Now on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal

A warm and sunny day with a cool breeze when we left our mooring at 9am.  Two miles later we were on the outskirts of Leigh when we had a very good view of a kingfisher which flew down the canal and landed on the bank near the boat.  There, it was harassed by a couple of magpies so it flew off into the trees.

An old mill overlooks houses at Leigh

Leigh gave us views of several old mills although the guidebook says most have been demolished.  Beyond Leigh the canal changes from the Bridgewater owned by Peel Investments (aka The Manchester Ship Canal Company) into the Canal & River Trust Leigh Branch of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal.  After a mile or so beyond Leigh we passed through the Plank Lane Swing Bridge.  Confusingly its not a swing bridge, but an electically operated lift bridge on a busy road.

When we visited previously about 5 years ago it had a permanent bridge keeper but the bridge has now been converted to boater use.  Normally on such bridges one would wait until there was no visible traffic before pressing the button, however here there was no such opportunity.  So I pressed the button, the lights turned red and the barriers were lowered so that the bridge could be safely raised. Densie then passed through and the procedure reversed.  By the time we left there were perhaps 10 vehicles waiting on both sides of the bridge.  One driver called out a cheery greeting, at least I think that was what it was!

1.5 miles further on we moored early for lunch in a pleasant area and then decided not to move any further today.  Tomorrow we plan to get to Wigan and do some shopping before moving out of the town to moor.  We are a day ahead of schedule and so avoiding spending the night in Wigan seems a sensible thing to do.