Back to the plan

All the canal festivals were over now, so I decided it was time to continue my plan to do the whole Leeds Liverpool canal.

So, off I went, back up Johnson Locks., 47 Miles from Liverpool, 80 to go to Leeds.

 Back through the now familiar Blackburn flight, past Rishton, and Clayton, I decided to stop the night just after Fosters swing bridge, with a nice view over the Ribble Valley.

Unicorn on tour!

The White Boat

 It was Botany Bay canal festival, so I headed back to the Boatyard

Passing Simsons Fold, Eendracht was back at Kiers mooring, looking great in the water, but in need of some paint.

I got back to the boatyard just in time to see Steve Mayors boat arriving for craning in

then we went up to bring Eendricht down to the boatyard for the festival.

 

  Kier let me drive the boat down Johnsons locks, what a superb boat!

Then we went back up the locks to help Peter, Stacey amd Jayne bring some more boats down

Passing some good looking boats on the way

 When I returned from brewing on the Saturday, there was an impromptu barbecue on the back of Eendricht


a superb evening

 and in the morning I noticed a Unicorn had appeared on the front of mine!

Sunday, it was time to go boating.
A picturesque canal-side looking scene...

 ..but not quite what it seems

 

This is what we call the White Boat, two canoes, some scaffolding, an outboard and a park bench - great fun!

Back to the boatyard, and I cooked some random curries in style!












And that's what I call a cheeseboard!

Float like a battleship...

I hitched a lift on nb Good Times down to Mill Hill for a bit of a carnival they were having.

Part of this was some mad guy who had built a boat out of the rubbish collected out of the canal

 I must say that it did look like rubbish fished out of the canal

 and it needed CRT volunteers to tow it back out of the canal

I called in at Lincoln to sort out some wiring problems on a narrowboat.

 

 This is what happens when things get added at random over the years

and this is what wiring should look like!

Back at Botany Boatyard, Kiers boat was going back in the water

 This is a 100 year old boat, with a 100 year old engine, a genuine Dutch Barge

 I takes two cranes working in tandem to lift the boat in

and then it is floating

The bows look huge when side by side with a standard narrowboat,

 So, once the engine is started, we have to take it for a sail

 Happiness is getting your 100 year old boat back in the water!

 

 We stopped at Cowling bridge for a pint

 and what goes with a pint? Backsticks Cheese!

 There is plenty of room on the roof for passengers

 And then back to Botany

Back at the pub, somebody brought in some wildlife!