The Wigan 21.

Monday 3rd August, 2015 at Red Rocks.
The "Wigan Twenty-One" - not a rugby score but rather the reputedly daunting flight of locks on the way up to Leeds.

"Is Leeds really that far away?" asked M anxiously. "Yes" replied R, "and 86 locks as well!"
We were very fortunate in that, as we approached the bottom lock, another boat appeared in front of us from the Leigh branch. These are all wide locks, so we could pair up and go through them together, meaning that we could half the time and the work load. The boat was nb "Shadow of the Wind", crewed by Susan and Emir. We were also very fortunate with the weather, which was neither too hot nor too cold, and thankfully dry.
The flight is only two miles long but rises 214 ft in that short distance. The locks are continuous, one after another and giving no respite. Not only are they tough, but every single one was against us. That meant that we had to empty each lock first before we could enter it, thus doubling the work. Bother! At each lock, as we were going through, either M or Susan would walk ahead to the next lock to set it ready for us to save time.

No two locks seem to have the same type of mechanism, causing some head scratching on occasions. Some of the anti-vandal locks didn't work (so we couldn't open some of the paddles), some beams had winches and all were very heavy. Two lock gates were so heavy that they needed three of us straining as hard as we could to get them open.

The "pounds", or very short bits of canal between each lock, were extremely low on water; some of them were two feet below normal. Emptying the next lock above helped to put some water into the pound, but we steered down the middle of each pound keeping our fingers crossed that it was deep enough.
This area was previously heavily industrialised with collieries and ironworks lining the canal. The works are all long gone but some of the workers' terraced red-bricked houses survive, a memory of old Wigan.

Beside lock 73 is an old slag heap, now called "Rabbit Rocks", that is covered in grass and wild flowers. M couldn't resist a quick dash to the summit where there was a panoramic view over Wigan.

Meanwhile R, who hadn't been aware that M was off exploring, couldn't see her anywhere and for a while was concerned she might have fallen into the lock!
The view back down to Wigan was splendid and we became aware of just how high we had climbed.
Finally we arrived in Lock I (in the old Roman numerals that started from the top), or Lock 65 to give it its modern number, the top lock.

At last! It had taken us five and a half hours of unrelenting hard work without a break.
We said cheerio to Susan and Emir, who wanted to push on, and moored up for water and a very late lunch.
Above the top lock the main canal turns left but there is a short arm to the right. This bit of canal was originally built by the Lancaster Canal Co. and their plan was to go straight on down to Worsley but they ran out of money so that bit was never built. Instead the Leeds & Liverpool Canal Co. built the Wigan 21.
We took a few minutes to walk to the end of the short arm to stand on the bridge and peer over to see what might have been and then to look back along the weed covered arm to MM in the distance.

After our late lunch, we sailed on a further couple of miles through very pleasant countryside and moored up for the night at Red Rocks.

M is grizzling that her feet are sore and that her shoulders ache. After 35 miles of lock-free cruising, that was a day of very hard work - yet very satisfying.
Today: 5 miles, 22 locks and 6.5 hours.
Trip: 153 miles, 80 locks and 100.0 hours.