Down hill

 

After a good night at Foulridge we pulled ropes through rings at 08.35 and headed around the corner to Foulridge tunnel . It only allows boats through in this direction on the hour and every hour ,so we had a short wait for the lights to turn from red to green.

Eventually the lights turned green and we were on our way through . At 1640 yards it’s not a long tunnel and only took us about 15 minutes to get through.

From Foulridge tunnel it’s just a short hop to the Barrowford flight of 7 locks . We had been pre warned that if it was windy these locks would be a nightmare to lock through and guess what ? With winds gusting to 25 mph this was going to be fun. I much prefer it when there’s a bit of a challenge and something a bit exciting.

In the end it wasn’t that bad although we did meet a hire boat coming up with two elderly people on board . It seems that they couldn’t work any of the locks as they were to heavy for them so they called out Canal and River trust to do all the locks for them .I don’t think some people do enough research before taking a boat out on hire. I would have thought any hire company would say only reasonably fit people can operate locks. You could tell by looking at them that they were not at all capable

This is a rare sight on any canal . It’s a place to dump all your old waste oil . As it was outside a council depot I take it that it’s not a Canal and River Trust facility

It was then onto Nelson where we intended to do a shop in the Morrisons which has it’s own wharf for boaters . When we were about 10 feet from the wharf our engine juddered and then stopped . We managed to get to the side with the use of the pole and bow thruster . While Carolyn headed in to Morrisons I headed down the weed hatch where I spent the next hour. This is the worse fouling we have ever had . in the end I had to use wire cutter’s a bread knife and a utility knife. To say the air was a bit blue would be an understatement.

On our way again and as we approach Burnley we start to see more lovely old abandoned Mills and factories.

Passing through Burnley and we have been told that it is Bandit country all the way through and we should not stop anywhere.

As we pass over Burnley Embankment we get a good view of Turf moor the home of Burnley FC.

After 6 hours cruising we were the other side of Burnley and strangely enough there was not one moored boat anywhere to be seen on our way through.We picked up a mooring just before Hapton for the night and yet again I had to go down and clear the prop. It seems like people in cities just use the canal as one big tip. I’m sure Burnley has something to other visitors but not visitors that come by boat. Tomorrow we will go through Blackburn which it seems is also known as Bandit country.

 

                                                                                     Happy Days