Route planning

Not long to go now until we're off on our summer cruise. Our son Andrew lives in Sheffield, and I thought it would be good to visit him and Bekka by boat. As we haven't "done" the Rochdale Canal (apart from the Nine) I thought we'd go the long way round, i.e. up to Manchester and then over the Pennines via Rochdale.

At Sowerby Bridge the waterway becomes the Calder and Hebble Navigation; at Cooper Bridge (Huddersfield) we'll be retracing the steps we took in 2005, but only as far as Castleford Junction where, instead of turning left towards Leeds, we'll carry on down the Aire and Calder Navigation to Southfield Junction. Here the plan is to turn left on the dead-straight New Junction Canal and continue up the South Yorkshire Navigations to Sheffield.

I'd be really grateful if any reader who has experience of this route could tell me if there's anything I should know beforehand. I'll consult the CRT website about booking Tuel Deep Lock - is there anything else which needs booking? (I have a feeling the Rochdale Summit needs to be booked too, is that the case?)

Having got to Sheffield, assuming we do, it would be a shame not to visit the Chesterfield Canal while we're in the area. This will involve a bit of tidal Trent. I guess the best thing here is to go with the flow from Keadby Junction to West Stockwith Junction.

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Rather than leave this post without photos, here's David (of Kew) testing the Severn in Worcester for swimmability.

Half-way across, and it's all right: the weir is 500m away.

He made it to the other side, and back again.