A delayed start today due to a broken electric swing bridge which ordinarily we would have operated ourselves; until it’s fixed, CRT open it once a day at 2pm.  We used the down time to walk the mile or so to the local Co-Op and top up food supplies (no soup after counting 10 tins on board and no sweetcorn either as we have a similar number of those too!)

The narrowboats all lined up ready for 2pm, we went first and greeted the boats on the other side of the bridge with a smug smile.  We left the Leeds and Liverpool, onto the Bridgewater canal.

We’re very much in a ‘ships routine’, morning and afternoon smoko (cake breaks to those not in the know), what’s the next bridge number, where is the next lock, do I get off front or back….oh and when will the new tank monitor  change to half full!

It’s the autumn Equinox today, and as the nights draw in earlier we’re blessed with more beautiful sunshine and warm (for the time of year) weather. We were also blessed with the presence of Mum and Dad to help us through the Wigan flight. We’d been warned of the heavy gates and difficult paddle gear, but with their help and the sun on our backs, the task wasn’t so onerous as we might have feared – we got through it in under 4 hours.

Mum and I stayed near the boat as Dad steered Oliver through, and Sarah went ahead getting the next lock prepped

We had a little hiccup with one of the pounds running low and running aground, but nothing that couldn’t be sorted without a little jigging around! At the bottom we rewarded ourselves with a picnic lunch in the sunshine.

Dad then cycled back up to get the campervan and pick up Mum – surely justifying his purchase of a new folding bike in one fell swoop!

Unfortunately the van had picked up a puncture, so Mum and Dad had a bit of a detour via Kwik Fit before meeting up with us again to deliver a mop, and have some dinner down the local.

We should have been full of beans by the morning, I fell asleep at 8pm and Toby wasn’t long after at 9pm, we both struggled getting up at 7.30!  It wasn’t long before the flight of seven locks hit us, we’re back to Toby steering and my brute force opening the locks – which suits me just fine.  A little bit of drama at Chorley with a moored boat that had come away from it’s mooring and was diagonally across the canal, there was quite an audience as a car boot sale was taking place on the other side of the canal.  Toby did a great job pushing it along side and I got on board and took a rope to the canal side and pulled it in.

We stopped off at Fredericks Ice Cream Parlour for lunch and had some quiche followed by the most delicious ice cream.  Toby went for a rocky road (chocolate, thunder and lightning and toffee fudge icecream), and I went for a hot fudge (rum and raisin, toffee fudge and rochelle icecream)

We moored up nice and early in a lovely spot overlooking the golf course, let’s hope we don’t get any stray balls!  Toby did the 50 hour engine service and changed the oil and filters.  A light dinner and we’re both in our PJs ready for bake off, and an early night for the 21 locks at Wigan

We set off around 8:15 into a lovely sunny morning, albeit a little chilly much like yesterday. We wound our way through the countryside, following the contours of the land wherever they seemed to want to go. We went under the M65 a few times; vehicles there probably traveled the distance in 5 minutes, but our roundabout ways took us more like an hour.
We arrived in Blackburn by late morning – after earlier comments from Dad, we weren’t looking forward to it much but to be honest we can’t see what all the fuss was about and there were some nice old mills and factory buildings

It wouldn’t be a stretch of the canal either of us will miss, but at least in the sunshine it was just fine. What wasn’t so fine was the unknown boat in front of us, who left the gate paddles open on the final lock and thereby emptied the pound of water. We were forewarned by some people walking up the towpath, and once we reached the empty pound there were some C&RT folk there in the process of sorting it out.

In the end we had to wait for about an hour and a half for the pound to be refilled, but we made good use of the time to have lunch and finish cleaning the boat sides whilst we waited in the lock.

After Blackburn it was all plain sailing, with no more locks to worry about and a return to the countryside. We found a quiet mooring next to a nature reserve to spend the night.

No mist this morning, although it was a bit chilly. We’re so used to swing bridges and locks throughout the day, it was some relief to have the first few hours just cruising.

Foulridge tunnel is one way and we hit the traffic lights on red.  We made good use of the time cleaning one side of the boat.

We then hit Barrowford locks which is a flight of seven, I offered to steer (in the hope it would get Toby off my case about steering – epic fail as he now wants me to do it all the time!).  Walkie talkie batteries died which wasn’t great timing and the locks were leaky and short so I was nervous and the air turned blue a couple of times.  Toby did OK with the locking, although room for improvement on the multitasking…he needs a bit more meat on his bum to push the gates too!

