Rishton to Heapey

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This is our last full day on the boat - and it gets a bit complicated.

Dave left us in Rishton, to get a train to go and pick-up the hire car they had booked in Bolton (then check-in at the marina, take the car to Preston, and get a train back to Blackburn). We were trusted with taking the boat on to the top of the Blackburn lock flight. Which we did - rather quicker than we had planned. On the way we passed another very interesting covered wharf just north of Blackburn.

The Blackburn locks (six in all) are not nearly as pleasant as the Nicholson guide makes out. Quite a lot of the lock equipment is wrecked, with non-functional paddles and other mechanical problems on most of them. And then Dave got hit in the eye by the lead weight from a fisherman who was casting without looking. That could have been a lot worse, but is possibly an indication of how few boats travel along this section of the canal - we met nothing all day.



The Top Lock, Heapey

After rejecting two canalside pubs as not really what we were looking for, we finally crossed the M65 for the last time and ended up at the top of the Johnson's Hillock flight of locks at Heapey. There we had a fantastic Indian/Pakistani meal at the Top Lock pub. OK, we had to wait a while to order our food, but that was because there was a coach party of 22 who got in there before us!

Rishton to Heapey: 14.25 miles, 6 locks