County boundary

Today’s the day ................... to cross the border

After thirty-five locks which raise the Rochdale Canal up to a giddy height of some 600ft above sea-level, we reached the summit pound.

We had an all too brief spell of going along the flat before we had to tackle our first going-down  lock – but there was also a sense of achievement that we had made it to the top.  We weren’t quite half way there as you can see on the ancient milepost in extras but we did cross the boundary between West Yorkshire and Great Manchester aka Lancashire.  We must have been one of the first boats to make it over the top since the locks bordering the summit pound were closed because of lack of water.  And indeed we had to do a bit of juggling with the water that was there to make it through.

But make it, we did – and after that it was downhill all the way to Manchester ....................!