Skipton

After yesterday's persistent rain, there was a positive forecast for today with sunshine, or at least sunny spells becoming rather warm by the end of the day. We set off with rather more of the grey clouds left over from the continuing overnight rain than we might have wished but things gradually improved during the day and the evening was very pleasant.

It was good to pass a church that goes out of its way to welcome canal visitors - the church itself is hidden amongst the trees in the background.

Double Arch Bridge

Most of the older bridges are very similar in design but the double arched bridge is quite unusual - hence it is widely included in accounts of canal trips! (No exception here, then)

The pound between Greenberfield locks and the start of the Banknewton flight is very bendy - so much so that one mile length along the canal covers barely a third of that as the crow flies! However, whilst in the days of working boats this was no doubt a frustration to boats that had deadlines to keep, today it adds to the picturesque qualities of the canal.

Banknewton Top Lock

We arrived at Banknewton just after they opened. At the moment there are restrictions on use to conserve water - the flights are closed at 8pm and re-opened at 10am. As well as ensuring that the locks are properly closed overnight, minimising water loss through sometimes rather leaky gates, it also causes the boats to bunch up and so making more double up. This further saves water. we came down most of the flight with a Snaygill Hire Boat - new to boating but very pleasant to share locks with.

Banknewton Bottom Lock

At the last lock there was a single boat ahead of us - it had come up just a couple of locks in order to turn around to make its way back to the hire base. Our companions (who were originally ahead of us anyway) opted to join with this other Snaygill boat and we were left to go down on our own (with two more pairs behind us there was no reason for us to wait)

By the time we completed the flight there was a pleasant amount of sunshine and we were all beginning to feel it warm enough when working locks!

There is not much more than a long straight between this flight and the next at Gargrave. We were paired up again but this time with the boat we shared with last night! Gradually boats were mooring up for lunch and so there was a continual swapping of partners!

Priest Holme Aqueduct

Just before the first Gargrave lock is Priest Holme Aqueduct and Mike took the opportunity to try for a photo of the arches below. However, there was no way down to the river level so he had to be content with what he could see hanging over one end!

Alongside one of the locks is another of the flow measuring installations which had intrigued us on the Rufford Branch.

Views of the surrounding hills continued to provide the backdrop to the canal.

Three locks down we found a gap in the line of moored boats - others had already pulled in fore their lunch break. This also gave Christine a chance to pop down to the village for a few supplies and a newspaper. last year, Mike went down with the girls.

Lock 31

Last year, Lock 31 gave us problems with a broken top gate paddle. This year it was better but only because the faulty paddle has been permanently closed and so everyone was finding it very slow. Christine enjoyed chatting to a young girl who, with her gran, was taking a keen interest in the lock: a chance to go down on the back of the boat was a highlight of her day!

Another view . . .

Gargrave Bottom Lock

The bottom lock lower balance beams have one of the somewhat unfairly maligned attempts to bring the arts to improve the look of the canals. The gates are new and so is the incised writing - let's hope that someone finds the money to maintain the appearance as the weather takes its toll!

The section between Gargrave and Skipton has a number of swing bridges. We were pleased to find that they were very easy to operate (once the handcuff keys have been removed - they can be a bit of a Chinese puzzle at times). One even had a notice citing the telephone number to call if it is found to be too hard to open. Perhaps some special maintenance effort has been applied to making them much better balanced. Once started to move, they now almost move by themselves.

On the approach to Skipton, the bypass road bridge is a quite spectacular form of modern engineering (box girder bridges: well only introduced when Mike was doing his original PhD!)

We moored close to the railway station as tomorrow we have a car shuffle day - Christine also plans to visit a launderette in Skipton which she has checked out. Mike contacted the marina in Greenfield where he had hoped to move the car and where we will leave the boat at the end of this trip but alas they do not have room. Some time then had to be spent re-planning but Andrew and Mike still expect to be off on the 9am train to Lancaster tomorrow.

Here are some more views from today.

10.5 miles - 12 locks