Caught the tram to Salford Quays which sits on the Manchester ship canal. The area has been done up with large scale new development and there's plenty to visit from television studios to museums, theatre and art gallery to large a shopping mall plus the pubs, restaraunts and fast food hall...
The area is known as Media City...
The BBC has relocated here.... ITV and Coro, was on the other side of the canal....
From the other side of the canal...
Looking at the BBC complex...
Across the Manchester Ship Canal....
This lift bridge is a Vertical Riser...
An outstanding looking building was....
The Lowry..... Theatre and art gallery named after Laurence Stephen Lowry .... famous local artist...
His paintings and drawings are on permanent display....
Also showing was...
War Horse... at the theatre...
Lowry's art is unique in that he loved to paint what was going on around him in his local area.. and his drawings and sketches very simple....
Across the canal.....
The Imperial War Museum...
Trammed back to the city... 15minutes then visited the Museum of Science and Industry.,,
Every thing on display, from trains to planes to a working cotton mill to large industrial engines was designed and built using the factories of the region...
A couple of interesting displays...
Yokosuka MXY7 Ohka... rocket powered flying bomb...
Launched from a bomber plane and carried 1200 kg of explosives..
The pilots were... Kamikaze... and volunteered or were selected from workers who built them...
Quite often the last words they said.. "Tell Laura I Love Her" as they left on a mission..
The first hit by one of these was the battleship USS West Virginia....
Able to fly for 24hrs at a time this...
Auro Shackelton AEW2 was an early warning aircraft.. It detected with radar aircraft or missiles unable to be detected by ground radar... Evolved from the Lancaster bomber...
Charles Rolls and Henry Royce met at a Manchester pub in 1904 and decided that Rolls would sell Royces cars .....
In 1904 17 cars were made but sold slowly...Rolls thought they were over priced at... 215 Pounds...
This one was...
Number 12....
A cut away of a...
Rolls Royce jet engine....
And a cut away of... For Anorak Wearers...
Tank Loco, Pender No,3..... Douglas to Peel line, Isle Of Man....
And something that is huge in the UK....
Speedway solo's .... This bike was built by Eric Langton using a JAP motor... top rider himself who won the 1932 equivalent of the world champs.. The above was ridden by Belle Vue Aces gun, Peter Craven known as "The Wizard of Balance".. only UK rider to have won 2 world champs 55 - 62.. in every final from 54 - 63.....
After the days viewings it was time to join Dawn and Jim, NB Pukeko, who live in Takapuna NZ but spend 6 months cruising the canals.
We had meet on the GU canal and went from Paddington to Limehouse Basin and up the Thames to Kingston with them.
Before a trip to the pub for dinner it was...
A few drinks on NB Pukeko...
Next morning we pass as...
Dawn has untied the front mooring to follow.. The Wharf in the pub background does very good meals...
At the Junction of Waters Meeting...
NB Pukeko turns left toward Lymm. We go right toward Wigan...
Great to catch up with Jim and Dawn.. Two nicer people you won't meet.....
Retracing our steps from last year but always a thrill to...
Pass over the Barton Swing Bridge over the Manchester Ship Canal..
Still amazes to see this whole stretch of canal swing sideways to let ships by....
And looking toward Liverpool...
The road bridge that also swings...
A useful....
Garden ornament....
Passing through...
Worsley is easy on the eyes....
Same as last year but going the other way..
Tied up and jumped the fence to go to close by Tesco.. This time had to remove the trolley from the canal to moor...
Half a mile short of Wigan and about to leave the second of the Poolstock Locks and another NB approached to enter the lock.....
What a big Surprise ... It was Janet and Peter, who built and sold to us NB Firefly NZ... They were on their latest build, not completely finished inside, and heading to Llangollen on a two week sortie...
Of course we had to stop for "A Brew" and check out NB Firefox..
They have had some innovative ideas with a flat floor right through to the front hatch.....
A fixed shaped steel cratch with a sliding hatch and internal stairs...
And to break the painted ceilings....
The timber centre strip with lights and speakers... Very "Aviation" I reckon...
This boat will be for sale and also has Peters excellent skills with the timber fit out....
Spent the night at Wigan by the CART office and in the morning reversed back through the lock and pound to line up for the first of the 21 locks...
Started to rain again at the first. At the second run aground halfway into the lock and there was little water in the exit pound. A phone call to CART had them send up a worker to release water further up and to control the flow so we could continue. We did the whole flight alone, only met two boats sharing locks going the other way, and with 4 locks to go it fair P----D down... 6.5 hours and to be fair.."It wasn't the best day we've had on the canals"...
A view of....
Wigan below showing the rise up the locks of 214ft 7inches... the rain was about to hit again...
There's nothing to see now but at the turn of the century beside the top 9 locks Wigan Coal & Iron Co, employed 10,000 people.....
We moored at the top and were asleep by 9.30pm....
Next morning waited for more rain to ease then set off...
Passing Haigh Hall and Country Park.. Built by the 23rd Earl of Crawford....1830s.....
Pretty uneventful day, 6 locks, and made it past Chorley to moor below the top lock at Johnsons Hill locks..
Just pulled over as the....
Skies darkened and down it came again.....
When it stopped the view confirmed...
We have left the Townies and Grafitti behind for the moment......
Our mooring looking toward ....
One lock to go on the flight...
Set the alarm to head off early this morning. Needing to pass through Blackburn the word on the street is to do it early as people who stay up late causing trouble don't usually get up early.
Anyway we don't believe to much of the "Canal Hype" and haven't had any trouble from so called trouble spots but lessening the risk is sensible.
Before Blackburn another NB pulled out going our way, I'll tell Ya, there aren't many, so we looked forward to sharing lock duties...
todays weather was sunny and warm..
We Passed...
Blackburn Rovers footy ground...
And skirted around....
Blackburn central on the hill...
No problems at all and soon smashed over the flight of six locks...
The hills are starting to...
Open out with villages scattered around....
Now there are zillions of miles of stone walls and a lot are falling down in sections.
Stone masons or wall building is a "Dying Art" but with proper guidance a new generation of "Wall Builder / Repairer" will rise....
And today we're proud to have seen that...
The "New Generation" is catching on fast.... A couple more night classes... Cool Ehhh??...
We past through Rishton, very depressing architecture, and then Church....
I've never liked Church and this one didn't inspire a change of thought...
As we waited for a swing bring these two Church Goers.....
Jack and Lee asked for a ride to the next.... then if they could steer. OK... then if they could walk on the roof.... go inside.. stop the engine.. got any sweets... you got a dog... use the camera...can we come to NZ... make me a brew... NO to all of those..
Then they showed their appreciation by throwing two stones at us as we left them... Kids of Church....
Anyway it's been a fun day cruising so we moored up with...
A bit of a view......
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