Swing Bridges and Down the Weed Hatch Twice.

 Sunday 15th May 2022 in Burnley.

As we plan to get as far as Burnley today, an early start seemed a good idea. Our first passer-by of the day watched our breakfast with mild curiosity!.

Happily, there are no locks between Blackburn and Burnley. What we had forgotten, was the three swing bridges! Swing bridges are not our favourites as they take almost as long as a lock by the time that you have stopped, opened them, gone through, stopped again and closed them; and all this while braving the irritation of pedestrians, cyclists or motorists waiting to cross!

Despite the urban centres, this canal does pass through some very beautiful countryside. We are already about two thirds of the way to Skipton and some of the very finest scenery is yet to come.

Just before Burnley is the Gannow Tunnel. Having hardly seen another boat all day, as we turned round the tight turn into the tunnel, we heard the sound of a horn from another boat coming through. Typical!! Putting MM into reverse had little effect as the canal was extremely shallow and all we did was churn up the mud. Eventually, we got just far enough back to let the other boat out. They were kind enough to thank us, saying they had not seen another boat all day either!!

The tunnel is only a bit over 500 yards long and takes about 10 minutes to go through.

Despite being quite short, it takes a bit of concentration to stop MM from bouncing off the sides.

In the tunnel, it became clear that, in reversing before the tunnel mouth, MM had picked up something on the propeller. Once we came out of the tunnel, R moored up and went down the weed hatch for the second time today, yielding another collection of plastic and detritus.

Burnley is known as the "Weavers' Triangle", famous for its many cotton weaving mills that lined, or used to line, the canal. The survivors are very much in evidence in the approach to the town.

We moored up just before the main wharf. In 2015, we moored just past the wharf but this time M wanted to peg the washing out in the afternoon sunshine.

We walked into the centre of town to get a "few bits" at M&S (actually more that a "few", as R discovered while carrying them back to MM). To gird his loins for the trek back to MM, R treated himself to a coffee in Costa.

The centre of Burnley is almost all pedestrianised and is very pleasant; in fact, quite buzzy for a Sunday. The bright sunshine helped and had clearly brought people out to stroll around. Great for people watching!

On our way back to MM, we saw that the Weavers' Triangle Visitor Centre was open, so we went in for a look. It turned out that it only opens for a couple of hours on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, so we were fortunate indeed to catch it.

The Visitor Centre is in the old Toll Office next to the Wharf. This notice showed the cost of the tolls as well as a suggested donation. Entrance to the Centre is free.

The Toll Keeper's desk had been preserved in the office and the Centre was full of history about the cotton weavers in the town.

One of the photographs showed the busy wharf at the turn of the last century with barges bringing raw cotton in and carrying finished cloth out.

Below is the wharf today, sadly deserted. The centre section has been converted into a pub, which is closed and up for rent. A great shame, as the pub and its cobbled forecourt, is very attractive.

Tomorrow we plan to tackle the last seven locks up to the summit pound, unless it is raining hard, in which case we will do the locks first thing on Tuesday.

Today: 13 miles, 0 locks and 4.8 hours.

Trip: 128 miles, 81 locks and 61.0 hours.