distance Travelled: 13.5 miles

Number of locks: 7 locks

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Day 3 – Staffordshire

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Today we covered old ground, 2 years ago we did the 4 counties ring with my mother and sister and today we revisited some of that canal.

We also passed the midway point of the Trent and Mersey Canal

Stephanie was excited to see these gamboling lambs

But we also saw a more urban environment as we passed The Plum Pudding in Rugeley

The Plum Pudding, Rugeley – with a sky which didn’t bode well…

 

Stephanie driving into a lock in Stone

I love Ovaltine, but I nearly crashed trying to steer and take this photo at the same time.

Departed 8.01am from Bridge 55
Ended 7:56pm Bridge 103 Parked outside actor Neil Morrisey’s pub the Plume of Feathers.

Outside the Plume of Feathers. The ale was said to be excellent but we were too tired to go out.

Journey time 11 hours 55 minutes.
22 miles, 14 locks
36 lock miles, average 3 lock miles per hour.

 

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Day 2 – Towards Our First New Bit of Canal

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Departure 9am.  We travelled 600 yards then stopped at Shobnal Marina chandlery where we bought 2 shiny new windlasses and 33m of burgundy rope to make a new centre line and mooring lines.

After leaving the Marina around 10.30 and continued down the section which runs next to the A38. Whilst I stayed warm inside by doing some some washing up, Stephanie waved at lorry drivers on the dual carriageway and had many waves and 5 toots in return.   Once we’d left the A38, the scenery became much more picturesque.  Our next destination was Alrewas, passing through the section where the river and the canal share a channel.

Note the barrier behind me to keep people from accidentally going down the wier

As it’s the river section we were wearing our life jackets

We stopped for lunch in the very pretty village of  Alrewas at around 2.30, left again at 3.15pm and carried on to Fradley Junction.

As we were doing the third of the Fradley flight of 5 locks, the heavens opened and I got soaked.  I moored up at the first available spot, got changed and waited for the shower to pass.  The mooring had an odd bar under the water which meant that the boat bumped around a lot, so I decided that I’d prefer to  stop somewhere which felt more secure.  So after a stoppage of about 45mins ( 5.30 til 6.15) it had stopped raining and we continued to complete the flight and then do 1 more lock before we found a suitable mooring spot for the night.  We ended up mooring near bridge 55 on King’s Bromley at approximately 8.10 pm.

Stats for the day:

Travelling time: 8 hours.

Distance/Locks travelled: 11 miles, 13 locks

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