Shopping, Vaccinations and then Onwards.

 Wednesday 8th June 2022 near Norden.

We needed to stock up the fridge and Burnley has a handy M&S, among other supermarkets. So, we walked into the centre early and had coffee and toasted tea cakes in the sunshine, watching the world go by. To our surprise, Burnley has a wealth of nice coffee shops and places to eat. The town centre has been modernised very nicely.

The whole of the centre of the town is pedestrianised and one side street had a "grow your own vegetables" project that was doing very well with lots of green vegetables growing in raised beds.

Another real "find" - a NHS walk-in vaccination centre in the middle of the shops! We had not bothered to have our "spring booster" as all the sites that we were offered from home were in places like South London or Crawley. A quick enquiry indicated that we would be welcome and we were in and out within ten minutes, helped by a very friendly and smiling staff. No waiting, no queue and very efficient service. Brilliant!

After buying a "few bits", we returned to MM and set off back in the direction of Wigan. On the way, we passed this lovely foal and its mum. The foal was pure white apart from pitch black ears! He looked like he was wearing bunny-ears, very cute.

Although this part of Lancashire is very industrial, the hills are always there in the distance.

This milestone celebrates the exact middle of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal, 63 & 5/8 miles in each direction. It was so pleasing to see the distance measured in miles, not kilometres, and in fractions, not decimals!! M doesn't "do" metric! "Long live Imperial" says M!!

Last year in October, there was a serious breach of the canal bank here. This is the rebuilt embankment and behind it the access that had to be built before the repair work could start.. This length re-opened this April after a £1.6 million repair..

We moored up in the same location that we used on our way up the canal several weeks ago and there was even time to get the washing out on the line and dry before the sun went down. The sky was beautiful.

Today: 13 miles, 0 locks and 4.6 hours.

Trip: 195 miles, 125 locks and 110.8 hours.