Slaithwaite

 .....pronounced 'Sloughit'....or 'slaithit'  depending which local you are talking to

Another pleasant cruising day with no problems I am thankful to say.    Admittedly we are being very careful and I am keeping dead centre of all the pounds, but no serious groundings today.  One or two of the paddles don't want to unlock but we have managed with just the one where this happens.

From our kitchen window this morning

Down through these wonderful hills again

Leaving Lock 25 ...the real world could be a million miles away

We had phoned ahead to book our passage through Lock 24, Guillotine Lock.  There is trouble with the big Guillotine bottom gate and can only be operated by CRT personnel at the moment.  It is being closed for 2 weeks from Monday to be repaired.

This is the lock waiting place and that is as far in as we can get our stern.

Geoff was quite glad he did not have to operate the gate as it took 240 turns to lift it....

The next two locks take us into and through Slaithwaite.  For me it was an unexpected trip.  Geoff had walked in yesterday but had neglected to tell me what it was like.   It was quite fascinating but it would have been better if I was a pigmy as there are two longish and extremely low tunnels, one of which we barely scraped under.  The canal is a bit like a large drain going through the centre of the village (town??)

Looking back from lock 22 at Swaithwaite

The sani station is just above lock 22 with all facilities including showers.   Here we met our first boat of the day,  He came up the lock and we swapped places.  We then moored just below the lock.   It is not nearly as picturesque as our last two night's mooring places, but is not too bad.  In addition there doesn't seem to be a problem with the depth.

Total distance:1.67 miles 

Elapsed time:4h9m46s 

Locks:10

Bridges:6 
Average speed:0.40 mph (2.56 lock/mph)