Climbing to the top of the world

The weather station recorded -2.7 outside last night and it was quite frosty when I took the dogs out first thing. It soon brightened up and we've had another beautiful sunny day. While we had the engine running to charge the batteries I did the mundane tasks of hoovering and ironing. Of course Roger had to take the dogs out for a walk while I was doing this as Chico is scared of the hoover. That dog is scared of just about everything!

My reward for all the 'house'work was lunch at the Navigation pub, just up the road from our mooring, on Wool Road. They had a selection of 5 guest ales on hand pump and a good varied menu. At 2 meals for £13 you could choose from a wide selection of home cooked dishes all using local produce and including good vegetarian options like veggie stew with dumplings and veggie toad in the hole. We both had the cottage pie with red cabbage which was gorgeous. Even the red  cabbage is home made and spiced with star anise and allspice.

After lunch we decided to walk to Saddleworth War Memorial up on the hills. It's quite a landmark and we've seen it everywhere we've moored from Mossley to Dobcross.

We started off by crossing the River Tame using the stepping stones in the centre of Uppermill. Thankfully, although the stones were displaced by flooding last year, Health and Safety hasn't gone mad here, unlike at the stepping stones across the River Dove in Derbyshire, and the stones are still different shapes and heights. 

Once out of town the roads and paths became ever steeper and within 5 minutes we were out in the countryside. At the top of one particularly steep path we came across our first lambs of the season.

It was 1.8 miles and a climb of almost 1000 feet to reach the War memorial which is also know locally as the Pots and Pans memorial, named after a rock formation a few hundred feet away.

Half way up

The climb to the top took quite a while as it's so steep but luckily there's a bench seat at the top beside the obelisque. The views back over the town and beyond are spectacular and more than made up for the aching legs and pounding heartbeat.

view back over town

When we got back to the boat it was time to move over to the water point beside the Huddersfield Canal Society Transhipment Shed as we were just about out of water. This must be the slowest water point in the country! We stayed 45 minutes and only filled a quarter of the tank but that'll do us for the next two days until we move back into Uppermill and luckily the tap there has really good pressure.