Monday 11th July 2016
We did a quick Tesco run and then heading back into Skipton, which isn’t hard considering it is 100 yards away. We had made an appointment for pooches to have their six weekly manicure and to also find the Craven Arcade to have a look at as we had missed this yesterday.
As you can see there is a lot of beautiful iron work. Not sure the reason for all the bunting but added some additional colour.
Whilst we were strolling around we bumped into three ladies on tour to Skipton to see the Emmerdale site. They were from Scotland. We spoke to them for about 15 minutes as they were quite taken with the pooches and during this time we would have to say that half of it consisted of nodding our heads politely as we didn’t understand a bloody word they said.
Another crappy day as can be seen in the photo below.
Onward we pushed in the miserable weather yet again.
A slight problem today. Fraser had gone ahead to open a swing bridge which put him on the opposite side of the canal. W+M cruised through whilst Di was meant to hold nb Lucy against the bank and then she would go through after W+M. Di had a slight “Pru” moment (insider “ism” to canal officiando’s). She leapt off the boat with the middle rope but left the engine ticking over in reverse. She did not realise her folly until the boat was not in jumping distance any longer. She hollered at the top of her lungs for Fras who had to close the gate and then dash down the towpath to help her retrieve nb Lucy who was heading towards a moored boat. Disaster diverted but heart rate out of control.
Whilst we have been cruising in the Yorkshire region we have been crossing paths with the Pennine Way quite a few times. This is a very famous walk which a lot of hikers take on and basically it follows the spine of the Pennines from the South to the North or vice versa. It is a distance of 268 miles – you have to like walking to want to do it.
Whilst pottering along we actually found something we have not seen for a long time……
A BIT OF BLUE SKY!!
It was a pretty cruisy day with only three locks and pulled into this delightful little town called Gargrave. Something out of a Beatrix Potter kind of tale.
There was the obligatory church with the graveyard and something else we are noticing are all these sweet (lolly) shops which we find we just have to frequent. Alas, this one was closed.
Dropped into the local for a pint before heading back to the boat for dinner.
It’s quite astonishing that for even such a small village there is a railway station. Admittedly the service isn’t fantastic but looking at the timetable you could easily commute into Skipton for work each day each way but then again Skipton is only 4 ¾ miles away. Even so, you could easily work in Leeds which is only 38 miles away.
Dropped into the local for a pint before heading back to the boat for dinner.
The total length of the Leeds to Liverpool canal is 127 miles and it has taken us 6 days to travel 38 miles. There are also 92 locks of which we have probably done 40 of them. We are booked into Liverpool dock for the 23rd July which is only 12 days away so we had better get our arses into gear. We have some “lock slaves” joining us in two days so that should make our progress slightly quicker – well one hopes so.
We have had very little opportunity or desire to watch TV but tonight we thought we might indulge. Our TV reception has been rather remarkable with us getting 96 channels tonight. We even got to watch Wimbledon live. Anyway, we digress. After plugging through the list of 96 channels we came across one with the title of Trainspotting Live. Honest, we kid you not. There was a one hour program devoted to people standing on railway platforms waiting for engines to pass and logging their numbers and to boot it was live. Now what was additionally sad was that we spent the entire hour watching it in dumbstruck amazement that this program even existed. It goes for the next three nights and yeap, you guessed it, we are going to tune in!!!
This blog isn’t a political sounding board but we are in England during a most interesting time. In fact we would have to say we are seeing history being created. David Cameron has announced his resignation and departure from number 10 on Wednesday when this wasn’t meant to happen until October. Britain will now have it’s second female Prime Minister who does physically resemble Maggie in a few ways. Meantime, the labour party is imploding.
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