Not a lot…

After yesterday’s busy trip we decided not to do much today. In fact we toyed with the idea of staying over at Rodley, but in the end the beautiful sunny day beckoned…
But it was nearly mid-day when I swung Rodley Bridge open for Mags to pass. Just the other side of the bridge was a boat with an unusual colour scheme..

You don’t see too many white narrowboats…
It wasn’t just the colour that roused the interest, we inspected this boat way back in 2006 when we were looking to get on the water. It’s not been painted since. Then it was at Red Bull Basin near Hardings Wood Junction on the Trent and Mersey.

We had three of those swing bridges to deal with before our planned stop at Apperley Bridge. The first was at Rodley, the second a little further on, Owl, and the third was Calverley Lodge.

Owl Swing Bridge

The last one we expected to do was already open, officially so I guess as it was chained back.

Calverley Lodge Swing Bridge

The canal has risen up above the Aire valley now, cut into the rising ground on the south of the river.
It alternately crosses open, rolling pastures, and sections of woodland.



The difference in temperature between the sunny and shady sections was very noticeable.

I think that’s a bit of Bradford…

Every so often there’s a ramp to allow errant boat horses to climb back out of the canal…
…Meg likes these too when we’re walking!

Apperley Bridge seems to be spreading it’s boundaries, new housing springing up around the edges.

Some is nicely in keeping with the canal environment.

We stopped at Apperley Bridge Marina for a gas bottle and some loo-blue, then moved around the corner to moor just before the next swing bridge.

I counted them up today. There are 52 on the main line and a further 6 on the Rufford Branch. Then there’s the lift bridge at Plank Lane. We won’t be passing all 52, by turning off onto the Leigh Branch at Wigan we’ll miss the last half-dozen. Shame.

The L&L is also the longest continuous canal in England. By continuous I mean built by one company. The Grand Union from London to Birmingham is longer by 10 miles but is an amalgam of different canals built at different times by different canal companies.
The Leeds and Liverpool also sports several broad staircase locks, the most famous of which is the Bingley Five Rise. We’ll be there next week…


I’ve recently been looking at my mobile wifi. I’ve a contract with 3, and the wireless modem is a Huawei 5573, capable of 4G or LTE speeds. It has two TS9 antenna ports, and I’d plugged my roof antenna into one, but with no speed benefit.


It turns out that to get the full benefit of the MIMO technology of LTE you need to use both, each from separate aerials. But one solution is a unit incorporating two antennae in one case. Each antenna has it’s own cable. One such is the Simplytech Omni, available from ebay. I think I’ll give it a go… There’s an excellent article on the subject here.

Tomorrow I think we’ll move out to find a rural mooring for the weekend.

Locks 0, miles 2½