Tuesday 20th August. We rode into Gargrave in the morning to the Co-Op for supplies, then moved on through Bank Newton locks sharing with NB Zygnema, great locking partners. There were quite a few boats coming up and down so it took slightly longer but we were all in favour of saving water.
We were expecting a visit from our university friend Ben . Just as we reached the top of the locks Ben called to say he had arrived. I stood on the roof to see if I could see him and Dave was on the phone so somewhat distracted, which made the boat swerve slightly. As usual with boating communication lines are never working very clearly. Zygnema saw me waving my hands (not sure what I was doing) and they thought we had steering problems. We found Ben and then Zygnema came back to see if we were OK. Very nice of them to do so - thank you. We were fine. We continued for another mile or so and moored on 'The Bends' at our favourite mooring so far.
Wednesday 21st August. Decided to stay on the bends for a day with it being such a beautiful view. We had a lazy morning then we went for a walk to Conistone Cold, back round to Gargrave in a loop. So lovely being in the Yorkshire Dales but in your boat.
Thursday 22nd August. We moved on from twisting and turning following the contours to avoid locking. We past a happy set of guests and crew on Lady Teal who kindly let us overtake. We went up Greenberfield Locks, waiting for boats to come down, and used the facilities at the top lock.
We went through Barnoldswick and moored for the night just short of Foulridge. Lovely view again. We cycled over the tunnel on the towpath and into Nelson - further than we thought and very hilly without the canal tunnel! Not much to report from Nelson......
Friday 23rd August. 8.30 start this morning to get through the Foulridge tunnel in time for Barrowford locks opening at 10.00. (For info the tunnel from east to west has green lights on the hour and on the half hour when going from west to east). So we aimed for the tunnel at 9.00. Through the tunnel and moored up ready for the locks - they were just opening and the boats who were queuing up ready to go down. We breasted up with NB Oakwood whose owner, Adam, we recognised from driving the trip boat from Foulridge Wharf. Dave steered both boats and Adam and Victoria worked the locks. We also had Clifford, Adam's dog to play fetch with when waiting for locks to fill and empty. Some of the locks were very leaky - wetting Dave's feet and trying to flood our engine hole.
We made the locks in decent time and continued through Nelson (passing a good mooring for Morrisons, on the offside which leads straight into the Morrisons carpark, but we didn't stop today), Burnley and Hapton. A little rubbish in the canal and three trips down the weedhatch for David to remove carrier bags etc as well as a lot of weed from round the prop. Nice mooring this evening with an early rise planned for tomorrow.
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