Climbing into the Pennines

The Damart factory at the start of the Bingley 3 Rise Locks and closeup of the chimney!

We were woken early this morning by the geese from last night returning and shouting! They were soon joined by noisy ducks. After breakfast we set off, heading for the Bingley lock staircases. Beside the base of the Bingley 3 Rise Locks, there is a large Damart factory where painters were working on the chimney high above us. 

 About to enter the Bingley 5 Rise Locks

 We climbed the 3 locks without incident and headed up to the 5 rise locks. These make an impressive sight, taking the canal up about 60 feet in a very short distance.

Huge gates with massive leaks

 The locks are truly massive with some amazing leaks gushing water from the lock above in all directions and in paticular, over the front of the boat!

 The view from the top

 Once at the top, the view is fabulous, looking back down into the valley where we had been only a short time ago.

 Angela with Iris, Ken and bacon butties

 At the top, there is a cafe where we treated ourselves to bacon and egg butties - yum! We also filled up the water tank and then prepared to face the long succession of swing bridges waiting for us.

 A field of cows and geese

  

 A cute shiny green beatle

Tonight's mooring in Silsden

We passed some lovely scenery along the way with the canal running high above Kieghley and adjacent valleys. Swing bridge after swing bridge came and went and after passing some fabulous riverside properties, we arrived in Silsden. Here we finally parted company with Iris, Ken, James and Vicky on Mary Alice, as they pressed on for Skipton and a crew change. We explored Silsden in the sunshine, and sought out the house in which Angela's friend Margaret grew up in.Virtually every shop in Silsden was closed - seems a bit odd for 4pm on a Saturday? We met an elderly gentleman on the river bank, who told us that there was a co-op where you could walk round and they had shopping trolleys and baskets too! We did find the co-op and it was open so we bought ice-creams and headed back to the boat. Angela did the washing and I washed Banjo so the boat and us will look lovely tomorrow!

A special hello to Margaret and Bob.

Creatures aplenty

 The first staircase locks of the day

We started the day refuelling at the marina in Apperley Bridge and then set off, still with Mary Alice, for the first swing bridge of the day. This stretch of canal has many swing bridges and several staircases of locks. Travelling with another boat makes negotiating these much easier and considerably faster.

 Arriving in Saltaire

We climed steadily north west, rising over 100 feet during the day. Passing through woodland, we saw a snake swimming across the river in front of us. We reached Saltaiure by early afternoon, and Angela and I moored up to visit the town, while Mary Alice pressed on. Saltaire was built by Titus Salt as a state of the art (then) mill and a town for his workers. Mill workers lived in dreadful conditions in Bradford and Salt's plan was to revolutionise the industry and the workers lives. He was hugely successful in this, and much of Saltaire remains relatively intact today.

Titus Salt's housing for his workers

We spent a few hours exploring the mill and its galleries and then wandering around the town. We also topped at a bakery just before it closed, and left with a pile of pies and bread!

Angela outside Saltaire's United Reformed Church

 Salt built some fabulous buildings including the fine church above and a sunday school with facilities for 800 children! He insisted on a policy of no alchohol and so there were no pubs in Saltaire. This has changed now and there are several including one called "Don't tell Titus"! 

 View across Saltaire's park

Tonight's mooring before the geese arrived!

Leaving Saltaire behind, we headed off, now travelling alone through more bridges and yet another staircase. On this last stretch, what could only have been a large fish shot across the river with a tremendous splash and hit the boat - really odd! The last staircase of the day was in a poor state of repair with the bottom lock gates having only 1 sluice gate out of the original 4 working - very slow. We moored up for the night in a village called Dowley Gap, and are back with Mary Alice again, ready to tackly the Bingley Three and Five Rise locks in the morning. We were joined this evening by loads and loads of geese, all shouting at each other - an incredible sight and sound!

Locks and swing bridges in abundance

Heading west out of Leeds

We left Leeds in cloudy windy weather which worstened as we negotiated locks with very different machanisms, needing handcuff keys to unlock. Fortunately we travelled with NB Alice Mary, whose crew knew the locks well and shared the load.

Reaching the first 3 lock staircase

En route we encountered 13 locks including a pair and two staircases of 3. We also opened 6 swing bridges and travelled 9 miles

Angela working hard inspite of arm injury

These locks presented all kinds of difficulties and a rough edge on a horizontal ground paddle resulted in a deep graze and bruise. I think I will get a few more on this canal!

