Leigh

After yesterday's effort, we slept longer this morning and were slightly slower leaving our overnight mooring alongside Scotman's Flash.

Scotman's Flash

With no locks and only one lift bridge ahead of us it was set to be a much easier day. The forecast was for rain almost all day and for thunder and lightning storms around noon. However as we set off it was cold but dry and remained so until midday. the cloud was not uniformly grey and some interesting patterns arrived.

One or two other flashes could be seen through the hedgerow together with occasional glimpses of the Pennine hills in the distance.

Site of former Dover Lock

The two Poolstock locks we passed through yesterday evening were built to replace two older ones at Dover Bridge - the remains of one are clearly visible.

How long since this last spanned the canal?

Plank Lane Bridge

The only movable bridge today was at Plank Lane. Despite still having the name Plank Swing Bridge, it is actually a lift bridge. It carries only a minor road but one which is well used - so much so that operation of the bridge by boats is not allowed during rush hours. Still, there were satisfying queues of cars that built up on both sides!

Just after the bridge is a newly constructed area of open water, quite empty and we did not discover what purpose it has. As the photo shows, the sky behind us was by now quite blue, but darker clouds were arriving from the east.

Waterside Inn, Leigh

At Leigh there was a convenient mooring alongside the Waterside Inn (just to the right of the photo) and we could at least see that there was an Aldi next to the canal.

However, we opted to walk into the town centre, only five minutes away. Although quite austere in parts it was a thriving shopping area, mostly the less expensive chain stores, but we found a Pork Butcher down a side street with various local specialities. Sadly the pork pie lasted only as long as lunch time!

Alas, the rather grand looking Boulevard is an entrance merely to a gaming centre! A good indoor market provided most of what we wanted - vegetables, fruit, fish but not bread. Local information suggested that freshly baked bread was best at Lidls. With only ground coffee left on the list, a visit to Tesco ended the shopping trip but we felt that we had made maximum use of local shops. However, back at the boat, Christine realised that we were almost out of yoghurt so Mike quickly popped back to Aldi - so we did use the nearest shop after all!

By now it was well past 1 o'clock so we stayed put for lunch. Just as we were stirring ourselves to set off again, the black clouds turned to thunder and lighting and very heavy rain fell for about half an hour. The thunderstorm then preceded us as we headed towards Manchester , with the blue sky coming along behind.

A number of old industrial buildings stand close to the canal - unfortunately many of them still await a new use.

Graffiti is often obscure to the uninformed viewer - we wondered who Anthony Grainger might be. Google later revealed that he was shot and killed by police in Salford earlier this year.

It was not always easy to be sure whether the extent to which the canal stands above the surrounding levels is due to the way in which it was constructed and developed or what might have once been at the same level. However, this older pub has its sitting area well below the coping stones and must be an indicator of where the canal once ran.

By now we were on the Bridgewater canal - wide and generally straight. Although we could not capture it on camera, lightning continued to brighten the sky in front of us for quite some time. Although once very industrial, the canal is now enclosed by quite well developed shrubs and trees.

Before long, the sunshine caught up with us and then we moored, just before Worsley, it turned pleasantly warm.

10.5 miles - 0 locks