We continued through Burnley, and we’re moored in a little village called Hapton. Quite an early finish for us at 4pm, bag of maltesers already eaten and pie for tea, yummy

We awoke to a chilly misty morning and cast off early (by Toby’s standards!) at 8.15. The mist soon cleared, and the views opened up with some incredible views over the hills. Only three swing bridges today and lots of locks which are great for the bingo wings and thunder thighs!

We met a Scottish family on a hire boat, the daughter Ishbell  stayed with us and helped us through a flight of locks, she was a superstar and moved some of the heavy ground paddles that I couldn’t move. We went through another flight with another hire boat, they were so impressed with Toby’s steering, they asked if he’d been on a helming course.

We’re now at the summit of the Leeds and Liverpool canal, and tomorrow we’ll start our decent. Romy’s chocky cookies, birthday carrot cake and plum & coconut cake have gone down a storm.

Today we went up the Bingley 5 rise, and rose quicker and better than the best yorkshire puddings on bake off that we’d watched on iPlayer tucked in bed the previous evening. Bingley 5 rise is one of the wonders of the waterways; a staircase with 5 chambers taking you up (or down!) 60 feet.

The locks average a 12ft rise, and the gates are a little leaky so there can be quite a deluge of water in some places. The locks are only just long enough for Oliver to fit, so there’s no way to escape a bit of a shower.  Good job we’ve got a new cratch cover as the old one leaked like a seive!

The scenery today was just fantastic, there were some amazing views and the sun shone on us all day. Day’s like today are what making boating great. It’s hard to beat going through scenery like this, beer in hand, sun shining and Sarah by my side!

To wrap it all up, we met up with Mum and Dad again in Skipton for some cracking Fish and Chips, Yorkshire style. Fantastic!

Here’s hoping we have more days like this!

After a rather long interlude, the reasons for which we’re still awaiting a blog update from mum and dad, Oliver’s travels now continue onwards (or should I say backwards) as we now turn around and head back towards home.

We now have a  sparkling engine bay and a brand new engine fitted, thanks to Colin and John at Rodley

It also so happened to be a certain special somebody’s Birthday – yes we have birthday girl Sarah aboard!

We stopped at Saltaire to have a look around, there was a festival this weekend and lots of stalls out in the market selling scrumptious looking goodies, but we’re well stocked up already so managed to resist the temptation.

We moved on from their to the double staircase at Dowley Gap…. Mum and Dad’s favourite staircase….NOT. Nice enough mooring though!

Last night we had a present surprise.  At 21:15 we saw a double rainbow.

Today we travelled on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway from Keighley to Oxenhope on a diesel and back on the steam train.

It was an interesting journey inspite of the weather and the carriages were much as we remembered from journeys in our youth.

Perhaps though the gas lights were a bit before our time.

Oakworth is particularly well known as the station that featured in the file The Railway Children.

Note the “Ladies Room”.  They expected special treatment in those days with their own waiting rooms.

Damems claims to be Britain’s smallest standard-gauge railway station.  It is only one carriage long and anyone wishing to alight here must inform the guard and travel in the first carriage.

There is a railway museum in Oxenhope which we looked around and found the following on one of its notice boards:

Haworth is world famous as the home of Anne, Emily and Charlotte Brontë who wrote their books whilst living at the Parsonage in the village.  All the sisters died young; indeed, the average life expectancy in Haworth at that time was around 28.  Not only was this due to the awful climate (still with us today!) but also because until 1860 the main supply of water ran from the moors, through the graveyard, to a pump by the Black Bull.

We can fully understand the sentiments about the weather!

Romy and Peter stopped off on the way back at Riddlesden Hall a quite small but interesting local NT property.

This was the brightest bit of the day.

Oh dear.  What can we say.  Here we sit with the rain coming down in heavy showers.  At least there are no more hailstones.  We have reached Stockbridge after a short trip through some very pleasant wooded areas.  One of the swing bridges (196?) has a lock that has to be lifted vertically and weighs around 5 ton and a rotating mechanism that needs a team of horses to move it.  The good news is that it has been recently painted!

We are looking forward to a drier day tomorrow, a trip on the train and visit to East Riddlesden Hall.