Shipley

First on today's agenda was a walk back down to Apperley Marina to pick up a key for the mooring in Shipley which we had already booked. Although the office did not open until 10:30 (despite what we had understood from their phone line) the resident self-styled caretaker was able to sort out keys for us.

As a result we were able to set off a little before ten o'clock. More swing bridges followed as we continued along the canal which skirts a hill that the later railway line tunnelled through.

Swing Bridge 212

As many swing bridges as locks - some are quite rural, but others carry quite a bit of local traffic. Not sure why we had to be told to use our backs only on the next one!

Swing Bridge 209

Another bridge is unusual as it involves two windlass-driven mechanisms, one to release the wedges and the other to turn the bridge. A queue of vehicles built up both sides before the barriers could finally be opened.

Bridge 209 Operating Mechanisms

Many pipe bridges cross the canals and rarely is it obvious what they carry. These huge pipes, however, lead into a large sewage treatment works so we can guess at the contents!

Field Locks Staircase

Field Three Locks are also supervised by a lock keeper. We arrived just as he was starting a cruiser coming down so there was a bit of a wait. However he was very pleasant and chatty so the time quickly passed. Taking us up he operated the locks in a non-standard way (the usual drill is to fill the top two locks before starting the flight) as the middle gates are especially leaky and spray quantities of water 10 feet into the lock!

It was now a scenic route - with some large patches of Himalayan Balsam to add colour.

Gallows Bridge Moorings

We arrived at the mooring just after midday - it was somewhat of a disappointment. Although originally provided as a BW-managed mooring it now belongs to Apperley Marina and needs quite a bit of attention. A vandalised boat was also just a few metres away and the width of the mooring not much more than a metre!

Mike had a quick lunch and then set off to the station to make three train journeys back to Thorne South in order to collect the car. the station was only five minutes from the boat and the walk at the other end much the same. On schedule Mike was in the car and setting off back to Shipley. All went well until along tail back of scarcely moving traffic, backed up from a broken down car in the outside lane, turned an hour's journey into one that took almost twice as long.

Back at the boat we drove across town to an Asda supermarket - we wanted to make sure that we had as many dry goods in store as possible to reduce the amount of space taken up in the car: we are picking up Alice and Jess on Sunday as we returned to the boat.

On the way back from the supermarket we used the car to explore a little further along the canal, around Salt's Mill. At Salt's Wharf we spotted a 7 day official mooring with room for us. Also, Christine chatted to a lady in a car who was waiting to pick up her husband from one of the offices. It seems likely that it will be OK to leave the car here during our next trip. Mike brought the boat along from the other mooring whilst Christine continued conversations back at the wharf. Turns out that she was able to have an interesting conversation about debt advice as the particular office houses a new company implementing a new government initiative to support people in debt.