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Evening 5 April 2017

We have just spent a lovely evening at the Waters Edge, Nottingham in the company of Mick and Teresa aboard Midday. They claim to be novices at boating but have traffic management experience! Hope they enjoy their boating experience as much we are doing and wish them many happy hours afloat and hope our paths or waterways meet up again at some future date.

Nottingham 5 April

We reached Nottingham yesterday (Matilda is moored up close to Sainsburys on Castle Boulevard close to the Marina) after two lovely cruising days from Newark with the help of friends Hilary & John. Overnight on Monday was spent just outside The Ferry Boat Inn at Stoke Bardolph, adjacent to the sewage works!!!.

We shall be venturing to Sawley tomorrow.

Friends and family are welcome to join us for the journey or visit us over the next few days.

Preparations for departure

We are completing our final checks before sailing out on Monday 3rd April

Watch this space for more exciting episodes of 2017 cruise!!

Over the winter we have done a number of enhancements including adding a real windscreen complete with wiper and hung the inflatable on the stern.

Winter in Newark on Trent

Kings Marina is a splendid place to moor. Just 200 yards from Waitrose, Aldi and Castle station, 300 yards from Newark Castle and not may more from the classic Market Place. It has lots of individual shops too. We’ve enjoyed celebrating the 800th anniversary of the death of King John, Regency Dance evening, Christmas Market, entertaining the Mayor & his lady to tea on Matilda, the National Civil War Museum, Theatre and much more.

A great town to live in and said to be one of the happiest towns in Britain.

Leeds & Liverpool Canal – The end in sight

27th August was full of excitement descending the Bingley 5 rise and 3 rise. Happily lock keepers were there to help. We moored up temporarily at the bottom of the locks outside the Damart factory (thermal underwear!)
Leeds was just over 15 miles away. We progressed quickly through Saltaire. It was raining and we had been before and the moorings were awful – just a patch of litter strewn derelict land!
Disaster struck when a hire boater closed an automated swing bridge too quickly, the bridge hit Matilda and the stern mooring bollard sheared off. Fortunately the rope was still attached to it and we were able to haul it aboard.
Further misfortune on the Sunday when the bow thruster fuse blew. We struggled on to close to Apperley Bridge Marina. Rob the manager and wife Vicki who runs the cafe, were really helpful and we arranged for Bronte Boats to come and weld the mooring bollard back on at 8.00am on Bank Holiday Monday.
We also met the owners of Lady June who were so helpful with advice and locking.
We also met the chaps who run Bear Boating Training who gave us some good tips on boat handling.
Bad luck comes in threes so it is said and on leaving Appeley the bow thruster fuse went again, when going aground to allow another boat through narrows! We walked down to the boat yard in Rodley and the 83 year old owner was able to let us have spare fuses.
We made an early start on Tuesday as owing to local vandalism it’s a non stop run down to Leeds. We met David from a hire boat who abandoned his wife and crew to help us all the way to Leeds. We were so grateful for his help, and wonder how he caught them up. Interesting how from going past us, how far ahead they managed.
We reached Granary Wharf in Leeds at 1pm and moored next to Doubletree Hotel. We had two warm & sunny days there. We visited The Armouries, a not to be missed attraction with talks on Agincourt and the SOE.
Various hotel guests came to admire the boat and one gentleman is worth mentioning Steve Carlyon. He is raising money for the Combat Stress Charity and had the challenge of doing 22 press ups in 22 unusual places. We videod him doing his press ups on Matilda’s roof!
We met John & Barbara on Less Speed 2 who kindly let us copy key pages from their Nicholsons guide as it is currently unavailable, out of print and we needed it for the next leg of our journey.
We took a glass of wine on Lady June and got further advice on the way to the Trent. We were unable to leave until late morning as a chair had been jammed in the lock gates meaning the water had drained out and all the boats were aground and we had to wait for water to be released from Bingley.
Whilst waiting to depart we cleared out rubbish from the dock: 2 traffic cones, 1 parking cone, 2 tyres, wire, metal sheeting, a pair of striped underpants, plastic bags and weeds!
So finally completed the L & L in its’ 200th year.

From Skipton to Keighley 18th -26 August 2016

We set off after say Goodbye to our friends Colin & Carol on The Wool Boat. Just before lunch we had to moor up behind several boats as the Snaysgill swing bridge was refusing to move. The CRT soon got to work and about 20 boats were then on the move. We passed the memorial to five polish airmen whose plane had come down alongside the canal, through the villages of Bradley and Silesdon with its lovely colourful canalside gardens and moored up just beyond Kildwick looking down into the valley.
The following day we progressed further although it was cold, blustery and raining. Down to Riddlesden, a part of Keighley.
Saturday saw us visiting East Riddlesden Hall NT property and discovering the local butcher Ian Hewitt, post office, Coop and bus stop (10 minute service to town) all within a 5 minute walk. The butcher was displaying a page from the Guardian featuring his sponsorship of local girl Rebekah Tiley. She managed 10th place in the Olympic weightlifting event.
Sunday was a totally indulgent day for Tony. The Worth Valley Steam Railway were running vintage steam trains so we spent the day travelling in a variety of carriages (I recommend the First Class at a supplement of £3) and a double decker vintage bus through the valley to Bronte Country and beyond. We also had afternoon tea, Ritz style, in a pullman carriage. I have to confess I enjoyed it. As we returned in the late afternoon we were welcomed by a brass band playing on the platform. An excellent ending to a very enjoyable day.
The 23rd saw the visit from the boatbuilder to bring outstanding items and Radio Leeds doing a programme to celebrate 200th anniversary of the L & L Canal. The producers husband and boys visited and went away talking of buying a boat!!!!!
Wednesday we picked up a hire car and went off to Bolton Abbey (Thank you for the suggestion Peter). We walked almost the length of the valley visiting the Priory on a beautiful afternoon. Families were picnicing and barbecuing and paddling in the river. This is part of the Estate of the Duke of Devonshire and well worth a visit. As we were passing through Keighley on our way back to Matilda we noticed the cinema was showing Swallows and Amazons so we bought our tickets. The audience seemed to be of a similar vintage who had grown up with Arthur Ransomes books and many had brought their grandchildren. It was charming movie, adventure, competition, misfortune and spies, where the good guys triumph. I just loved the costumes and hand knitted jumpers! And on the film we saw the carriages that we had sat in on the Worth Valley railway.
Thursday we attended a Bramley family funeral in Nottingham.
Friday we were on the move again. This time to drive to Rotherham to collect 40 stone of ballast to adjust the tilt of Matilda, probably from launch. Each piece of lead weighed 9lbs and we had to move them 5 times! (into car, car to wall, under railings, onto boat, position on boat). Success though, and the boat is now level.
We had to return the hire car by noon: we made it at 11.58.
And then we sailed on to Bingley…….

Skipton

Skipton is a classic market town with a market on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday so it always feels busy. It has lots of eating places and individual shops and it really makes a feature of its’ canals.

The Leeds & Liverpool canal at the Springs canal junction

Skipton Castle gateway The wording is Desormais which means henceforth. It was the last royalist castle in the north to surrender after a seige of some three years.

Skipton Woods walkway from the castle

The walkway along the springs canal with a view of the castle

Sisters: Zita & Ruth 17 August Skipton Matilda moored 100 yards from the park, Morrisons (not visible from the canal) and 200 yards from the canal junction