Almost home again!

It is a bit of a miserable afternoon so I am updating the blog now instead of waiting until tomorrow when we should actually get back to Skipton and head home for the winter.  Last Wednesday morning we were moored just above Woodnook Lock on the River Calder.  We were preparing for the off when our friends Geoff and Sue on 'Rubbin Along' appeared.  We have been travelling with them since Marple so we thought it churlish not to join them in a last lock.

This view looking back shows Rubbin Along coming out of Woodnook lock after us.  Below this lock we joined the Calder once more for a last couple of miles down to Castleford where it meets the River Aire.

Here is Rubbin Along following us through the railway bridges on the way down to Castleford.

And here is the sad goodbye to Rubbin Along which lives near Goole.  Geoff and Sue are heading into the lock cut through Castleford whereas we turned left here up the River Aire towards Leeds.

The first lock about three miles up the Aire is at Lemonroyd.  This is a massive lock suitable for the large oil tankers that came up here until recently.  Here you can see a decapitated Helen watching the turmoil below the lock as it empties.  Leo was well back out of the waves!

This gives some idea of the huge size of Lemonroyd Lock.  Hundred of thousands of gallons of water just to lift little Leo up from the river.

 Above Lemonroyd Lock 'Sheaf' was moored and opted to join us in the locks towards Leeds.  She is an old 1930s cargo vessel 61 feet long and 15 feet 6 inches wide.  She seems much bigger than that.

Here we are in Fishponds Lock with Sheaf.  There is not space to get alongside her but we do fit one behind the other.

Knostrop Lock on the edge of Leeds was very badly damaged by the floods last Christmas and these diggers are dredging the weir stream.  There used to be a longish separate lock cut parallel with the weir stream but the wall between them has been swept away and boats now cross over into the old weir stream above the lock.

Following the floods they are also working on the weir in the centre of Leeds.

Leo in this picture is just coming into Leeds Lock which is alongside the weir shown just above.  This is the last lock before reaching the centre of Leeds.

Just above Leeds Lock we turned left into what used to be called Clarence Dock and is now called Leeds Dock.  There are visitor moorings here right by the Armouries.

And here is Sheaf coming in backwards.  There is apparently a lot of  flood debris near the entrance and Sheaf draws a lot more water than we do, so she was keeping the back end away from the debris by coming in backwards.

And here we are moored on the pontoon in Leeds Dock.

And here is Sheaf moored behind us and seen through our back doors.  This does give a good idea just how big she is compared with Leo.

We've never seen a boat called Helen before and this one was moored opposite us in Leeds Dock.













On Thursday we were up early and off our moorings by 8 am.  It is a long day up through the locks from the city on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and the advice is not to moor until you get to at least Newlay and preferably Rodley, some 7 miles and 13 broad locks away.  Mooring before this leaves the boat open to vandalism.

From Leeds Dock it is about half a mile up the River Aire to River Lock where the Canal begins.  This is close to Leeds Station and above the lock is Granary Wharf where you can also moor if there is space (there was this time but we've found space very tight there before).  Below River Lock is a tiny landing to drop a crew member to work the lock.

We have heard of 'yarn bombing' before where knitted items are used to decorate street furniture.  But we've never seen this done to a narrowboat.  Some of the knitting was very colourful with fishes and other aquatic themes.

These towers above Granary Wharf are based on similar ones in Venice.

Here is a view looking back above Office Lock.  The tall building on the right is the notorious Bridgewater Place where autumnal winds blow pedestrians off their feet.

There are quite a few locks coming out of Leeds that are grouped together as staircases where the top gate of one lock is also the bottom gate of the next lock.  This is the first staircase called 'Oddy Two Locks'.

And here is a later one called, wait for it, 'Forge Three Locks'.

Another hallmark  of this part of the Leeds and Liverpool is an endless succession of swing bridges.  This one is called Moss Swing Bridge.  Some of them are hand operated and some are electrically powered.

Coming through Rodley this bunch of gnomes was waving to us.














It was nice to escape the city and moor with fields (and moors) around us again.  From Rodley we have really been taking our time doing just a few miles and a few locks each day.

Early on Friday morning this Leeds and Liverpool short boat passed us.  She is called Ribble and is taking a 32 ton load of sand from Leeds to Liverpool.  This is part of the celebration of 200 years since the canal was opened.

Through Apperley Bridge we came to Dobson Two locks, another staircase of very deep locks.  Just walking up the towpath beside the locks is tiring enough.

We moored on Friday above Field Three Locks with some horses in a field opposite.  Here is a spot of mutual grooming going on.

Saltaire is an impressive place with restored mills either side of the canal.  This time we walked through Roberts Park and found the Shipley Glen Tramway in the woods beyond.

The Tramway was built in 1895 and was part of a large tourist attraction in the late 19th and first half of the 20th century with two fairgrounds, an aerial ropeway, a toboggan ride and tea rooms up the top.  Time was when 100,000 visitors in a day was not unusual.  Only the Tramway remains, though there is still a tea shop and pub at the top.

Because it wasn't open when we arrived, we walked up beside the tramway and caught a lift down later after an early lunch at the tea rooms.  In the picture you can see Helen in the tramcar waiting to go down.

And here we are half way down passing the tramcar coming up.  The Tramway is cable driven and about a quarter of a mile long.  The maximum gradient is 1 in 7.

Back on the boat we carried on out of Saltaire and this shows Leo waiting below Dowley Gap - another staircase pair of locks.

Some of the locks around here have the new fad of CRT in the name of safety.  The pawl on the lock paddles cannot be swung out of the way, so it is difficult to drop the paddles quickly in an emergency.  Here you can see Helen using her chin to hold the pawl to turn the paddle down by hand.















On Saturday we moored above Dowley Gap and visited the Fisherman's Inn for a good evening meal.  On Sunday we tackled the Bingley Three Rise followed by the Five Rise, the most stupendous staircase on the canal system.

The Three Rise shown here lifts the boat about 30 feet in 3 locks.  Both the Three and the Five have lock keepers to help and manage the boats coming up and down.

And this is the Five Rise which lifts the boat 60 feet in five locks, that is 12 feet each!  The lock keeper was very careful with opening the paddles so that Leo was not thrown around too much, but it was still out with the paintbrush at the top to redo the gunwhales.

Here is a flavour of what it is like being on the boat down the cold dark hole that is a Bingley Lock.  This first of the Five Rise also had some fierce water spouts from the gates above leaking water.  Our front deck and front windows were pretty soaked when we got up the locks.
















Today we cruised on from Bingley through many many swing bridges.  We came through 11 today on our way to Kildwick though to be fair we met other boats so did not have to work them all ourselves.  We are only about 3 miles (and 5 swing bridges) from our journey's end and we could have got there today.  However we know the White Lion at Kildwick does fine beer and lunches so we succumbed.

Here is the view from our mooring looking down to the River Aire below us.

To celebrate its 200 year anniversary some of the missing milestones on this canal have been replaced and this is one of the new ones right by where we are moored.


















It is dull and rainy this afternoon and perhaps that is a sign that we should be bringing our boating season to an end.  If, as planned, we finish tomorrow this will be the latest we have cruised in our five summers on the waterways.  We will do a last posting soon with a summary of the year and with some thoughts about where we might go next year.