canal boat Silsden to Saltaire

This would have to be the best way to spend a long weekend. 
Great scenery, interesting views, fantastic food, wonderful friends...
It all sounds too good to be true and as words will fail to capture the joy of our most recent trip I have decided just to load up lots of photos with some captions so you can follow our September weekend adventure.

 

It all started with a night lesson in canasta at home with Jon and Kylie.

They are both very clever
and after some initial problems, really enjoyed the game.



http://www.silsdenboats.co.uk/ is the web site for the boat company we rented our narrowboat off. 

At 10am we headed off to Silsden Marina to collect
Dan's Drum, our boat.  It was moored, bow pointing west.
Skipton is west, Saltair is east. 
We were going to Saltaire.
It is 2 miles to the turn around point (winding)
 at a little village outside Skipton. 
You can't just turn a long narrow boat around anywhere,
the canal is too skinny.
We headed off West, learning how to canal boat.





gaining more canal skills all the time



but of course all the learning and organisation created an appetite, Luckily there was a canal side pub really handy to the winding point..
 By the way, that's winding, as in the wind blows the boat and helps turn it around.  Our boat was about 60 foot long and 7 foot wide.  Actual dimensions are on the Silsden site if you want to be a pedant.







After a feed and a fine ale we were heading back
 towards the Bingley 5 and 3  Rise locks, our target for the night.





This was one of the more complex swing bridges,
you have to open them to boat through.
It has traffic lights siren, and everything. 




we arrived after the Locks were closed for the day so moored up

and walked to the bottom of them  to look at one of the

7 wonders of the old industrial world. 

We were all atingle at the prospect of going down them the next morning.







the Bingley 5 rise milestone

 

moored up for pre-evening drinkies



   

on board meal prep prior to the big descent.



Entering the first of the 5 locks, two boats at a time.
If we thought we were novices,
these blokes beside us had taken lessons in hopelessness









trying to stay dry as the lock empties,
not too far forward, not too far back...



One lock door  opens, another is closed.
 Forward a little bit and down we'll go again.



Made IT!
Pity about the rain but all is well,
we are now expert Lock navigators.
Also a shame one of the lock keepers was such a grumpy bugger.
He is well known and widely disliked.  But he has a job.







It's not all beautiful scenery



But mostly it is.
The little white dash is what you have to aim the
boat at to go through in the centre of the channel. 








Just down one more set of 3 locks before Saltaire.   




And there is the Saltair tower and the icecream boat!
Made it ! YAY!



We moored up behind Excalibur. 
As we all now quite like this boating lark we decided we wanted a boat like her. 
Huge state-room, granite kitchen, wood burning fireplace,
like a floating apartment.  even had real trees growing in the front. 
Loved the red umbrella over the back bbq porch.  
Envy afloat.



It was the Saltaire festival with stalls, street performers and old buildings open to the public.
(these blog pages have been to Saltaire before, use my B search box if you want to see more pics.) 
These guys were nothing short of fantastic.  Great sets, Be-Bop Jazz, honkey tonk and blues. 
None of them a day under 50 and every one of them fantastic players.
 Even some great choreography.



a quick visit to the Saltair church to pat the world's friendliest church dog
and then a lunch at "Don't Tell Titus",
a walk thru the gallery and home shops, detour thru the back streets
into the town hall, a quick look at some Morris dancers
and back to the boat to find a night mooring.



This will do.
As night moorings go this was a peach.
Gail drove us into to the locks you can just make out behind us, but they had been closed for the day. 
She had to reverse the 60foot boat out, turn it around in a winding, and moor up. 
All done like an expert. 
Drinkies were well deserved and Jon broke out a fine bit of bubbly. 



Lots of laughing and happy chat



Evening fell



The sun set



And we had a little bit of  dinner,
Gail had made a lamb shank and a small mountain of mash & vegetables for each of us, followed by a little bit of exquisitely flavoursome cheese,
a dribble of fine wine
and some chocolate.
It was only wáffer thin...
A very refined evening.
Some of us, perhaps all of us, may have,
just may have,
over-done it, 
just a little.



Next morning we returned past Saltaire
and back up the locks. 
As I had taken us down them,
Gail, Jon and Kylie took us up. 



Half way up the 5 rise





Making friends. Mr and Mrs Taylor are building
a boat to live on.  He's a harbour pilot and they take
lots of canal boat holidays.
they have two cats
Their current boat cost them 68 000 pounds, 
their next one is ordered and going to be better. 
We think we'll just keep renting boats.



By heck we used some water, took nearly an hour to fill .
We were at a nice place though,
Looking over the Aire Dales,
the Aire river runs through Leeds.
A breed of terrier dog comes from here.
That would be your Airedale Terrier then. 



OH !  LOOK!
There are some.



And there are some more!. 
In fact it was their club day.
There were over 80 of the bloody things
Walking along the tow path raising money for something.
So,  for those of you who expect them,
these can be your furry animal shots for this blog entry.





And that was pretty much the end of the trip.
Well, its the end of the things I can put in the blog.
( what happens on board, stays on board)
I apologise that the photo is blurred.
It was late. There had been  EVENTS.
But Autumn was arriving and these aer the sort of
nice colours our memories will retain. 
A lovely lovely lovely lovely four days.