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Stratford-Upon-Avon Canal - Hockley Heath to Stratford-Upon-Avon (★★★★☆)

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Today is our second of two days spent walking the Stratford-Upon-Avon Canal, having taken on a more urban stretch of canal between Kings North and Hockley Heath on the previous day. Our destination for today is Stratford-Upon-Avon, and this promises to be a far more rural stretch of canal than we saw on the previous day, as we continue to head across the Midlands. But our first task of the day is to head out of town along the B4439 - before we get the chance to drop down onto the canal towpath itself once again, and from here we find a stretch of canal that is instantly full of rural charm. And bumping into one of the locals, I have a bit of a chat about the weather and the fishing along the canal - before setting off in the direction of the Lapworth Lock Flight. So far there has only been one lock along this canal, and that lock was no longer in use - but to make up for this, we have a run of 26 locks over 2.5 miles ahead - with the water falling 158 feet over the length of this lock...
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Stratford-Upon-Avon Canal - Kings Norton to Hockley Heath (★★☆☆☆)

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Today we are once again taking on a canal route , as we continue to do our best to get out during The Great Rain of 2026 ,   without being at risk of death by drowning, in middle of a boggy field. For this walk, I have chosen to head out along the Stratford-Upon-Avon Canal - in part because that is where the best weather can be found, but also because (after an initially more urban section) this canal takes on a rural route across the Midlands, before finishing up in the pretty town of Stratford-Upon-Avon. But whilst this gives us much to look forward to at the end of our walk, for today the plan is to complete the more urban third of the canal, heading eastwards through the southern end of Birmingham, and only dropping down beyond the edge of Birmingham's suburbs towards the very end of the day's walking. After that, tomorrow is set to be the much more exciting day - as that will then be a very rural route across the Midlands, before we finally arrive into Stratford-Upon-Avon...
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Liverpool & Leeds Canal - Chorley to Appley Bridge (★★★★☆)

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Today we are back walking the Liverpool & Leeds Canal , having spent the previous day walking between Blackburn and Chorley . Overnight I had stayed in a Premier Inn just to the north of town, and having breakfasted with all the business people (who seemed a bit puzzled by my presence), I'm ready to head out for the day. Initially this means walking past a rather dull business park, but with the canal only touching the very edge of Chorley, we don't see too much else of the town (other than a few housing developments) on our way past. Instead our main interest comes as we head out of town - where we get to see a group of deer having a feed on the grass on the opposite side of the canal. Some deer having breakfast (top left) With a canal between me (the dangerous predator) and them (the fearful prey), the deer do not run away - and instead we merely have a bit of a staring competition on my way past. From here we are heading south - and there is a fairly short run ahead of u...
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Liverpool & Leeds Canal - Blackburn to Chorley (★★★★☆)

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With rain continuing to keep the ground wet across most of England, we are back on the canals today - and continuing to tick off sections of the Liverpool and Leeds Canal - which runs for 126 miles between Liverpool and Leeds. On our last visit to this canal, we had walked a fairly urban section of the canal from Burnley to Blackburn - and today we get a more rural section, walking from Blackburn on to the outskirts of Chorley. On the following day we will resume our walk and then finish in Appley Bridge, having walked to and through Wigan. And after this we will have completed almost one hundred miles of walking along the canal - with two final days remaining, to complete the journey to Liverpool. For now though, we are finishing up a rather picturesque train ride into Blackburn - with our route including a particularly pretty section of train line that runs between Todmorden and Burnley. But having reached Blackburn, we must now make our way to  the canal - and with town plann...
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