Friday 26th April
There are 3 stations in Burnley! I chose the Manchester Road station as this seemed to be the closest to the canal.
A good friend of mine lives in Accrington and when he knew we were walking this stretch he decided to join us. One of his sons also joined us so it was good company for Thomas as well.
I'm sure Burnley is a nice place but I didn't see the nice parts. We made our way from the station to the canal and the buildings we saw were all in a terrible state. This continued along the canal where buildings were often derelict and in a state of disrepair.
The motorway followed the whole stretch of this walk. No sooner had the canal headed away from the motorway it turned again to lead us back to the traffic noise. A viaduct took us over the motorway at the start of the walk. We then walked underneath the motorway another 5 times. That's 6 times in a short stretch that the canal traversed the motorway. If you're looking for a quiet stroll, this walk is not for you.
There is a tunnel in Burnley which is 559 yards long. It is only accessible by boat so we had to leave the towpath for a while to re-join the canal again a little further along. In this short stretch there were more derelict buildings to see.
My mate said he had enough lunch for us all, which was nice of him as Thomas and I usually go unprepared. It was a shock and a surprise! Armed with cooking stove, pan, hot dogs, buns, ketchup, mustard and a couple of pints of Thwaite's Lancaster Bomber he soon got to work and whipped up a tasty lunch for us. I can recommend the beer too, locally brewed in Blackburn.
We passed the halfway point of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal at a place called Church. A mileage marker and public art display notified you of your position. There is a church in Church which is called Kirk, I don't know the history behind it but Kirk means Scottish Church.
Another 10 miles covered and we left the canal where we started our last walk. A mile walk along Blackburn Road back to Accrington station where a train came in as we arrived. Couldn't have timed it better if we tried. An enjoyable walk but a little noisy because of the motorway. We finally got back to Wigan at about 7:30pm.
