On to Stalybridge

It's been quite an easy day today, only 6 locks and one lift bridge, all of which are fitted with 'hand-cuff' locks. These are anti-vandal locks fitted to the lock winding gear and which require a special key to unlock them.

There are some really pretty sections of the canal especially by through Haughton Dale Nature Reserve which runs through the Tame Valley.

We passed through 3 tunnels, Hyde Bank tunnel which wasn't as low as we'd been led to believe,

Woodley Tunnel which was VERY narrow and had a tow-path going through it

and a tunnel which took us right under Asda at Ashton under Lyne.

The Lower Peak Forest Canal ends at a T-junction at Ashton Under Lyne. Turn left to go to Manchester on the Ashton Canal or turn right, as we did, to go onto the Huddersfield Narrow Canal.

The Huddersfield Narrow Canal is quite industrialised and there's lots of debris and rubbish in the water. Judging by people's comments we are possibly the first to pass this way so far this year, but we were closely followed by another boat called Skye, which we've seen several times when we were on the Macclesfield Canal.

This was a very narrow aqueduct over the River Tame

It looks like the kids have been playing with shopping trolleys at Stalybridge as well as at Marple as we got caught up on another one just as we were mooring up outside Tesco. Luckily it didn't do any damage and we'll watch out for it on the way back. It's certainly convenient for shopping here, you can get the trolley right up to the boat!