Bye Bye Aire & Calder, Hello Leeds / Liverpool

On the moorings at Stanley Ferry

That's river speed

These locks are enormous and are fully automated

There are some big boats on this navigation.

Like this, the Rix Owl is a 600 ton oil tanker and the tiddler on the left is me, we met on a bend and he was in a hurry.

There are some big Carp in Clarence Dock, this one had a taste for bread.

Clarence Dock Leeds, a very nice spot to spend a couple of days, next to the Royal Armouries Museum.

We have had a very good week, the weather has picked up at last and we arrived in Leeds on Thursday afternoon. All the locks on the Aire & Calder Navigation are fully automated and the traffic lights tell you what to do, the locks them selves are enormous to suit the commercial barges and tanker that use this part of the waterway. This meant that the girls had a break from winding paddles and pulling on lock beams for a couple of days.

Clarence Dock was a nice surprise, the moorings are pontoons with electricity and water and are kept very clean, although there are large blocks of flats on two sides and the museum on the third you don't feel closed in. There is a Tesco Express close by and plenty of shops to browse in, the moorings are 48 hrs but you can buy an extra day from the BW office just across the river, which is what we had to do as our son Martin and the two grandchildren Ethan and Ptolemy were coming to visit us on Saturday for a visit to the Armouries Museum. It's 6 months since we last saw the boys and of course they have changed quite a bit, they enjoyed their visit to the museum and afterwards we went for a meal before they left for home. Sorry boys I took pics with the wrong camera and can't put them on the blog.

Thats all folks

Talk next week

End of the Calder & Hebble

Moored at Calder Grove for the weekend

The garden is growing, apart from the flowers we have Cos Lettuce and Cherry Tomatoes.

Looking towards Broad Cut Lower lock.

I'm a bit short on photo's this week, due mainly to the awful weather, we have had heavy rain almost every day. How ever we have moved along the Calder & Hebble to Calder Grove for the weekend, (where the girls managed to find a bus to take them into Wakefield for the afternoon on Saturday) and then we will drop down onto the Aire & Calder Navigation which will take us all the way to Leeds.

The weather has improved 100% this weekend, we are now basking in 24 deg wall to wall sunshine and it's very nice, also as it is Bank Holiday the boat traffic has picked up, and we are starting to see a few more boats moving about. Watched the Grand Prix, great race well done JB. Have moved on to Stanley Ferry for a couple of days.

Thats all for this week

Talk soon.

End of the Rochdale

A quiet place in the country

Hebdon Bridge, services on the left and visitor moorings on right.

H B from the other end, a very nice town.

Name this!!.

This is Tuel Lane lock, the deepest working lock in the Country at 20ft

Sowerby Bridge Basin, end of the Rochdale, start of the Calder & Hebble Navigation.

Moored for the weekend in Sowerby Basin.



A quiet week after all the action of the previous week. We arrived in Hebden Bridge on Tuesday afternoon, Eric had to go home on Wednesday for a couple of days, so we stayed put until Saturday morning and then pulled the pins and cruised down to Sowerby Bridge.

The first lock coming in to Sowerby Bridge is Tuel Lane lock and at 20ft it is the deepest working lock on the whole canal system, it's operated by a lock keeper for safety reasons, when we arrived he was at lunch, so whilst we were waiting the girls went in to the local market and bought a few bits. After his lunch the locki came over to us and explained the workings of the lock and what he wanted us to do, he was very helpful and gave us information about one or two things ahead of us.

So here we are until Monday, it's very quiet in the Basin, not far from the shops, and with just the odd shower it's ideal.

See you next week.

The week of the weedhatch

Shush & Bendigedig moored for the night.

Working through the locks.

The views up here are just stunning, looking towards the summit.

Looking back from the summit.

Shush & Bendigedig moored below West Summit lock.

Ben having a rest.

The girls working us down from the summit.

Here's a novelty our first guillotine lock at Todmordon.

What a week, the BW guys met us on Monday morning just after eight at Ducie St. Being Manchester it was raining, but we started up the nineteen locks, one of them in front and the other with a lady single hander behind us. I have never been down the weed hatch on this boat since new, ( for the uninitiated, the weed hatch is a shaft of steel with a lid, over the prop, enabling you to get at anything fowling the prop without having to go over the side into the canal), but we were only a couple of locks up when every thing came to a halt, the first time it was a pair of trousers, next it was a sweat shirt, then a canvas sports bag, then plastic bags,then part of a tent, the bit with a 3ft plastic zip on, and a couple more bits over the day, at the end of the day I nearly had a wardrobe of clothes and a bag to carry them in, Eric had a pile of plastic rope and bags as well. When we finally moored up at Chadderton we were worn out.

Next day we headed up to Slattocks for water and a night stop. Weds and Thurs found us working our way up to the summit, where our crossing was booked for Friday morning. After crossing into Yorkshire we started making our way down ending up in Todmorden on Friday eve. We spent Sat moored in the town to do some shopping, then moved on Sun am to our present spot in the country in order to watch the Grand Prix.

We have had rain most days this week, but also some sun, Since Monday we have covered 20 miles and worked through 65 locks, we still have 48 miles and 58 locks to Leeds

That's all, see you next week.

Onwards and Upwards

Sorry photo's are back to front this week.



Here we are sat just below lock 83 waiting for BW guys in the morning.

This is Bendigedig & Shush in Castlefield basin off Deansgate in Manchester.

We have had quite a good week for travelling, the weather on the whole has been very good, we have covered 51 miles since last Sunday, arriving in Manchester Castlefield basin on Sat around lunch time after doing a slight diversion to Worsley for much needed fuel. The two boatyards near to Manchester that were showing on our maps have closed since the maps were printed.

Any way, the girls went shopping as soon as we arrived leaving Eric and myself to fill the boats with water and then move them onto the little arm for the night. Although almost in the middle of town it was very peaceful down there and a good nights sleep was enjoyed by all.

No rest this weekend, we had to clear the first nine locks of the Rochdale canal today, in order to meet the BW guys on Monday morning at 8.30. The next 20 locks are chained up each night to prevent vandalism and each morning they have to be unchained. The canal climbs very steeply out of Manchester, consequently it is heavily locked, so we will be quite busy for the next few days.

Thats all for this week folks, talk soon