Through Blackburn to Riley Green Bridge

We had another earlyish start and Barney & I set off to walk to the first of 4 anticipated swing bridges......the first one didn't give us much bother!

Another day of partly urban surroundings but still lots of lovely stretches and the hills are still there around us.

The first suitable place to stop for the Sunday papers was at the top of the Blackburn locks where there is a large Asda superstore.   We actually met two boats here coming up.  It is still incredible quiet boat wise.  We had been travelling 2 hours this morning before we saw our first fellow traveller at 0950hrs.    

The Blackburn locks were not quite so demanding as the Barrowford ones of yesterday as they seemed to be a couple of inches longer and not leak quite so much.  Apart from one of them .......

The lock itself was overflowing...no lack of water here....

and this flow did not cease all the way down

As we neared the bottom of the locks we had a phone call from our friends John & Rosi who were en route to other friends.   The had time to spare and decided to visit for tea.......we told them our intended destination was Riley Green Bridge so they met us there....in fact they reached there about an hour before us.

So as soon as we arrived and settled Petroc John and Geoff went to the pub across the road and Rosi & I settled ourselves with a cup of tea and had a good catch -up.

One of today's unusual boats

and another one...front and back view.

Total distance:16.17 miles  (A record for us in a day)

Elapsed time:7h9m55s 

Locks:6

Bridges:56 
Average speed:2.26 mph (3.09 lock/mph) (Gosh we'll be getting a speeding ticket next)

The canal is wide and there are not many moored boats which we have to slow down for......