The Great Adventure day 7, Wednesday April 15th, To Skipton and beyond

Up early and off by 8.30. We still have the swing bridges and today the wind has started up. I didn’t realise how difficult it would be trying to manoeuvre 57 feet of steel in the wind, holding it midstream whilst Jon tackled the bridges was very hard, and at one point I couldn’t even get the boat away from the side as she just kept being blown back in. Poor Jon had to shut the bridge and come and help. He then worked the boat as I worked the bridge, luckily that one was OK so I could manage it. We passed Snaygill Boats on the way to Skipton, they were probably responsible for all this as we hired a boat from them all those years ago and still remember enjoying the trip (apart from the swing bridges which I remember me doing last time and they were still just as much a pain).
Skipton was quite busy with lots of boats moored up or moving around. I spotted my first blogger as I saw Mr David moored up, I thought that was great.

First mention of Burnley, should be home soon.

From Skipton the canal goes through some of the loveliest countryside possible to the top of the pennines and through Gargrave. Up here the wind was quite fierce so it took a lot of concentrating. Here we did the last swing bridge too, GREAT!!.

The pictures don't do justice to the scenery as it was quite grey and drizzly but still magnificent.

We passed through the six Gargrave locks on our own which was hard work for Jon. We tried to help a grounded hire boat but couldn’t get them off the side and as we left they had managed to get stuck across the canal, blocking it completely. They hoped that as people came through the next locks the water level would rise and help them out but the next locks were quite a long way away. We carried on and stopped just before the Bank Newton locks for lunch as we were quite tired by now and lunch on the move didn’t appeal. As we set off to do the Bank Newton set of six locks we luckily teamed up with another boat driven by Sharon and Alan. It was great fun going through the locks together side by side. I thought later we should have tied up together as this would have been easier and prevented some of the scraping as one or other of us tried to get alongside in the locks. They told us that the stuck boat had taken about an hour to clear and some BW chaps had brought other boats along to pull them off the banks and get them going again, it held everyone up for a while. We made it through the Bank Newton six locks in about 2 hours so that was good going.
We stopped at East Marton as we knew the Cross Keys pub was good. We have only ever been here by car and it was great to be able to arrive by canal, something we had dreamed of doing. We topped up with water and settled down for the evening. There is a lovely double bridge over the canal right by the pub.

Masons' marks on the bridge

East Marton private moorings with the Cross Keys on the hill behind

There is a steep path up to the road by the bridge but the best way up to the pub is back along the towpath to the previousl bridge (about 300 yards) and up a lane by a stables. Halfway up there is a great view of the moored boats (unfortunately we didn't take the camera this time.)

A few well deserved pints in the Cross Keys (they also do good food but we already had some in the oven) and then home for lamb chops and stuffing-lovely.

11.5 miles, 12 locks and 7 swing bridges.