A decision made and a change of scenery.

Following on from our finding that our route to the Midlands will be closed till March (see last post) we had a long discussion about what to do. Four long days would have taken us back to Leeds and clear of the stoppages in that direction, due to start on Monday. But we still wouldn’t be able to go much further south till the third week in December, stoppages on the River Trent, and the Huddersfield and Rochdale Canals prevent that. The last couple of day’s weather would have made for miserable cruising, too….
So we’ve chosen to stay up here, Up North. At least for a while.

We’ll still have all of the western side of the L&L to go at, and if we get fed up the route south via Leeds will be available again by the the back end of December, so we don’t really need to stay north of Manchester till March. And you never know, Peel Holdings may cancel or postpone their planned work on the Bridgewater Canal at Worsley…

Consequently we’ll be spending more time than normal tied up, and the blog posts will become a little more infrequent.
A case in point is the fact that we’ve spent over a week local to Gargrave. A splendid place to tie up for a few days, but we needed a change. The weather looks set to improve so we took the opportunity to shove off.

Unfortunately we weren’t quite ready to go when the boat behind us set off, or we could have shared the locks. But another was coming down Anchor Lock when we arrived, so that and Scarland were set for us anyway.

In Anchor Lock, named for the pub alongside.
The busy A65 crosses just below.

Yarn Bombing    

Autumn sun through the almost leafless trees

The three locks out of Gargrave are close together, so I walked between while Mags brought the boat up.

Scarland Lock

Stegneck Lock was the last, and we moored up just above.
The Settle to Keighley line crosses just ahead, but it’s quiet, only local trains about every hour through the day.
 We’re only here for the one night, tomorrow we’re heading out into the hills…

Just up the canal the River Aire is crossed on a three-arch stone aqueduct.

This is the last we’ll see of the river unless we come back this way. It rises around 5½ miles further north, above the village of Malham. We’ve followed the Aire Valley all the way from West Hadsley, where we joined the river from the Selby Canal.

The river heading east to Leeds and finally joining the Yorkshire Ouse.

We’re now heading south and west, although we’re not yet on the summit level of the canal.

I wonder how long the little stone slab bridge has been there, crossing a little beck that feeds into the river?
Meg doesn’t care, the beck is good for a paddle!

Locks 3, miles ¾