Another day, another canal

I went to visit a friend who lives near the Calder and Hebble Navigation. It's a unique waterway, quite different from the Leeds-Liverpool Canal (LLC) that I'm more familiar with. The Navigation is based around the Rivers Calder and Hebble. By the year 1700, they had created 'canal cuts' in places where the rivers are winding or have weirs. These canal cuts allow boats to bypass those tricky sections. It means sometimes you find yourself walking along the river and other times on a stretch of canal. This makes the waterway quite complex, with floodgates to protect the canal sections and locks to adjust the heights between the rivers and canals.

It's more urban than many parts of the LLC too, though still quite attractive in some areas. It has a few marinas, with the usual mix of hire boats, well-kept narrowboats that are used by their owners for leisure and adventures, and quite a lot of smaller, scruffier craft. Those often belong to people who've fallen on hard times and find a boat a more affordable living solution than bricks and mortar. 

Unfortunately, our planned walk was interrupted by the closure of the waterside path, due to the Transpennine Route Upgrade (TRU). This is a major project to upgrade the railway across the north of England between Manchester and York. The TRU aims to increase capacity by adding extra track, electrifying the entire route, introducing digital signalling, and upgrading stations. It's a huge and costly project. We came up against a large working area, where they are moving and rebuilding Ravensthorpe Station. 

It meant we had to abandon the waterway and strike off along the busy main road, though thankfully after a while we did manage to find a route that led us through quieter woodland and eventually back to the canal towpath. 

It was a good walk, adding another 6 miles on my 'steps app'. My phone must wonder what's going on, since this month I've done many miles more walking than I usually average!