Continuing West

A lovely open mooring at the top of Barrowford Locks.   Hectors House moored just behind us.   Tons of mooring space and very few boats.

A very congenial evening last night aboard Hectors House where we swapped notes on good mooring places....a pot luck supper with Sally producing an excellent chilli.  They are heading for the Huddersfield Narrow so were able to tell them the good and the bad!

Curtains still drawn on Hectors House as we crept past at 0730 although a little head did appear from behind one of the curtains to give a brief wave.

A very interesting sign and could be useful if it was by any moored boats.  However this sign is in the lock where the only moored boat is us!

Another interesting sign of which there are many along this stretch of towpath.  Maybe I am missing the point but why do you have one way signs on the towpath??

As we gently amble on our way we do give the occasional thought to all that traffic above us.

We are passing quite a lot of old mills today and some have been converted....................................

......................but some have been demolished.    This one was a great disappointment as it used to be Bardon Mill  When passed here 7 years ago I visited the mill and made quite a few purchases including some of the bedding we are still using on Petroc.   I was looking forward to another visit..

Some of the old chimneys have their uses!

Passing through Burnley where they were holding a canal festival

I cannot remember where this intrepid pair were pedalloing from and to but it was for the Prostrate Cancer Charity and looked like hard work.

This has been one of our longer days as we want to press on a bit so we have time to spend down on the River Weaver.   Now we are on the western side of the Pennines and in Lancashire.   It is a lot more industrial but the hills are still there and there are still good places to moor as we have found today.

Apart from the collection of boats at the Burnley Festival we have not seen more than half a dozen all day.   We moored up about 2pm and only one boat has been past us......they must all be down on the Trent and Mersey!

The Barrowford locks were a bit of a challenge as the top gates leak so badly.  The locks are quite short so going down it is very difficult to stop Petroc being swamped at the stern whilst you manoeuvre your way from behind the gate at the front.  I was quite glad we were not sharing locks as it would then have been quite impossible to get out of the lock without going back completely into the full flow of water.  

  

Although we have had a day of intermittent sunshine it is very cold and I have had 4 layers on at times and even gloves in the early part of the day.......and it is still August.......

Total distance:12.77 miles 

Elapsed time:6h31m44s 

Locks:7

Bridges:54 
Average speed:1.96 mph (3.03 lock/mph)