19th to 28th July 2014

Apart from isolated bursts of rain, we’ve been boating in glorious sunshine as we have made our way gradually southwards from Leeds to Newark, our current ‘home’. David, Lizzie and James joined us for the first stretch out of Leeds, unfortunately on one of the wettest mornings for weeks, so the children were mostly confined to the boat!

Too rainy to come out

We whizzed down the Aire and Calder Navigation and the ‘New Cut’, enjoying the luxury of automatic locks, after all the hard work on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. 

Looks a bit fishy...

Once we were on the Stainforth and Keadby Canal heading towards the River Trent we were horrified at the spread of the duckweed(?) which covered the surface of the water for a distance of about 10 miles.

Our passage through the weed

The boat crawled slowly along, with the engine in danger of overheating, and once moored safely above Keadby Lock Roger had to insert himself once again into the cramped space below the back deck to clear the propeller. There turned out to be not only weed, but plastic bags, rope and yards of fishing line.

Roger in the weed hatch
( makes a change from the dog house)

 Jean was summoned by a blood-curdling cry to come to his assistance when he impaled his finger on a fish-hook and had to cut himself free as he was unable to withdraw his hand from beneath the water.

On Wed 23^rd we began the journey upstream along the Trent,

Some sizeable boats still use the Trent!

 leaving ( along with 7 other boats) at 3pm with the incoming tide for the first leg up to Torksey, a distance of 27 miles taking 4½ hours. We were last to arrive so found the mooring pontoons already crammed with boats awaiting the next day’s tide, and had to ‘breast up’ against another narrowboat, waking the surprised owner from his snooze!

Entering Cromwell Lock

The next morning saw an early start at 6.30am to take advantage of the last of the tide to help us up to Cromwell Lock 16 miles away. Once there we breathed a sigh of relief at coming off the tideway, and settled down to a day’s rest ( and a chance to catch up with the washing!)

From there we made our way to Newark, where we have tied up for a few days while we fulfil various child-minding duties both ‘up north’ and ‘down south’.

Maltby Brass Band

 There are excellent moorings very close to the pleasant town centre, which has many fine buildings near the large market square. It also boasts two railway stations - and has a programme of brass band concerts on Sunday afternoon in the Castle Gardens.

Finally, some signs that have amused - or in some cases alarmed us! Apologies for poor quality of some photos.

In fact they're usually faster than us

An unusual speed limit for a canal!
(actually for the adjoining track)

Traffic lights in case of high water

Oo-er

Oo-er again

Spotted in a boat window

We're still puzzling over this one

9th to 18th July

It’s been an enjoyable week on the whole – the good news is that we did successfully squeeze our 61ft boat into the 60ft locks, and made it all the way to Gargrave, a pretty village beyond Skipton. Even better news is that we have made it back down again in one piece, and are once more moored in the heart of Leeds.

Vincent Joseph at Granary Wharf, Leeds

The bad news is that we are heartily sick of swing bridges, of which there are all too many on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal!

Robert 'locking'

On Wed 9^th Robert came to help us tackle the tough stretch climbing out of Leeds: we travelled 11 miles and got through 17 locks, including 3 staircases, and 8 swing bridges – an exhausting day.

"Stop" - the alternative being...?

 Most of the swing bridges have to be pushed open by hand, and can be extremely stiff and heavy to move – and both bridges and locks are ‘padlocked’ with anti-vandal chains, which have to be laboriously removed and then replaced. When a bridge carries a main road, it is usually electrically operated, with flashing lights, warning siren and automatic barriers, which gives one a heady feeling of power!

Breasted up with another boat,
waiting for bridge engineer

Unfortunately, they break down all too frequently, leaving the boater red-faced in front of a queue of fuming motorists. The CRT maintenance engineers dash from one to another trouble-shooting, in between their scheduled tasks for the day.

HOWEVER, moaning apart, we have enjoyed passing through some lovely scenery as the canal has climbed up the wooded Airedale valley and into open countryside with sweeping views over the hills.

Stunning views

On Thurs 10^th Sue and Dave, who were staying in Leeds, came to join us for the famous Bingley 5-Rise Staircase Locks (preceded by the less well-known Bingley 3-Rise).

Bingley 5-Rise

 Built in 1774, between them they raise the canal 90ft in the space of half a mile, and are manned in daylight hours by a team of lock-keepers who organise the boats, and do all the hard work of winding the paddles to fill and empty the locks.

On the journey up, we were able to fit into locks with another boat if necessary, but we were obliged to come back down alone in order to position the boat diagonally across the lock, to avoid getting the stern caught up on the cill. (A boat was sunk in a lock at Gargrave because of this, during the week we were there!) 

 Roger getting soaked

However, being in diagonally led to difficulties in opening the bottom gates - all in all a complicated business, and also a very wet one for Roger, as the leaky gates poured a fountain of water over the hapless steerer at the back with nowhere to escape the deluge!

Rob and Matt retrieving bikes
( we couldn't moor any closer!)

We had more visitors over the course of the week : Rob and friend Matt cycled 20 miles up from Leeds (and 20 back), 

Amanda and David

David brought girlfriend Amanda to see the boat, and then returned at the weekend with Lizzie and James,

Lizzie and James (alias Superman)

 and Pat and Chris (Caroline’s parents) came for lunch in Skipton. 

