Lancaster Canal

I posted nine days a go about being lumbered with the responsibility of organising the canoe club's beginners course and to date my organisational skills must have played off. Today was the half way marker of the course - three sessions are now complete, and three remain - and the first time the pupils paddled on water which is not chlorinated, heated and crystal clear. Instead they are eased in to a canal session where the water is murky, filled with spilt diesel and far from the heat of the swimming pool. All of this happens on the Lancaster Canal - just outside the village of Clifton, a settlement on the rural-urban fringe of Preston - by the Hand and Dagger pub and Bridge 26.

Once all the pupils had been kitted out with equipment from the canoe club's vast store they headed down to the water's edge for a demonstration in getting in the boat.

Once on the water we headed north, going with the wind, and soon we reached our final destination. Here we did some tuition on 1 Star strokes and then headed back into the wind making slightly slower progress.

In the whole journey along the canal we came across no canal barges until this one at the very end. Luckily most of the group had got off the water.

Tomorrow I will hopefully head north to the Lake District for some paddling of my own. Check back tomorrow evening to see what goes down.

Good lines, stay safe and see you on the wet stuff...
Iain