Rochdale Canal

The Rochdale Canal seems to begin around Castlefield and goes on for 34 miles way up into the Pennines.

Betty and I drove to Longsight and parked. We then tootled into Piccadilly. At the side of the station is the car park signed Piccadilly Basin and that's where we began.
Straightaway there were gorgeous sights; blocks of flats, a marina, parks and the ubiquitous geese.

Three fishermen were already well relaxed.

This is at the Marina to the side of the canal. Give it a few years and it'll look great.

On the actual canal things were not so bright. The towpath disappeared. We had to follow our nose and cross over broad highways of roaring metal cars. We had to duck and dive through strange tunnels and over cobbles.

But the canal does help lend an air of respectability to the areas, old-established areas like Collyhurst and Ancoats and Miles Platting and the towpath has been tarmaced along most of the route.
We came across a puzzled looking guy from down South who was trying to get his narrow boat back to Rochdale. Why was he puzzled. Check out next photograph.

No water. It was shallow enough for a pigeon to stand there and have a bath. A couple of hours later he had made a bit of progress but it was clearly slow going.

Sivori's ice cream parlour, Newton Heath, (I think) There's a link to Edgeley. They have a coffe shop in Castle Street.

Up near Failsworth. Another lovely old mill.

This is either Chadderton or Failsworth. You get confused on towpaths. You have to keep asking strangers, "Excuse me, where am I?"
Groups of lady joggers plied up and down the towpath. Clusters of fishermen with their long black poles.

And it's always great to see one of the old bridges. They just look  so beautiful compared with our functional concrete one.

Up at Chadderton, near Oldham, somebody stole the canal. We climbed up onto a Motorway Bridge and glimpsed it down below, emerging into sunlight. Lovely to find it again.

It's there...on the right.

And so we stopped for the day with countryside all round, dog walkers busily scooping poop, a young man with a puncture and no repair kit (sorted him) sunshine dappling through the leaves and the canal, stretching quietly back and ahead, breathing a sort of calm into the landscape.

This was near the River Irk Aqueduct. Isn't it beautiful ?