Thursday 20th April

A day of mixed fortunes. We were raring to go by 8.30 - finally, the padlocks were taken off!! 6 volunteers arrived - and we were the only boat initially, so we had plenty of help to tackle the Marple flight - 16 locks - in perfect weather conditions! It was great to be setting off on a long trip again - full sunshine all day!! 

Marple aqueduct- Interesting to see the new safety railings, finally approved by English Heritage.

Quiet cruise up to Dukinfield Junction with very few boats around. As we had made good time on the PeakForest canal we decided to turn left and tackle the Ashton canal in to Manchester. Lots of unforgiving locks - deep, stiff gates and every paddle fitted with crude antivandal devices that smashed into your kneecap if you aren't careful,  By 7.0pm we decided to call it a day and  moored up next to the Etiad stadium - 10.5 hrs and 29 locks!

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