Narrowboat Holiday Day 5 - Manchester to Ashton-under-Lyne (7.7 hours; 6.1 miles; 18 locks; 1 swing bridge)

Friday, 8 April 2022

Today is going to be exhausting.  We only have about 6 miles to go, but it will take the entire day since we have 18 locks!  Luckily I did get a great nights sleep and after a shower and breakfast, we left Manchester at 9 AM.  It was a little chilly, but there was blue skies, so we won't complain.

We are ready for the day

It didn't take long to get to the first lock of the day...it was actually only 8 minutes after setting out.

Lock number 1 of 18.

Lock 1 done...only 17 more to go...OY!  We got the first three locks done by 10 AM and we were feeling good.  The next set of locks, Locks 4-7, were started at 10:15 AM and were completed at 11:22 AM. During that time, we passed by Manchester City's Etihad Stadium in Manchester.   It's those tall pillars with cables in the background.  

Manchester City's Etihad Stadium

Now after 7 locks, I'm still feeling pretty good...11 to go!

LWe started the next set of locks (Locks 8-16) at 11:30 PM. Before reaching Lock 8, we passed was the National Cycling Centre.  We have definitely stopped to watch people go around the velodrome, but it is currently closed for renovations.

National Cycling Centre

We are in double digits now...Lock 11, with lock 12 very close by.  As I was operating Lock 11 I decided that if Lock 12 had to be emptied, then we would stop between the locks and eat some lunch.  I was getting pretty tired and hungry by now.

Two locks very close together

Well...12 was empty, so Tim was able to enter it quickly.  When we got to 13, it was full, so lunch break it was ((tuna sandwich for me, chicken breast sandwich for Tim).  We stopped for 30 minutes at 1 PM, and continued up the canal with 6 locks to go. We made it through Lock 16 at 2:27 PM, so Locks 8 - 16 took us 3 hours with a 30 minute lunch break.

After Lock 16 we came to our very first swing bridge.  Instead of the bridge drawing, it spins 90 degrees using the winch handle.

Swing bridge 15

Here is Lock 17 with the last lock seen in the distance.  There was a bunch of kids in kayaks hanging out right before Lock 18. 

Lock 17 with the last Lock 18 seen in the distance.

Finally...the last of 18 locks. We did it...we made it.  And what a nice setting for the last lock of the day, Droylsden.  What a nice looking town.

From Lock 1 to Lock 18 it took us from 9 AM to 3:30 PM.  That's a long day with a lot of work.  Just past the last lock there was a water point, so we stopped there to fill up.  Here is Tim showing off his torn out rainsuit.  We bought some duct tape to fix it, but hadn't got to it by this point.

Pulling up to water point with blown out rubbers.

Typical water point along canal.

We now have about 40 minutes till we make it to our stopping point for the day.  How cute it this photo of a bridge over the canal?

We were so close to our stopping point and then it started to rain...or is it snow...or is it hail?!?  We have no idea, but we do know that we need to stop for the night and get out of this weather.

We found a great place to moor, right near the center of Aston-Under-Lyne, a very quaint looking town.  We as quickly as we could tied up and got inside with the heat turned up to escape the crazy weather still on going.  We ate dinner (baked cod filets with potato, carrot, and swede mash...what is a swede anyway?).  

After dinner we walked into town to find a pint of real ale on cask.  We found instead a somewhat loud bar, with no real ale, but we had a pint anyway of something cold and bubbly.  Afterwards, back to the boat to do some blogging and then off to sleep.  Until tomorrow...