Mark Carter and I set off from Liverpool at 5.10am. The weather was dry but there had been days of heavy rain previously. The towpath changed from concrete to a narrow track much sooner than we had expected and the progress was slow. In many places the path was grass or thick mud. There were some better sections at Wigan, Blackburn and Burnley where we made up some time. We arrived in Leeds after 16 and a half hours.