Pat and Chris

Skipton is a very attractive town, with a castle towering above a little side branch of the canal.  The Tour de France passed through here,

Tour de France display

and all the shops were decorated with bike-themed pictures, models and displays – even the church sported a yellow bicycle!

Yellow Tour de France bike on church

On our return journey, we stopped at Saltaire, a ‘model’ village built by mill-owner Titus Salt in the 1850’s, to provide his workers with decent living conditions.

Saltaire Mill

 It is still a delightful place, with rows of elegant stone terraces of house climbing the hill up from the canal, and a magnificent church, as well as the mill buildings which still stand by the waterway.

We're definitely in Yorkshire!

We’re really pleased to have been able to travel at least some of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, and have very much enjoyed the beautiful countryside, and all the people we’ve met on the way. On Saturday, we shall head out of Leeds, to retrace our steps back to the Trent and towards the Midlands.

23rd June - 8th July

We’ve come a long way over the past couple of weeks, covering a lot of miles, and passing through many attractive towns and villages en route. However, time is pressing if we are to achieve our aim of reaching the Pennines before returning home to Leamington for good in September, so we have not lingered long for sight-seeing. We continued along the River Soar to Leicester,

Weir outside Leicester

 where we struggled with heavy, badly maintained locks, and tried to avoid often ill-signposted weirs. 

Canalside sculpture in Loughborough

We continued through Loughborough, before joining the River Trent near Ratcliffe-on-Soar, just south of Nottingham. 

Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station

  North of Nottingham, the river becomes more impressive: wide and fast-flowing, 

River Trent, leaving Nottingham

with enormous locks, all manned by cheerful lock-keepers, glad of something to do since virtually all commercial traffic on the canal has ceased. 

VHF radio

We alerted each lock in advance on our new VHF radio, which Roger has installed in the engine room, with a magnetic aerial intended for taxis (!) mounted on the roof.

 After stopping briefly in Newark, 

Castle ruins overlooking Newark Lock

we arrived at Cromwell Lock, gateway to the tidal section of the Trent, and booked our passage for the following day.  Unlike the Thames, the Trent tideway is very quiet, with very little boat traffic, and few villages along the way. 

Boat leaving Cromwell lock

The main worry is running aground, rather than colliding with another boat. We had bought a copy of the “Sissions Chart” for the tidal Trent, which has aerial photos showing all the hazards to avoid – shoals, gravel banks, sunken islands, submerged barges and a Roman ford! 

An unexpected hazard on the Trent
-a waterskier!

Narrowboats aren’t powerful enough to get all the way from Cromwell to Keadby (from where one can access the Yorkshire waterways) in one day – it’s 45 miles, which is a long way, even going downstream on the ebb tide!  We did it in three hops, mooring overnight at Torksey, then on to Gainsborough to wait for a couple of hours the following morning for the ‘flood’ tide to turn.

Floating pontoon at Gainsborough

We overshot the floating pontoon and were carried downstream, broadside, for nearly half a mile before succeeding in struggling back to moor up. Finally we made our way to the giant Keadby Lock, which felt like a haven of safety after the rigours of the tideway. 

Safe in Keadby Lock, alongside "Allusion"

 We were happy to find we had fellow voyagers for this stretch aboard another narrowboat “Allusion” -  although speedier than us, they very kindly dawdled to keep us in sight to make sure we were ok, as they had travelled this section before

Next morning, we set off along the Stainforth and Keadby Canal, which doesn’t have many locks, but makes up for that by an abundance of swing and lift bridges, some operated electrically, some by brute force.  Many carry a road across the water, so one is conscious of a queue of drivers glaring irritably as they wait for the boat to pass and the bridge to be restored to normal. 

Railway swing bridge ( note weed-covered
surface of water in foreground)

The first swing bridge after Keadby lock carries the railway, so you have to wait for the signalman to open it for you between trains!

After 15 miles, we turned right on to the New Junction Canal, where we suddenly found ourselves at the head of a flotilla of 6 boats, having barely seen another boat all day. 

Queuing for a lift bridge

We each took it in turn to operate the swing or lift bridges for the other boats to pass through, and all managed to fit at once into the huge Sykehouse Lock (which has a swing bridge in the middle of it!)

After the ruler-straight 5 miles of the New Junction canal, we joined the Aire and Calder Navigation, in some places river, in others canalised, but a large commercial waterway, at least until recently ( and also pretty straight)

The empty Aire & Calder Navigation

 It appears that the gravel barges and oil tankers which used to ply the navigation have finally stopped – it seems a shame that those goods are no longer transported by water, but selfishly, we have been very grateful not to have to worry about trying to avoid a gigantic vessel coming round a bend!

Vincent Joseph lost in an enormous lock

The locks built to accommodate such boats are truly vast: 20ft wide and 200ft long – Vincent Joseph looked tiny in the cavernous depths. These locks are no longer manned, but are self-operated via control panels on the lock-side.

 

Lock-side control panel

Now we are in Leeds, and about to attempt the steep climb up the Pennines to Skipton, we hope. The locks on this part of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal are only 60ft long (and we are 61ft!) but we have been assured that we can fit in diagonally…. Time will tell – you’ll have to wait for the next exciting instalment to find out!