Shuttleworth (sunflowers are resilient)

Sunset on the summer solstice

It had been very windy overnight on Tuesday and it hadn’t eased up by Wednesday morning.  Two of the mini sunflower pots had blown over but were saved from rolling off the roof by the handrail.  Coupled with the fact that it had started raining too, we decided to spend the morning indoors.  We also took the opportunity to get some of the monthly jobs done like checking and recharging the moisture traps.

During the morning Charlie & Linda had decided to brave the weather and came past on Henry James.  A little while later, once the rain had stopped, Clive & Jenny came by on Banbury Blue.  Clive was convinced the wind and clouds were going to disappear well before lunchtime but fortunately we didn’t listen to him 😉 Within a few minutes of them passing the rain started again.

Clive & Jenny smiling even though it wasn’t a summer’s day

We were having a break and catching up on some bridge practice when Mike rang from France.  He was gloating as he had heard about our weather and it was over 30 degrees with them on their boat.  I let him off as he was offering us the use of their narrowboat as part of our two-month summer road trip of France and Italy this year.  They would be doing some work on their house in the last week of August so would be happy to let us use the boat, which would be down on the Canal du Midi by then.  Unfortunately, we will be in Norway during that week, so we had to turn down the offer ☹

The weather made neither of us feel like our normal cold salad lunch, so we had good old, hot winter beans on toast instead.  In the end we put on coats (!) and set off at 2.00pm with Karen and Buddy walking the five miles to the first swing bridge of the day. It was still cloudy but at least the wind had dropped a little and the rain had stopped.

As Karen was walking she soon warmed up so shed her coat and fleece and passed them to me. 

Still cloudy when we went over the M65

I kept my coat on until the sun started breaking through later

Just outside Oswaldtwistle we saw these old coke ovens by the cut.  They were built over 200 years ago as part of Aspen Colliery and were used to turn coal into coke.  The coke was then used to fire a local steel works.  The ovens were used until the 1930s and funds are now being raised to restore them.

Blue sky beginning to show over the coke ovens

We then went through the village of Church which also goes by the tautological name of Church Kirk.  It’s a shame the church is called St James rather than Church Kirk Church. 

After passing under the M65 again we came to the first of three swing bridges we had to negotiate and after the bridge we were out in the open countryside of Clayton-le-Moors.

Cruising through Clayton-le-Moors

View whilst cruising through Clayton-le-Moors

Talking about passing Charlie & Linda reminded me of a couple of things that happened when we cruised with them on the previous day.  We were missing a vital ingredient for the slow cooker curry – cream - it wasn’t needed until it was served so we had all day to get it.  There’s a Tesco Express a few hundred yards from the cut on the outskirts of Blackburn and we moored up so Karen could go to the shop whilst I checked the weed hatch.  Charlie & Linda decided to go with Karen to get some supplies too.  I had cleared the prop and put everything away and was beginning to wonder where they were when I got a phone call saying they were lost.

I’m used to that happening with Karen and when she used to get lost driving to work (when we were bridge hopping) I became known as her ‘Neil Neil’ as she would ring for directions 😊 It made me laugh that three of them had got lost but to be fair I think there was a reason.  Karen had seen what she thought was a VR post box and had gone running down a side street to check it out.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t one, but by the time she explained to her companions what she was doing they had become disoriented.

Much of this canal is a contour canal and as such, follows a tortuous path along the valley sides as can be seen from the map below. The brown road is the M65 and we came over it on the left and four miles later went under it on the right even though it’s only 1 ½ miles by road (or crow).

Between the first two swing bridges we passed the halfway point of the canal.  It was marked by a milestone showing it’s 63 ^5/8 miles to both Leeds and Liverpool.

The halfway point milestone

A steel bar also marks the spot

At Altham Clough we passed both the boats who had set off before us in the morning.  They had moored up for the day in what is a beautiful spot but was far too exposed for us or rather our plants with the wind due to get up again.  We paused briefly to chat to Colin & Jenny and they told us that it was really rather too chilly to be sitting outside.  Charlie & Linda were obviously out for a walk as their boat was shut up but we passed them walking along the towpath a little later.

When we got to Shuttleworth we found a sheltered spot with a view and moored up for the day.

Our mooring for Wednesday night

By the time we moored up we had travelled eight miles through three swing bridges and were looking forward to an early dinner.

We are now only 24 miles and 16 locks from where my parents’ road crosses the canal in Gargrave, so we should be there by Sunday or Monday.  When I say my parents’ road, it is where their house is (where Mum lives) and also my dad’s care home.  We will soon have to sus out the water points and winding holes etc. around there whilst we work out the different places to moor whilst we move back to bridge hopping for the next couple of months.

The remaining journey to Gargrave

Our view whilst eating dinner and...

In the end, although we felt buffeted by the wind, we were glad we left later than the others as the rain had held off and the sun had been out most of the afternoon.

...a bit later on