Day 20: Manchester 18

5th September. After a busy day and night yesterday, we had to be up early as the booked passage up the 18 starts at 08:30. Ourselves and one other narrowboat were making the accent. A friendly couple from West Yorkshire. They had been out cruising since April. Makes our 20 days so far seem a little tame.

We were at the 1st lock of the 18 waiting for the CART staff to arrive. Three turned up. Was it that bad? Not really. One guy would see us up and the other 2 started right away on clearing up some of the crap that always seems to end up in't canal!

We made good progress in warm late summer sunshine and before too long we were back at lock 63. This is where we waited to come down the Manchester 18 nearly 3 weeks ago.

We just kept on up the Rochdale and stopped just before the M62 underpass. The one where they can move the towpath for wide  boats. Not the best mooring but it started to rain and we had gone as far as we could today. Tomorrow would be a final assault up the Rochdale and hopefully reach the summit.