Onto Gargrave

On Tuesday we turned around above Field Locks and headed back for the Bingley Locks, there was a boat coming up the locks as we winded so when we got to Hirst Lock we waited for them, we then cruised onto Dowley Gap Staircase, where there was a mishap with a paddle not being closed properly (not my fault but I should have noticed, but in my defence I had gone to sort out the top lock), John spotted it but only as he couldn't move from one lock to the other as he was stuck, I closed it and ran some more water through and in what seemed an age we got the locks level so the boats could move into the top locks.  No such problems at the Bingley three or five, we did have a bit of a wait at the bottom of the Five Rise whilst two boats came down but not for long.  We stopped at the top and had a very welcome lunch stop at the cafe at the top lock, we then continued onto Kildwick.  We had forgotten how many swing bridges there were and the b****** one on the way down now has competition from another one, not helped as we were on our own so we had to operate them all.  We moored just up the canal from NB Bees Knees and as our day had been much longer than we anticipated we also went out for tea at the White Lion, it was Pie Night, obviously very popular as they had sold out of most of them, but John had a good Chicken and Mushroom one.

Wednesday we had a very lazy start, I didn't feel very well, not sure if its really bad hay fever or I have a cold or both, so we had a late start and just cruised into Skipton, although its a good job we didn't leave it much longer as the moorings were almost full when we arrived.

This morning we did a food shop before deciding to move on (and I got some cough medicine as I couldn't sleep for a very irritating cough last night!).  The weather forecast was for thundery showers but after a shower early this morning we hadn't had anything else and it was looking bright - WAS!  Two swing bridges later and I was admiring the view, which was getting a little darker, when I saw the lightening, followed by a lovely clap of thunder, ten minutes later the heavens opened, we did manage after another five minutes to shelter under the bypass road bridge until it had stopped raining.  Other than a couple of lighter showers we didn't get anything substantial again until after we had moored when we have had another thunder storm.

On 23 September 1943 a Wellington bomber, HZ251, and its Polish crew crashed into the bank of the

 Leeds Liverpool Canal near Bridge 183. All seven members of the crew were killed. 

This memorial was unveiled on 22 April 2007

Its raining

But not for long

Tuesday 14 miles 11 locks 21 swing bridges
Wednesday 5.5 miles 0 locks 5 swing bridges
Thursday 4.75 miles 3 locks 5 swing bridges