The view down Newlay staircase locks

Banjo and AliceMary side by side

The pretty village of Rodley

Once out of Leeds the scenery became increasingly pretty and the weather improved.

Moored tonight in Apperley Bridge

We made Apperley bridge in good time despite a clogged prop. The wind dropped and the sky cleared and a we had a peaceful evening in a lovely spot.

Art and Armour

 The Corn Exchange

This lovely building was first stop on our visit today. Graham wanted and ice cream from a very nice cafe but it was only 10am!

 Leeds city centre

This was the view from outside Leeds Museum. The interesting towers had large gilt owls topping them. The museum was interesting and interactive with primary school children well engaged in the exhibits. From here we went to the Art Gallery which houses a diverse collection but were disappointed as the Moore gallery was closed for re-organisation.

                                                                The Armoury Museum

The Armoury Museum is in Clarence Dock just behind where Banjo is moored. It is a fantastic building on 5 floors housing an incredible collection and history of weapons. Some of the large exhibits were magnificent.



Angela defending her position with a crossbow

We couldn't resist a go on the crossbow firing range - having let loose 8 bolts each, we will not be applying to join the olympic squad! On return to Banjo,we had a chat with the neighboring narrowboat and we have agreed to tackle the Leeds and Liverpool (and its reportedly heavy/stiff locks) together, tomorrow morning.



Lock Block

 Dredger in mid stream

Much cooler this morning and in-spite of a prolonged mass attack by mosquitoes last night, we appear to have escaped unscathed! Several large craft passed us this morning before we set off, including the dredger in the above photo which we met this just below Lemonroyd Lock. We hovered some way back from the gates while the keeper emptied the lock - the resultant torrent of water created waves which had us rocking as if we were at sea!

 Waiting at broken lock

Having made it out of the 13'6" deep Lemonroyd Lock, we motored on for about a mile to Woodlesford Lock only to find a tug and dredger barge moored against the bottom lock gates. We went and spoke to the lock keeper who told us that the lock had been broken since 18:30 the previous evening.

 A lifejacket is essential wear for an electrician!

There were already electricians working on the problem which was eventually solved by disconnecting one of the top sluice mechanisms - a slow lock is better than one which doesn't work at all!

 Baby Grebes

Spotted this little family of Grebes along the way - I don't think we have had a picture of a cute baby Grebe before!

Moorings in Clarence Dock

By mid afternoon, the sky was really black and rain seemed inevitable, but we made it into Leeeds without donning waterproofs. We are moored in Clarence Dock on a pontoon with water and electricity which is great. We had a wander round Leeds just after most shops had closed, but did find a catalogue store which had a decent chandlery section which stocked large fenders at very good prices and which would have been great for mooring against the shelving concrete in York. So, we bought 2........wheelbarrow wheels! These are a much more compact solution to the York mooring problem, when floated on their sides between the boat and the wall. We plan to spend the day in Leeds tomorrow, visiting a couple of art galleries and the Royal Armoury.

Weed and Mosquitoes

The very weedy Selby Canal

It was good to be moving again in lovely hot weather as we left the boatyard in Selby. We had forgotton just how weedy this stretch of canal was and we had to stop numerous times to drag weed of the prop.

Guess what we are looking at??

Once on the River Aire we made good progress. We came accross these young bulls shouting accross the river to a herd of cows who were taking absolutely no notice.

Sheep head for the beach when it's sunny too!

The landscape was grazing land and we saw lots of groups of sheep on what look like small beaches.

Complicated lock entry!

Bank Dole lock has an unusual mooring point on approach and is a swine to operate!

The River Calder

The river was much wider than we anticipated but also calm and quiet. We didn't see another boat until we came through the large mechanised Bulholme lock and into our mooring for the night on the outskirts of Castleford.

Ahhhhh!

Another pretty little Cygnet and parents necessitated the loss of another half a loaf before we settled down for a very humid night. Graham is swotting numerous mosquitoes as I write this despite burning a repellent coil. Hopefully the rain which has started to fall will batter them down! Any suggestions to avoid their entry, besides sitting in the dark or suffocating with the windows closed, would be appreciated!

Back on-board

After a busy few days back home, we returned to Selby this afternoon and we are now back on Banjo. Tomorrow we set off back down the Selby Canal and beyond, heading towards Leeds.