20th and 21st of June 2016. Blackburn.

Harold was indeed safe on our return and we set off again from our little boatyard in Chorley on Monday morning. More rain, although it was clearing. We passed this sign. Only 79 miles to Leeds!

After just a mile and a half we reached the seven Johnson Hill locks. We followed another pair of boats through so it took a while. Jo's fancy new pedometer said it took 5962 steps and 2.2 miles to complete! The actual distance up the flight is about 3/4 of a mile, so almost triple the distance walked by the locker.

Looking up the locks, about halfway.

And looking down.

At the top there were facilities so we dealt with rubbish and loos and filled up with water. We have learned that secure moorings are rather few on this stretch of canal, so we decided to take the last free mooring spot by the top lock and make a dash through Blackburn the next day.

The top lock (Harold is on the left filling up with water and eventually moored on the right)

We went for a circular walk suggested on a sign by the lock which we almost managed to accomplish with the aid of phone technology and then settled down for an evening of frustrating football.

On Tuesday we travelled 13 miles through Blackburn and out the other side. The town covers a valley and its sides and the canal is raised up, travelling along the contours of the hill to one side. We travelled mostly through housing and industrial estates in varying states of repair but got glimpses of the town itself now and again.

Looking across the valley and the town.

Rows of terraced housing going up the hill.

 We followed two pairs of boats up the six Blackburn locks. The pair in front kindly left the bottom paddles up when they left so the locks were empty for us, which made it a bit quicker and easier for the locker. At the bottom lock we were assisted by a drunk and paramedics were collecting another inebriated man and taking him away. At the rest there was less drama but just as much broken glass and litter. The canal water itself is quite clear and there are lots of fish and families of geese, ducks, moorhens and swans, but also lots of rubbish and debris floating about and stuck on the banks. There was also quite a lot of stuff on the bottom of the canal causing various scrapings and bangings on the hull as we went along. The perils of urban boating.

Most of the mills and wharves we saw were derelict but these two had been restored.

Eventually we emerged from Blackburn and into countryside, with hills appearing in the distance (although much of it still fairly built up and the M65 remains within earshot). The canal winds along the contours with no suitable mooring until Rishton Bridge where there is a visitors mooring for one and a half boats. As it contained two boats already we (and the three boats which came after us!) made do with being slightly aground on the bank next to it. We were going to go on to moorings at Church but people already in the mooring who had come from there said it was dodgy and they hadn't fancied it.  They also said Burney (next on the agenda) is not great, but after that its all lovely!