The Swan family head out of the mist for breakfast on Monday
A surprise on Monday was the passage of a Silsden hire boat, heading towards Gargrave late morning. With Holme Lock scheduled to be closed for repair on Monday morning, I hope they made arrangements to get through before the lock was dismantled. It will probably still be operational, these days it takes a couple of days to get the fencing up to comply with Health and Safety before work can start.
We decided to go for a short cruise to East Marton today, tomorrow we’ll head up onto the summit level to Barrowford for shopping and diesel before heading back.
A grey start to the day didn’t really improve much.
On this section the canal winds it’s way through an area of low hills, some of the bends pretty tight.
There were rollers for the boat ropes installed where the tow would have fouled the dry-stone wall, one still remains.
There was a flash of a kingfisher along here, much too brief for me to get a picture.
I was surprised to see several boats moored here, but most seem to be unoccupied. We pulled onto a bit of concrete edge nearer the main road bridge than I’d have liked, but it’ll do for tonight.
This bit of towpath, just a half-mile of it, is also part of the Pennine Way, the long-distance footpath running from Edale in Derbyshire to Kirk Yetholm, just over the Scottish border.
A friend and I tramped the 270 mile route in the summer of 1977, we would have passed along here on either Day 3 or Day 4.
Sadly, in my various house moves since then, I’ve mislaid the guide book in which I kept a record of the walk.
A bit pressed for time, we got to Kirk Yetholm at midday on Day 11. We averaged between 20 and 30 miles each day.
And smelled a bit towards the end!
(Click to read)
Locks 0, miles 2
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