A Very Exhausting Day

 Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th June 2022 on the outskirts of Wigan.

On Saturday morning, we cruised down to the top of the Wigan 21 flight of locks in the hopes of finding another boat to go down the locks together. Sadly, no other boat appeared. Late in the afternoon, four narrowboats arrived and said that they planned to go down Sunday morning (tomorrow). We either had to wait another day in the hopes that a single boat might arrive or go very early on Sunday before the other four boats started. We decided on the latter course.

Sunday morning, up at 5.10! R had set the first three locks by 6:30 and we entered the first lock at 6:50. This is actually quite a pretty flight.

 

However, the locks are in a very poor state and there is no way of mooring between locks. Once R had driven MM into a lock, closed the top gates and opened the paddles to empty the lock, M would hold MM on the centre rope while R had to walk ahead to set the next lock and open a gate before walking back to the previous lock, climbing 10 ft down a ladder to get back on MM and then M opened that gate so R could drive MM on to the next lock while M closed the gate on the previous lock (if she could). Some of the gates were so heavy that M couldn't close them on her own. And repeat 21 times.Yes, an extremely laborious and time consuming exercise - and exercise it certainly was!!!

On either side of the top nine locks, there used to be a massive coal and steel works that once employed 10,000 people and mined a million tonnes of coal to produce 125,000 tonnes of steel annually. Next to one lock is an old slag heap that towers over the canal.

M scrambled up to the top and found these massive great blocks of slag embedded in the heap.

The view from the top of Wigan far below was spectacular. And what was in theory a massive pile of waste material was, after upteen years, carpeted with wild flowers and quite lovely.  It's wonderful how Mother Nature can reclaim things.

We finally left the bottom lock after 5 hours and 10 minutes. Unfortunately, our problems were just beginning as there was hardly any water in the pound below the bottom lock. The water level was a good 18 inches down and we immediately ran aground.

We were in good company as at least half a dozen other boats were also stuck on the bottom.

To add insult to injury, MM picked up a mass of hard plastic and detritis on her propeller, which took R an hour to remove. It is always difficult to remove large lumps like this as the water is not clear, so you cannot see what is there and how it has wound itself round the propeller. You have to work out what is there by feel and then try to get it unwound from the propeller all while your hands are in very cold mucky water.

Thanks to a very helpful C&RT volunteer by the name of Peter, more water was flushed down into the pound and, after two hours of being stranded, we were on the move again. Our original plan had been to turn right towards Liverpool but after all the problems we'd had today, we turned left toward Manchester and soon moored up for the night. More than a bit tired tonight!

Two Days: 6 miles,23 locks and 3.5 hours.

Trip: 220 miles, 161 locks and 121.5 hours.