The Longest Day

We did it! All 29 locks in a 9 hr, non stop marathon of a day sees us safely tied up in Castlefield Basin.
We set off just after 8 with no idea of what we would encounter on the dreaded Ashton Canal. Well, it was dark and satanic enough as we set out, the area steeped in heritage or in need of tarting up, depending on your point of view

The museum at Portland Basin

Octagonal mill chimney

The towpath left a lot to be desired if you are a boater, with nowhere you could (or would want to) moor

Nice Tarmac

Still, everyone we encountered was very cheerful, even the Mark Cavendish wannabes shouted their hellos as they blithely ignored the "pedestrians have priority" signs and went all out for terminal velocity. Also, I have to say that none of the locally moored boats sported the window shields you see at Patricroft on the Bridgewater so perhaps the area is being overly maligned

Indeed, the area just inside the M60 boasted some impressive homes and we would have had no hesitation in spending a night here

Apologies for the cup and plate - no time to stop!

Also, you may have noticed our chimney is missing. A wise precaution to remove it as we encountered plenty bridges low enough to have removed it for us.
So, we reached the Ashton flight and...... It was an absolute joy for the vast majority of the trip. Most of the locks had smooth, hydraulic gear instead of the familiar rack and pinion arrangement

and, as we neared Manchester Sportcity there was plenty to look at

Compare this with the 11 locks of the Rochdale flight that we tackled next! These wide beam locks were a whole different ball game. The first 2 locks take you underneath an 18 storey tower block where there be trolls and troglodytes. The only normal people there were us two!

Also, whereas the Ashton flight had a bywash that let excess water run down the flight, the Rochdale flight let the excess flow over the lock gates like this

So, on many occasions there was too much water pressure on the top gates to allow us to open them and the only solution was to open all gates to lower the levels. Twice, this resulted in us flooding the towpath in the pound below, making us less than flavour of the month with walkers. Still, we had paired up with another boat so we were a 4 strong army who gave no quarter but had the good grace to look sheepish as we left them soggy of foot. No such problems for us any more as we have no locks to do now until we return to Scarisbrick in November!