A Welcome Sight
We got away from the marina just after lunch and even remembered how to drive the boat. Heading up to the summit level, the first part of the journey is through Nelson which is not aplace one would choose to spend a night. However it was very pleasing to see this mill building in the process of being renovated - destined to be a Muslim girls' school, I believe. Preferable to dereliction or replacement by plywood houses.
Water levels are so low we were dismayed that the boat one lock ahead of us was not prepared to wait and share the ascent with us. As these are the first locks M has done since breaking her wrist she would have felt more comfortable sharing the load. this is particularly so as these locks were built for operation by no-one under 7ft tall. To make matters worse the pratts in front of us managed to leave paddles open at both ends of one lock so when we arrived the lock would not empty but the pound above was draining very well. Inevitably we ran aground in this pound and had to pinch water from the next pound.
The compensation, of course, is that this is one of the most attractive stretches of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal.
This ascent did remind us a little of our previous encounter with Barrowford Locks. four years ago we passed this way en route to our younger son's wedding and on our return journey we had to wait for repairs to be made to one of the locks.




It did not look quite this bad today but it might have done had we not been there to remedy the error.