My cock-up was gas. We arrived here in Leeds ready for a good cup of tea, but the kettle was taking a long time to boil. On investigation it was found that the gas had run out. No problem, I’ll just swap onto the new one in the gas locker. Only it wasn’t. New that is. It’s the one I changed from when that ran out. Yes, I’d forgotten to replace it!
OK, not a huge problem, the stove is lit so we can boil the kettle on that. And dinner tonight can be a pot-mess. But we can’t manage like that indefinitely. So a very nice lady at the local Calor Gas centre has arranged to deliver two fresh bottles to us here at Granary Wharf tomorrow morning. Whew.
Anyway, back to the boating. It’s always quite a long day, this trip up or down between Rodley and Leeds. So we had a chat yesterday, the result of which was us leaving Rodley at four o’clock in the afternoon yesterday and stopping above the first triple staircase locks at Newlay ready to start the run down first thing today.
The afternoon sun lights up autumn leaves as we leave Rodley
Moss Swing Bridge
That’s an ice-cream van on the opposite side!
It’s always been a bit of a no-no to moor above Newlay Locks. The local yoof come down from the housing estates either side and have been know to cause a bit of bother. Which is why we left it later in the day, arriving not long before dusk. Surprisingly there was a boat here already, the same boat that was here when I came down for a run on Thursday. I had a chat and it turns out they’d broken down and had been there for 10 days trying to get the engine sorted. And had no trouble at all. They were running low on fuel, a promised delivery of solid fuel and logs hadn’t arrived, so I let them have a bag of Excel from our roof supply.
So, after a quiet and very dark night I was chatting to the lock-keepers at eight this morning. We still had to have breakfast and Mags had to sort herself out too, so it was around 09:15 when we entered the top of the three-rise.
In Newlay Locks
Both Newlay and Forge, the next set down, are three-rise and are manned during the season. At the end of the month the part-time lockies are finished, and passage through these flights has to be booked with CRT. But at the moment it’s turn up and go down (or up).
With staff on hand I stayed aboard and Mags stayed inside in the warm. It was a bit parky out this morning, till the sun rose above the trees.
Rope grooves worn in the stonework indicate that horse-boats worked up and down this stretch.
Forge Locks is only about half a mile below Newlay…
..and was set up ready for us.
Kirkstall Lock, now just a single, is next across the valley from the ruins of Kirkstall Abbey.
The sun directly ahead made photography a little difficult, but did allow for some unusual shots under bridges.
Below Kirkstall Lock there’s about three-quarters of an hour to Spring Garden Lock, passing Aire Valley Marina on the left.
The marina uses the off-line wharf constructed to supply Kirkstall Power Station with coal. Built in 1931 the power station was extended two or three times, finally closing in 1976 and subsequently demolished.
We were making good time until we arrived at Oddy Locks, a double staircase just a mile from our planned destination. Two breasted up boats were heading down, facing in opposite directions!
The butty on the left, Elland, was too long to turn around in the channel, and the next winding hole was a long way uphill, so they were taking it back down into Leeds backwards. There it could turn round and make the final leg of the journey to Thwaite Mills facing the right way.
We dropped down with the third boat in the party, then left them to do some veg cutting on the offside below the lock while we carried on.
There’s yarn bombing – and there’s extreme yarn bombing!
Unusual and rather basic city–centre accommodation above Office Lock.
We filled with water above the lock then dropped down and moored on the pontoons at Granary Wharf. We’ll stay here tomorrow (we’ve got to wait for the gas!) then toddle off out of town on Wednesday.
Locks 12, miles 6½.
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