Silsden

One piece of good news from the slowly relaxation---for the moment---of Covid restrictions is the revival of my annual canal trip, postponed from May last year. This has been a long-standing institution for a group of friends who enjoy messing about on Britain's waterways and drinking the occasional beer or ten on twice-daily breaks. The party started in 1972 but I am a late-comer, arriving in 1993 and I've been going nearly every year for a week since then. Over the years we have covered almost all of the British canal network, from Llangollen to Leicestershire and Bath to Bingley. The title of this blog comes from an occasion years ago when the party (of which I deny responsibility because it was before my time) got stuck in the complicated exercise of turning the boat round. It's never an easy task to manouevre a 70-foot vessel alternating between forward and reverse, and the story goes that another boat party watched us with amusement and asked "Is this your first time on the canals?" Apparently they weren't even English!

This year we're a party of eight, in two four-berth boats on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal. Leaving aside the start and finish cities, we convene at the small West Yorkshire town of Silsden, to cover the most scenic part of the canal which crosses the Pennines. The L & L is quite an early canal, starting from 1790 and unable to cut through the hill range, it skirts them with the help of over 90 locks and a minimum of tunnels. And no rest for the wicked: besides one person to drive each boat, there's ideally another man on board with other crew members on the towpath to operate the locks and swing bridges. Plus a cook with sidekick for the evening meals!

Although the maximum speed is 4 knots in isolated areas, it's usually more like 1 or 2 and it's a joy to cruise quietly through some splendid countryside. The first four images are around Skipton, a pleasant market town. Image 4 shows a swing bridge open; some of them are electrically operated but the manual ones are hard work. A good job that Skipton is supplied with some excellent pubs! 5 and 6 show the village of Gargrave, where the canal crosses the Pennine Way for those seeking another form of exercise.Læs mere