Skipton

We spent 6 weeks in and close to Skipton, based around its train station and Ashlands Vets.

Vicky's parents had recommended this particular vets because both dogs needed vaccinations and follow up shots. Tiger Lilly started her life as a breeding bitch and calcium deficiency took its toll on her teeth. She ended up having 17 removed and the remaining ones scaled and polished. She needed a couple of post op appointments after this as she developed a cough which has thankfully gone now.

Vicky had also arranged to take the train and spend 10 days in the North East catching up with family and friends. When living in the van and before adopting Abby we would have travelled together, but our current living arrangements mean we'll likely be travelling separately in the future while one of us stays back to look after the animals and boat.

Skipton is a hub of canal activity, having several boat hire companies for sight seeing cruises, day trips and longer holidays. Private craft line the channel at their year round mooring sites and many boat owners like us stay on the towpath and at visitor moorings, making use of CRT services and the boatyards to buy supplies and get repair work done.

Our extended stay allowed us to explore the nooks and crannies of the town, looking forward to planned events such as a showing of Mind Games at Skipton Little Theatre, a food festival, a makers market and art exhibition where we met the artists. It really is a lovely town, with its pale stone buildings, cobbled alleys, arched old bridges, a great hardware shop, timber merchants and plethora of charity shops, pubs and cafes. One place we really enjoyed exploring was the Springs Branch; a short, dead end branch of the Leeds and Liverpool. Usually only the very short trip boats travelled up here because they were able to turn around at the second bridge, after which the channel becomes too shallow. It is one of the Inland Waterways Association's Silver Propeller Challenge locations; lesser visited parts of the canal. The challenge is to visit 20 of these locations, for which you earn a special plaque. Always up for an adventure we slowly reversed up the branch. It was a difficult task as manoeuvrability is next to nothing when travelling backwards. Normally the propeller pushes water past the rudder to steer. Sucking it away from the rudder doesn't work half as well, so Will needed to keep switching to forward to correct Rainboat's course. A small river runs along one side of the branch and a cliff rises from the other. Atop the sheer stone perches Skipton Castle. The further along you go, the more the trees arch over the water, their leaves blotting out the sky. After we'd reached bridge number 2 and taken the photo for evidence, forwarding out was a piece of cake. We returned in the canoe a few days later to pick blackberries up until the point an old rockfall blocked our path. Will also enjoyed a quiet bit of fishing.

Skipton is no Leeds or Sheffield, but by their nature all urban centres are hubs of activity. Rainboat regularly had her mooring pins dragged out of the earth by the force of boats belting past, especially the large trip boat that served a meal to its cruisers. The towpath was narrow and frequented by cyclists, dog walkers, commuters and sightseers. It scared Leo to have so many people looking in through the windows so we kept the landside blinds closed much of the time for his sake. We therefore took little trips up and down the canal to stay for a few days. The change the scenery from stone walls to fields and trees was refreshing and reinvigorated us.Read more