For all you folk out there that may have been wondering what has happened to our blog I can now reveal that the usual blogs have been halted due to 'The Great Bake Off' and 'Strictly Come Dancing'! It seems that our 15 GB per month has been used up by watching these over the month. But we are back!!
In the morning we went into Ashton for the market and the haberdashery shop and walked back via Portland Basin to see if they were open on a Monday. They were so we backed down to the junction and in to their arm to load up with diesel and we also took a couple of bags of coal. We were soon on our way again and heading up the end of the Ashton. As we approached the first bridge I was thinking the we would be stymied at the first hurdle as it looked like there was the parapet of the bridge or nearby mill sitting in the middle of the cut. As we got closer I could see that it wasn't brick or stone work but it wasn't until we got really close that I realised that it was a huge chunk of expanded foam! Fortunately there was just enough room for me to push it round the boat as I didn't fancy having to break it up. I have no idea where it may have come from.
Monday 19th October 2014.
Tony just managing to move the floating obstacle aside.
As we got to the first lock on the Huddersfield Narrow there were a couple of blokes measuring up as on 4th November they are replacing the gates. At present they are worked with a quadrant mechanism rather than a beam and one or both sides are to be reinstated as beams. The first part of the canal passes long disused mills and rubbish filled pounds.
The first mill that looks like it has been reused is the Barnet Mill and with the sun shinning on it and no billowing smoke from the chimney (that is now redundant) it looks quite picturesque.
A cormorant and bushes using the top of the chimney of the Ray or Premier Mill.
There is a delightful aqueduct that crosses the River Tame in a stone trough and with an arched tow path. Anywhere else and this would be almost a place of pilgrimage for canal buffs but here it seems to go down the years forgotten. That is one of the joys of this canal.
We stopped after Lock 5W, almost outside the Chinese restaurant. Today was supposed to be the start of the tail end of the hurricane but we missed out other than the wind rising a little. Once moored up and settled we went off up the road to the Staylbridge Station Buffet. It is a must for real ale drinkers and anybody that likes a pub with a bit of character. It is right on the platform and with a nice fire burning and a good range of beers. I tried a couple of local brews before heading back to the boat. We stopped for a bag of chips to have with our meal before settling down for the night as the wind rose.
2 comments:
Well, good to see you back! If watching Strictly and Bake Off uses up your allowance then time to increase it or change the TV to run without the internet - it is too big a worry to your readers to have your blog off line, Mr P, esp when emails asking how you are also have to go unanswered!!
Easy to see why set designers/builders use polystyrene, eh?
M&Dxox
Very relieved everything's OK. After your last post about the Marple flight then unprecedented silence I was fearing the worst! I love reading your blog - it feeds our dreams of doing the same in a few years when I join my husband in retirement, and in this weird internet world it makes you and Helen feel like friends even though you've no idea who I am!
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