Sitting outside for
breakfast on Tuesday morning we noticed one of our sunflowers had come
out. We had seen a boat last year with
miniature sunflowers and thought we would try the same this year. We planted the seeds earlier in the year and
they haven’t grown too tall yet 😉
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| Our first miniature sunflower to bloom |
We also noticed quite a
bit of butterfly activity alongside the boat including the wall brown that we
saw yesterday. It was rather tatty so
must have been around a few weeks now, but it was patrolling up and down the
towpath the length of the boat.
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| Our tatty but homely wall brown |
There were quite a number
of meadow browns in the long grass and also a few common blues. Common blue caterpillars feed on bird’s foot
trefoil (bacon and egg as we called the yellow and orange plants as children). And this seems to be growing profusely along
the towpaths around here.
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| Female common blue nectaring on bird’s foot trefoil outside the hatch |
At 9.30 we set off for the
Lower Park boatyard at Barnoldswick as we needed water and a pump out. We had to turn around first at the winding
hole just ahead of our mooring and travel back 6 ½ miles and up the three
Greenberfield locks to get there.
Soon after turning around
we passed Clive and Jenny coming in the opposite direction and made arrangements
to meet up for a drink in a couple of days’ time as, they too, were going to
spend some time in Gargrave.
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| Passing Clive & Jenny |
This section of the cut is
very twisty as it is a contour canal on rolling hills and is called the Curly
Wurly by the locals – the same nickname as given to the Wyrely & Essington
canal down in Birmingham. At the
particularly tight bends upright rollers were installed to facilitate the
towing by horses.
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| One of the corner rollers |
Even though we had left
relatively early, it was still a very hot morning and the tree-lined cutting at
East Marton gave welcome respite from the sun.
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| Nice to have shade for a change |
Just outside East Marton a
boat called, I think. Coriolis came in the opposite direction. I didn’t recognise them, but the driver
called out, “I’ve been reading your bog”, so hello whoever you were and if you’re
coming back down this way soon we may get the chance for a quick chat 😉
We were soon approaching Greenberfield
locks and, even though we waited a while, we went up on our own. The first time for a while since we’ve not
shared locks.
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| Going up one of the Greenberfield locks on our own |
After the locks it was
another three miles or so to the turning point just south of the Anchor at
Barnoldswick. There is an interesting
sign outside the pub where it mentions that as well as the usual stuff like
good food and local beers it said it has cellars of historical interest. Advertising good food etc. always seems a bit
daft as who would advertise crap food? Saying that, there used to be a sign board
on the A5 south of Milton Keynes with an arrow pointing to a pub and a slogan
about warm beers and mediocre food. Not sure if it worked or not as we never
tried it.
After turning we called in
at Lower Park marina at Barnoldswick that had been recommended to us on the
Continuous Cruisers Facebook group. The
two guys we saw were certainly very friendly and helpful and, when they found
out we were liveaboard ccers, offered us 100% duty free fuel without even asking
what split we would want.
As we left the services a CRT
rescue tug approached us pushing a cruiser that was being removed from the
water. We recognised it as the one that
has been semi-submerged down at Bank Newton.
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Just before getting back
to go down the locks we stopped at the service point for water and a late
lunch. It was one of the prettiest
service points we have visited:
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There was an information
board at the service point explaining that when the canal was opened in 1816
the flight consisted of two double staircase locks, but they were problematic to
operate. Within four years they were
replaced by the three locks in the present flight.
The notice also explained
that the water being pumped into the cut (which is at its summit here at 487’ above
sea level) is piped all the way from Winterburn reservoir near Malham – quite a
distance.
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| Information board at the service point |
The locks had been OK on
the way up but the going had been very slow because of several paddles not
working. Coming back was a different
matter, there were six CRT guys up and down the flight trying to sort out
drained pounds and broken paddles. It
took over two hours to get down a flight that should take much less than an hour.
At the bottom we passed a
boat, called North Star, coming up. We
had a quick chat in passing and it turned out that they were also blog readers
and I promised to mention them to prove I don’t always forget names – good to
meet you Simon & Pauline 😊
So, in the end we cruised in
the searing heat for 13 miles through six locks just to end up back where we
started. It should only have taken about
six hours but ended up taking nine because of the problems with the locks. But at least we now have full tanks of water
and diesel and an empty poo tank 😉
In the evening we met my youngest brother, Richard, at Settle station as he was staying the night.
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