42 Saturday 21 November 2020 Wigan Locks

With the weather looking unpromising, we decided to return to the Leeds-Liverpool Canal and walk from Wigan in the opposite direction. We parked in Wigan. It started raining almost as soon as we left the car and never stopped. We went to Gregg's for a breakfast bap. We noticed that a number of shops which did not appear to meet the definition of essential were still open. After eating our snack in Witherspoons' doorway wse made our way back to the pier.

The canal area has been well landscaped going in this direction particularly around Trencherfield Mill and Wigan Dry Dock.

Much of this stretch is attractively rural although the constant rain made it hard top appreciate the scenery. Even so there were a lot of other people using the towpath and a few fishermen.

Early on, I commented on the lack of barges on this section. The reason soon became apparent as lock followed lock in quick succession. There are 21 in total over two miles.

We had planned to start looking for a bus back to Wigan at 1pm to give me time to get back for football. By 12, Simon was wet and fed up so I said we'd call it a day when we hit the Aspull road. Simon then started asking people how far it was. Two cyclists who were sheltering under Cale Lane Bridge completely misunderstood where we meant and said it was about five miles off and advised us to reverse our steps to Rose Bridge. This seemed wrong so I asked Simon to consult his phone. He found there was a bus stop pretty close to the bridge so we ended the walk there. We only had to wait five minutes for the next bus to Wigan. A subsequent map check revealed we were less than a mile away from the Aspull road. When we got to Wigan we found a chippy but my order was misheard and I got pudding and chips instead of curry and chips. When we walked back to the car it sopped raining !