We are on the move again.

We set off at 09.10 this morning, and arrived at Rishden near Blackburn around 14.00.

The scenery has been stunning and the weather is very sunny and warm.

Rishden is not the most attractive of places, and the state of the canal reflects this. (Rubbih everywhere)

Wendy will update you on her Olympic trip later.

Tomorrow we will go through Blackburn. We have heard conflicting stories about it, but we will make our own decisions.

Below are some of today's pictures

We are now moored up at Hapton Boatyard.
We have found the railway station, so Wendy can catch the 09.38 train to Preston tmorrow, so she can be in London tomorrow afternoon.
The pricing for trains never seem to amaze us. In Skipton, we went to the railway station and tried to book the tickets. They wanted £238 for a return ticket.
We looked online for the same tickets, and found that they were £208. But if you tavelled first class, you could buy the same train time tickets for £153.
We walked into Padiham yesterday. It is the next town about 1 mile away, unlike Burnley, it is clean and very friendly. The bus costs £1.48 and takes about 10 mins. So I may be taking an excursion next week.
I do have a few jobs to do on the boat. As you can imagine, we have gone through over 300 locks
Concrete versus metal. Concrete always wins (see below)

We had a very peaceful night last night despite what we were told.
Today we set off and headed towards Burnley. Everybody we have met has told us to pass Burnley as quick as possible.
We found the journey into Burnley very enjoyable, the scenery was very interesting.
We were told that we could moor by Tesco and shop near the canal. As we approached we saw a number of men drinking from clear bottles, trying to thumb a lift. So we continued.

We then found the BW services at Rose Grove, where we stopped. We found the local shops and topped up supplies.

We continued to Hapton. This is where we will be staying for the next week, as Wendy will be going to London on Sunday as a volunteer for the Olympic games.

So, Pete has  a good view, a shop, takeaway and pub.

Our blog may be suspended for a week as there will not be much to report, sorry about this, but we will continue. Thank you for following us

 

Last night we stayed at Foulbridge, but had such bad mobile signals we could not update the blog.
Foulbridge itself is a lovely little village. However, they do not have anything in the way of shops, just 2 pubs, one of which looked a right dive. We had lunch at the New Inn, which was excellent.

Today we moved on through Foulbridge Tunnel (approx 1 mile long, see below)

Entering Foulbridge Tunnel

The end is in sight

Wendy steered through the tunnel

 

We then had to go through a flight of 7 locks. At the first lock, we were met by a man who had a boat moored in private moorings. He informed us that 3 boats had been broken into last night.

We have been told that the Burnley area is not a safe area to moor. So we have moored up in the middle of nowhere, and after checking the area out, we are near an industrial estate, about a mile from any houses.

Tomorrow we will travel right through Burnley (10 miles but no locks)

We suppose that it is time to get back to reality