Dukinfield

With the need to get to the water point 8 locks away still playing heavy on our minds we took another short hop from Hyde, north to Dukinfield. While we were waiting the 2 hours it takes for Tiger's trazadone to kick in, Mr Whiskers decided to go for a wander. Again. 😖 At first neither of his trackers picked anything up, so Will tramped up and down the towpath for about 20 minutes until the GPS eventually found him buried amongst dense brambles. The sickle cleared a path but scared Whiskers off. Will eventually persuaded him to come to him and managed to get him back to Rainboat. By this time it was afternoon so Will had a rest and some lunch before setting off. We love our furries and wouldn't be without them but they do make life difficult sometimes. One thing is for sure. Mr Whiskers has lost his outdoor privileges on travel day mornings!

We are in the Greater Manchester area now and approaching Ashton-under-Lyne. The canal corridor is still beautifully green but more often than not, corrugated metal factory walls and red brick housing estates lie behind the screen of trees and the bridges we pass under are tagged with graffiti. The water's surface is sprinkled with catkins and fluffy seed heads and we are seeing more and more chunky yellow goslings with their Canadian Geese parents. The gaggles of babies have been two or three in number but we're beginning to see larger broods now. We wonder if the early hatchlings are few in number in case the weather turns bad and the parents have to try again or if it might be something to do with the ubiquitous pesticides in the water 🤔

We moored opposite a large country house with newly landscaped terraces switch-backing their way to a waterside patio complete with large wooden gazebo. We were only a short way from Portland Basin Marina whom Will had been in contact with about getting everything he needed to service Rainboat's engine. He began clearing the canoe out to paddle there but as he was pulling some fishing line out, it slipped through his fingers and the hook got stuck in his finger pad. He only buys barbless hooks so attempted to pull it out, only to find that it wasn't one of his hooks... it was a barbed one he'd picked up on his last paddle, intending to dispose of it so no wildlife got tangled 😬 It was impossible to pull back out without causing a lot of damage so he ended up clipping the eye off the end and pushing it out the other side. OUCH! Amazingly he did all this without alerting Vicky, telling her later that the burn his hands were still recovering from really put the pain in context 😱 He still managed to canoe to the marina for oil and walk from there to an industrial unit selling air and oil filters. Well done Will!

The next day we took the dogs on a trundle up to Portland Basin, detouring via a path overlooking the River Tame in its steep sided valley. From the rural beauty of the Peak District we've moved to an area imbued in industrial heritage. From the brick and iron viaducts over the river valley to the tall industrial age chimneys we've passed along the way, this landscape had been engineered around production and transport. At Portland Basin a canal aqueduct passes over the Tame before the towpath goes under Portland Basin Stone Bridge and you arrive at the junction, faced with the Portland Basin Musuem, the former Ashton Canal Company wharf, with arched access for boats to load and unload inside the warehouse. Ashton Canal leads off to the left and Huddersfield Narrow Canal to the right. We're looking forward to exploring a new canal but are pretty apprehensive about the 74 locks required to take us through the Pennines.もっと詳しく