Saturday 8th July

Marsden to Slaithwaite

My birthday.

Got ready for an 8am start but there was no sign of activity then. At 8.45 the two boats that had come through the tunnel yesterday came down from the tunnel end for a 9am start down the locks. We went first and made good progress, 2 hours to the bottom of the first 11 locks. Here we had coffee and moored temporarily to wait for the other two boats to pass so that we could ground ourselves near the next lock. After one boat had passed, and the other moored to the railings where we were, we moved down and moored near the end of the footpath down from the Olive Branch. We actually managed to get a pin in-between two stones for the front and attach a rope to an overflow at the rear.

Adrian and Elliot arived at 12.15 whilst I was cooking Eggs Benedict (alsmost). After lunch we carried on down to Slaithwaite, which only took another 2 hours.

After a cup of tea, Adrian and Elliot got a taxi back to their car, which they had left at the Olive Branch.

We started our evening with a pint in the Wharfside, then took a taxi to the Olive Branch. Here we had an excellent 3 course meal accompanied by their house beer, Holme Valley Bitter from the Upper Agbrigg brewery near Holmfirth.

Then we got a taxi to the Sair Inn, Linthwaite to sample some of their beers. We started with Dark Mild which was only £1.40 a pint! While we were there there was a local power cut and candles were brought out, no draught lagers were then served. We walked back to the boat from there.