Locks and foraging

11/7/2017


Today transport by car, bus, boat and feet. Returned car hired for the York jaunt,  caught bus back to boat, cruised up 8 locks to Upper Mill, and later walked towarda the head of the Tame Valley, exploring the landscape which we will traverse by boat tomorrow.

The locks are getting deeper as we climb towards the tunnel through the Pennine summit. Evidence of the industrial role of the canal everywhere, from old mill buildings, transhipment points for cargoes, channels of mill streams. And on the canal itself, stone bridges scored with grooves from ropes, as horses pulled the boats. Even iron corners on bridges are deeply grooved by the ropes.

Moored at Upper Mill, where a small woodland area between the canal and the river proved to have a crop of wild raspberries growing in the thickets. Yum. The blackberries are plentiful but not yet ripe.

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