We really liked our mooring last night, although the internet signal was decidedly weak. This morning we set off in the sunshine at about 8.45, first passing Chas Hardern’s boat yard.
Beeston Iron Lock took a while to come to a level and then took two people to get the gate open. Fortunately a boat arrived to come down. Beeston Iron Lock also leaks like anything; this one has a cottage alongside.
At Tilstone Lock, a CRT man was fixing one of the bottom paddles, so asked that we only use one gate. That was fine because it’s what we’d do anyway. One of the top paddles in out of action, so it takes even longer to fill. Near this lock there’s a former mill, now a house.
While the lock was filling, Adrian pulled a load of weed and reeds out of the water above the top gate. the CRT man was grateful, because he said he’d have had to do it otherwise! Before the Bunbury staircase, Adrian jumped off at the railway bridge to get the lock ready. In fact a boat had just come down so the bottom lock was open and ready, but then passing each other while also passing all the Anglo Welsh hire boats required a bit of breathing in. There was also another boat to go up, so we joined him, and there was a boat coming down too. In fact there were two to come down, but the second one said he didn’t mind waiting. This is only the third time we’ve done this pair of locks, and we’ve done a Bunbury Shuffle every time. When the two locks were level, I went forward, the other uphill boat moved over the downhill boat went into his space, I moved over, and then he came alongside.
We stopped at the Calverley services to top up the tank and get a wash load of bedding on. The building used to be a transhipment wharf between the canal and the railway.
Once we were past Barbridge Junction it felt as though we were coming home, because we’ve spent quite a bit of time round here. We were aiming for the moorings just before Hurleston Junction, preferably the northernmost space, as we were here a couple of weeks ago. A boat moored a couple,e of rings from the end was just about to leave, so we waited for him to go and then moored on the same rings we had last time, just facing the other way.
This afternoon we went for a walk round the reservoir. There have been quite a few boat movements up and down the locks and the pound between the top two was very low. An ABC hire boat was unable to get out of the top lock and a boat coming up was stuck on the offside. The same CRT chap we’d seen earlier was there, and organised the running down of some water. The boat on the offside seemed unable to get off the mud, even though he also appeared to be floating, so the hire boat took a rope and gave him a tug. We reckoned if he’d put his tiller over and some power on, he’d have been ok.
During the day we received photos from Donna at Braidbar of progress on Kingley Vale. The big change is that the huge battery bank has been installed. There’s a full post on the KV blog.
6 miles, 5 locks. (32 miles, 22 locks)
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