16th of August. Leaving the Leeds and Liverpool.

We left Crooke fairly early (for us) in glorious weather and were caught up at the first lock by narrow boat Ivy May, who had also been a neighbour in Salthouse Dock. We made our way through Wigan together and turned down the Leigh branch which will take us to the Bridgewater canal. This means we finally left the Leeds and Liverpool Canal (the longest in the country) after travelling it's whole 127 and 1/4 miles both ways. Its taken just over two months to travel the just over 250 miles.

Following Ivy May down the Leigh Branch and out of Wigan.

After six locks and seven and half miles we reached Plank Lane Road Bridge just in time for CRT to open it and let us through.

Looking back at Plank Lane Bridge.

After another nine miles we reached a nice mooring recommended to us by various of our Liverpool comrades. It was a warm sunny evening so Robin went for a paddleboard and then settled down to try and catch the enormous carp and pike he had spotted on the journey down.

Lovely weather for a paddle!

Tomorrow we dash round Manchester, stopping briefly at the Trafford Centre on the way (something about needing new pillowcases, Jo said..)