Still in Bugsworth

As Wednesday looked like being very windy we decided to have a lazy day.  We have been in the basin since Sunday and have been watching a Canada Goose from our kitchen window sitting on her nest.  The male seems to sleep with her during the night and patrols the area during the day.  The male even tries to see off people and dogs if they get close to the edge of the canal.  These geese mate for life and live in family groups apart from the nesting season when they split up and rejoin the family group once the gosling(s) are self sufficient.  The gestation period is 28 days.  Sorry about the facts but it helps us to remember and recall things.

We walked to Whaley Bridge in the morning and had a browse around.  When we got back we lit a fire and investigated where we should cruise to next.  

There are three canal routes that run across the Pennines in Lancashire and Yorkshire.  We knew we couldn't take the most northern route, the Leeds & Liverpool canal, as our boat is too long for most of the locks, We had been assuming we would take either the Rochdale or Hunddersfield Narrow canal.  All three canals meet up just east of Wakefield where we were going to head north up to York and Ripon. Anyway, we have just found out that this pinch point at Wakefield has some locks that are too short for us so we will have to go back down South and across to Nottingham to go up the Trent to get to places like York and Ripon.

My parents live at the northern tip of the Leeds and Liverpool at Gargrave and we have always found it ironic that theirs is the only canal we cannot go on because of our length.  We were quite upset when we realised about the Wakefield constriction.

Our initial thoughts are that we will go up the Huddersfield Narrow canal through the longest canal tunnel in the UK, at Standedge, which is about 3 1/2 miles long. We would then turn back and head through Manchester and then go slowly back to Nottingham taking in some of the arms and loops that we wouldn't normally go down.  Just south of Manchester at Anderton is a boat lift that lifts boats from the Trent & Mersey to and from the River Weaver.  It has a 50 foot drop and is the only other boat lift in the country other than the Falkirk Wheel near Glasgow.  This is a must for us to travel on!

This gives us an outline plan of getting to Nottingham for the middle of July for Catherine's graduation.  We then lazed around and read for the afternoon.  All in all a lovely peaceful day.