We set off around 8:15 into a lovely sunny morning, albeit a little chilly much like yesterday. We wound our way through the countryside, following the contours of the land wherever they seemed to want to go. We went under the M65 a few times; vehicles there probably traveled the distance in 5 minutes, but our roundabout ways took us more like an hour.
We arrived in Blackburn by late morning – after earlier comments from Dad, we weren’t looking forward to it much but to be honest we can’t see what all the fuss was about and there were some nice old mills and factory buildings

It wouldn’t be a stretch of the canal either of us will miss, but at least in the sunshine it was just fine. What wasn’t so fine was the unknown boat in front of us, who left the gate paddles open on the final lock and thereby emptied the pound of water. We were forewarned by some people walking up the towpath, and once we reached the empty pound there were some C&RT folk there in the process of sorting it out.

In the end we had to wait for about an hour and a half for the pound to be refilled, but we made good use of the time to have lunch and finish cleaning the boat sides whilst we waited in the lock.

After Blackburn it was all plain sailing, with no more locks to worry about and a return to the countryside. We found a quiet mooring next to a nature reserve to spend the night.