Day 3 - To Burnley

Day 3 began by being joined by Linda and members of staff from the company that owns the Holiday Inn Expresses that we are staying at in Burnley and Leeds. I am sure that they would rather not have joined us on such a foul morning with rain ranging from drizzle to deluge.

The Holiday Inn Express team with us at the start

Andrew was a bit quieter today, there having been no distractions by way of media interest, and we set off to walk to the top of the Johnsons Hillocks Locks before setting off in earnest toward Blackburn. For a short while the weather looked like it was going to be kind and we paddled north and east before we came upon a boat whose skipper seemed to need lessons in mooring!

Defo not the right way to moor a boat!

Shortly after encountering the boat we arrived at Riley Green Marina where we met Pam who confirmed that the boat had been manned by a guy who knew it was bit leaky but thought he would get back to the marina before it would need attention.....wrong! Now it stands as a memorial to over-optimism.

Pam on board her boat after giving details about the mystery boat

The weather proceeded to get worse...this is July with temperatures in single figures and the wind in double figures but we pressed on to meet David for our first stop of the day where we found him seeking shelter beneath the bridge waiting with our snacks...good man. He did have the gall to moan about the weather and the fact that he had just had to walk quite some distance to deliver our sandwiches. We resisted the desire to give him a sideswipe with a paddle as we would need him again later in the day.

It's no good waiting any longer...it ain't going to stop

Gradually, as forecast, the rain abated and we were left with a chill in the air, worsened by a breeze  where you could see your breath...this is July? Still, at least we could make progress without being soaked and we made good time to Hapton where we met with Steve and Lee from the HIEX from Burnley. They had offered to paddle the last few miles with us but soon discovered that inflatable kayaks, a breeze and no keels don't make good bedfellows and they spent much of their time and energies just trying to keep the boats going vaguely in a straight line.

We suddenly realised that we aren't half bad at this canoeing lark as we watched our temporary team members struggle over the last 2 miles of the day, the highlight of which was paddling through the 500m Gannow Tunnel. This was a foretaste of our passage through the Foulridge Tunnel which we would be doing tomorrow and which is over 3 times as long.

Arrival at the Holiday Inn Express, Burnley, meant that we had covered 72 miles of our journey at an average of 24 miles per day. The next 2 days were both longer and involved a lot more locks so we suspected our travels might take longer than these first three, easy, days.

The end of Day 3, 72 miles down