The diver and the photographer

In glorious weather we made our way down the Huddersfield Narrow and back to Dukinfield junction in Ashton-under-Lyne. This time we made time to stop for the impressive museum of industrial history at the edge of the canal basin to learn about the now-vanished local industries of hat-, clog- and nail-making.

The plan was then to head along the Ashton Canal  to Manchester but damaged locks mean it’s been closed for three weeks and will be closed for another two, so our only option for getting there was the very long way round, heading back the way we’d come on the Cheshire Ring via Marple.

Various of my lessons have been interrupted by unmissable things going on outside the boat. This time it was John deciding to clear the paddle that caused us so much trouble in his absence on Saturday. As well as the students, he attracted a small crowd of locals to watch him fishing for detritus with his feet. He extracted a brick that should not have been there but could not clear everything that was blocking the gate. But we got through and pushed on.

Dinner, as usual, was as the light was lessening, and afterwards seven of us took the boat’s underinflated football to a nearby playing field to use some non-canal muscles playing piggy-in-the-middle. Our injury rate was alarmingly high, with one throw landing the ball on A’s cheek and V pulling a neck muscle. Not a great start to tonight’s lock-free moonlight cruise, but slipping through the water with our eyes adjusting to the subtleties of low light was fabulous. Summer dusk lasts so much longer outside with no artificial light. Bats flitted near us, the moon bounced off the canal and lit up the water grasses at the edge and the youngsters lay on their backs on the boat roof to watch the stars gradually become visible.

(Millbrook along Huddersfield Narrow  to Dukinfield junction. Peak Forest Canal Lower to Marple. Turn on to Macclesfield Canal.)