What with swing bridges and trees......

It's been an incredibly long day today, having been awakened before 6am by the sound of rain drumming on the roof, and then a constant drip drip as it ran off the solar panels. Talk about Chinese water torture! It was enough to drive one mad! So we got up and underway by 7.30am.

Ian is still nursing his poorly ankle so it was down to me to do most of the locks again. Ian did insist on trying to do the odd one or two, but the pain got to much. I'm beginning to wonder if he has done more damage to it then we thought.  When it came to the swing bridge's Ian insisted on doing both of them and boy was I glad that it was him and not me. I had struggled to get Ian off at Little Gleggs swing bridge but with his long legs got onto the bank okay. It was at the second swing bridge, Moss swing bridge, that I couldnt see how Ian was going to get off. No bridge landing and the foliage much to thick for Ian to even attempt a leap. Not only that but I couldn't bring FS anywhere near the bank due to a lack of dredging. The only way was for me to nudge up to the bridge and for Ian to jump off the front. He managed but gave his ankle another nasty tweak.

There appears to be a landing to the right but  it was under 10ft long

Only way off was a leap of faith from the front.

Now you can see what I meant.

This shows it much better

Thank goodness I could get near enough to the side once through the bridge and thank goodness Ian is still able to jump from the boat. I wondered how single hander would have coped? Ian is yet again sending another photo and email to C&RT.

Having started in the dry this morning it wasn't long before the showers started. Worse though was the wind. It was especially bad between lock 49 and 50. Not only that but we had to be careful to avoid the weed. It was the sort that would clog up your prop if you happened to stray into it.

lock 50 and my walk to set the lock. Very windy but uncanny how the weather conditions changed from this photo...

to this. Sun came out and wind died down. You can see lock 49 in the distance

Gate so near to the wall the only way to open it is with the windlass as Ian demonstrates in the next photo

We thought we had problems at the swing bridges but that was nothing to the problem Ian had at lock 58 on the Slattocks flight. I had opened the offside gate non the wiser that directly in front of him was a tree. As I closed the gate I heard the boat go into reverse and a lot of swearing. Rushing down to see what the problem was I found FS well and truly amongst the branches. Ian couldn't reverse out and being in the bridge 'ole had no room to swing the stern over. All Ian could do was get to the front and pole the bow away from the overhang.

In a bit of a pickle!

Now had to try and get the front over.

Maybe I should have opened the towpath side gate! And yet another email and photo to C&RT.

For once I havent had to mention low pounds or the poor water situation. In fact we had to much!!! At our last lock of the day (63) two C&RT bods had both top and bottom paddles up to try and get rid of some. Because of the sheer amount of rainfall running off the hills and into the canal, the water levels had risen dramatically. There was a real danger of the water pouring down the bank on the offside to a small holding below.

So after 9 1/2 hours of traveling, 30 minute stop for a shop at Littleborough and 18 broad locks (all but 3 against us) we stopped below lock 63 at Chedderton. Tomorrow we have organised a volunteer lockie to help us down the 19 locks through the bad lands and to Ducie Street junction.

Todays wildlife sightings,