Past Botany Bay and up Johnson's Hill.

Tuesday 4th August, 2015 in Riley Green.
We set off early this morning, as we wanted to make the most of a dry morning and rain was forecast for later in the day. In the end, the rain held off and we had a lovely day's cruising, if a tad cool and windy.
To our surprise, we saw a sign welcoming us to Lancashire. We thought that we'd been in Lancashire for the past week! However, it appears that the canal passes briefly through a bit of Greater Manchester.

Much of this stretch of waterway is densely wooded and to our surprise, R suddenly saw a tawny owl fly over the water with something dangling from its claws; M said it was probably on its way to Hogwarts with a "howler" for Ron Weasley.
Unexpectedly, we came upon a familiar sight; the huge former cotton mill at Botany Bay (Chorley, Lancashire, not Australia!). We had seen Botany Bay before from the M61, which runs alongside it, but had no idea that the canal ran so close on the other side. Experience has taught us that the canals are invisible from afar, almost until the moment you fall in them!

The mill was built in 1855 and closed down eventually in the 1950's. Now it is a massive retail outlet and visitor attraction that draws people from all around the area.
After a seven mile lock free stretch, we came to the bottom of the Johnson's Hill flight of seven locks, considered by the guide books to be one of the most charming in the country. They are indeed in a very pretty setting, with little Japanese-style bridges to access each higher lock.

We were lucky again today to team up with another boat to tackle the locks together. Pat and Mick live on their magnificent A-Frame boat called "Rubicon" and were heading back to their mooring in Burnley. They gave us some very useful advice on safe moorings in Blackburn and Burnley.

At the top lock, we called in to Wheelton Boatyard to purchase a new gas bottle (we have two on board), only the third one that we have got through since MM was launched in 2011!
We then caught up with "Rubicon" and moored together at Riley Green, one of the prettiest mooring that we have had although we can still hear the M65 half a mile away.

The sun even showed itself briefly and we had our supper watched by inquisitive cows in the field on the other side of the canal.

Happy cows to be able to graze in such a lovely location!
Today: 11 miles, 7 locks and 5.3 hours.
Trip: 164 miles, 87 locks and 105.3 hours.