SATURDAY
Karen had woken at sunrise
and found the valley was full of mist, but it soon burnt away as the sun rose
with the promise of yet another hot, cloudless day.
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| Early morning view from the boat |
When we’ve been walking
into Gargrave to see my parents it's about 1 ½ miles down the towpath and
then another ½ mile along their lane which crosses the canal at the bottom of
the Bank Newton locks. We keep meaning
to find a walk that is entirely off road and on Saturday morning we walked the
other way down the towpath to East Marton where the Pennine Way crosses the
canal. As it also cuts straight through
Gargrave we were able to walk all the way into the village without going on any
roads even though it's about a mile further to walk.
On the way down to find
the Pennine Way we were talking about Chris & Aileen and wondering how they
were getting on with their plans to be craned out of Liverpool, so they could
continue cruising. As we turned a corner
we saw a boat heading towards us and, to our surprise, it was Chris &
Aileen. We explained where we were
moored, and they said they would moor up behind us and we would have a catch up
when we got back from our walk.
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| Found the Pennine Way |
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| Dropping down into Gargrave, still on the Pennine Way |
Apparently, a couple of
the boats have decided to stay in the docks until the breach is fixed, Chris
& Aileen were craned out a few days ago and the other 22 boats will be
going out on the convoy on the Mersey once the conditions are right.
SUNDAY
On Friday the fields
around where we are moored had all been cut and, on Sunday morning, tractors
appeared early to bring the grass in. It
was obviously being gathered as haylage as it was being baled before it had had
a chance to dry out and become hay and it wasn’t being gathered for silage as the
grass would be collected in large wagons so it can be formed into a silage
wedge back at the farm.
We were going to Skipton
for the day with Chris & Aileen and had to walk to Gargrave station
first. On the way we saw the men had all
stopped for a break; someone had turned up in a Defender with sustenance.
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The tractor on the right
rakes the cut grass into a single swathe.
The one on the left gathers the swathe to form a large bale. The third tractor picks up the bales and
spins and turns them whilst wrapping them completely in a plastic sheet. A fourth tractor, out of view, picks up two
finished bales at the front and two at the rear and takes them back to the farm
for storage in a barn. By the time we
got home all the fields had been cleared.
The train to Skipton was
packed and we all had to stand; I suspect it was extra busy at it was Skipton’s
annual Sheep Day.
We knew the main street
was going to be closed and that there would be lots of food and market stalls,
but the sheep aspect wasn’t quite as we expected. We had thought there would be sheep herded
through town and other such displays. In
the end it was still quite interesting as there were plenty of farm animals to
see and the highlight of the day was a sheep show that was put on every couple
of hours.
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| Buddy and a teenage cow making an acquaintance |
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| One of the 'sheep' wandering through the crowds |
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| Woolcraft demonstrations |
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| We weren’t sure why they were here, but these gents really looked like they were the Dad’s Army characters |
After the sheep had been
displayed a ewe was shorn which was interesting but rather worried Buddy as he
couldn’t work out what was happening.
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| Starting the shearing demonstration |
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| A rather alert and worried Buddy as he couldn't understand what was happening to the ewe |
In the evening we had a
barbecue with Chris & Aileen and then Andy & Mel joined us for
drinks. Andy & Mel had moored behind
us during the day and we had already met them when they moored here overnight on there way to East Marton a few days
ago. All four of them planned to move on
towards Skipton on Monday morning.
MONDAY
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| Chris & Aileen leaving on Monday morning |
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| Mel and Andy close behind |
The CRT workers had
reappeared to check up on the repairs they had been doing next to us last
week. They told us that the job wasn’t finished
as they found the bank was still leaking ☹ No doubt they will be back soon, but they had to go
a little further down towards East Marton to work on another stretch of bank
that appears to be leaking too.
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| Workmen at another potential breach site getting ready to pump polyurethane into the bank |
We spent most of the
morning with my parents and, after lunch, we drove to Ilkley for our weekly
bridge session. I’m pleased to say that
we came fifth which was a lot better than last week’s bottom 😊
It was strange to get back
home later as the other boats had gone and we were back on our own as we have
been for most of the last ten days or so we have been moored here.
Whilst sitting watching
the birds flying along the valley we saw our first hare for a while. It was really exposed in the middle of a freshly
cut field but didn’t seem to have a care in the world as it sat there preening.
On Tuesday we will go down
the Bank Newton flight of six locks and then two further locks and moor just before
Gargrave ready for Sophie and Yanos who will be joining us in a day or two.
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