Plank Lane Lift Bridge and "Flashes".

 Friday 2nd August 2024 outside Wigan

We set off after breakfast, leaving Lazy Bee in Leigh as Shelley has an appointment this afternoon and they will catch us up this evening.

The first order of the day was M's least favourite lift bridge at Plank Lane. To say "least favourite" is quite something as M does NOT like any lift or swing bridges!

Despite M's worries, the bridge worked fine, no irate motorists hurled abuse at her and two nice chaps in a refuse lorry even waved cheerily to her. So we were soon through to the other side.

There are no locks on this stretch of canal until Poolstock Locks, which we will tackle tomorrow with Lazy Bee as they are wide locks. They are well known to narrowboaters as being two of the most difficult on the network, and also subject to regular vandalism. In the past we have been through Poolstock five times and have had problems most times. We shall see...

This is the last bridge before Poolstock.

This whole area is pockmarked with huge lakes, called "Flashes" that have resulted from mining subsidence over the years. This is "Scotsman's Flash", now a very attractive and popular leisure facility and boating lake. It's a nice mooring so we tied up beside it.

M was really surprised at the variety of plants growing between the canal and the flash. Most of them she knew by name but a few she didn't and so looked them up with the "Picture This" app on her phone.  She was surprised (and amused) by some, having never before heard of Common Mugwort, Apple Mint, Red Bartsia and - would you believe - Arctic Rattlebox!  What fabulous names!

More plants... The big yellow one on the left is of the Parsnip family!

The C&RT has just published an update on the leak at Burscough to say that the covering that they put over the leak is working and they will let everyone know when they plan to fix it properly. R phoned the local C&RT office to see what our chances were of getting back out of Liverpool if we get past the leak and go in to Liverpool. The gentleman at the other end didn't seem to know any more than we did but tried to reassure us that we would get sufficient notice to leave Liverpool if they decide to start work and close the canal. Either way, we have all decided to keep going and head for Liverpool anyway.

 

Tomorrow morning, we plan to go into Wigan and M will take the train home for the weekend while MM and Lazy Bee continue on.

Today: 6 miles, 0 locks and 1.9 hours.

Trip: 141 miles, 71 locks and 70.5 hours.