My time in Liverpool was soon at an end, but I decided, as it is the 200th year of the Leeds Liverpool canal, and 9 years since Luke and I walked the full length of the canal to raise money for RNLI, that I would now travel the full length of the canal to Leeds.
Back up the flight of locks and along the canal out of Liverpool. I have no photos of this great journey through the locks, as will be explained below.
Once through Maghull, I stopped at the Ship Inn at Haskayne, where the Dragon boats had also stopped for a break
The next leg of the journey was back through Burscough
and past the Rufford branch again
There are some quite remote stretches of the canal running past Parbold
Unfortunately due to spending too much of the morning car shuffling, I was too late to get into Wigan. The locks were closed at 8:00, so I stopped at Crooke Hall, which seemed a decent spot, opposite the Crooke Hall Inn, an Allgates Brewery Pub.
That time of Year again, I went back up to the Old, for the SARDA/Mountain Rescue Folk Festival.
It is now eight months since I fell off Tarn Crag, and my legs seemed to be working again, so I thought I would have a stroll up Mickleden
The weather was great, not too warm as I continued up the valley
I got as far as Angle Tarn, and was surprised to still see some snow on Hanging Knotts. This was my first climbing since last year, so it would be daft to go for the snow...
But I couldn't resist building snowmen in May!
My leg was still fine, so I continued on over hanging Knotts, and on to the top of Bowfell
I felt great, no problems with the tendons in my knee, no problems with my Quads!
Then I came down the Bands. Downhill was a completely different matter. By the time I had got down to the valley floor, I was having to stop every few hundred yards. Ow! It took me three hours to get back to the Old for some anaesthetic.
Monday morning came and I was completely seized up! I hobbled back to the car and headed back to the boat. However when I got there, I found that the doors had been forced open, and the interior of the boat had been trashed.
They had taken a rucksack, some power tools and my crappy little digital camera, which had most of my Liverpool photos on. Bastards!
The police turned up, and it seems it was a professional job, they were wearing gloves, and even polished a few surfaces on the boat as they left. I was not going to leave the boat here, so sailed straight up to Wigan, where Yorks Rob met me and fitted some high security bolts to the front doors.
I then headed back to the aptly named Crooke, to collect the car. when I got there I found that the car window had been smashed. My phone charger was gone, but nothing else. It seems that people sit in the pub beer garden watching boats arrive, and people leave, so they know when a boat or car is unattended. There is a clue in the name.
I got back to Wigan, as I was supposed to be going down to Ludlow judging beer, instead I waited all day for Autoglass to show up and replace the window.
When we got to the top, I noticed that all the water points are 1/2" tap fittings, not the standard 3/4" for hoses. Luckily I have an adapter.
Back to Chorley, and the Lock & Quay has a new couple running it. The mixed grill is a perfect end to a long day boating.
I spent a few days wiring up a new widebeam for Steve Mayor. I can only take credit for the wiring, Steve has done some superb joinery on this boat
