Hebden Bridge to above Holmcoat Lock 14
There will be a few days whilst we adjust to the clocks having sprung forwards, waking when you wake doesn’t tend to adjust very well, so we were a touch late pushing off this morning.
Rain is now pretty much the norm and we dressed appropriately. Across the way a couple were being shown round a boat for sale, they came across as being very new to narrowboats. A bit further along there was a touch of boat moving happening. The Bronte Day boat was moved into the stubby arm, then a very familiar boat moved up and the cruiser we’ve been following pulled in behind. Did the cruiser have a problem? Was he having to return to work after the weekend and had found himself a mooring until he could move his boat again.
The familiar boat had been spotted yesterday. NB Petrichor* had been one of the boats moored below Hurlesdon during the first lockdown in 2020. The chap onboard, spent his time signwriting his boat, it took two coats until he was happy with it, it’s certainly holding up well. As we pootled past we both waved, the chap stood inside and waved back, not sure he recognised us, maybe I should have moved our yellow bicycle from the Tour de France onto that side as this was the man who’d designed it. A shame not to have chance for a chat.
Onto the water point, our tank depleted somewhat, the pressure wasn’t so good so we sat down and enjoyed a Hot Paw Bun whilst we waited, very good toasted.
First lock of the day Blackpit Lock. Despite the rainfall we still managed to get a crowd of gongoozlers watching. I do love some of the theories people come up with. Today’s was that if we filled the lock up too much then it would force the bottom gates open! I made sure I stopped when the levels were level and pushed the top gates open to avoid the bottom gates failing.
I’d hoped to get a good photo of the mills along the next stretch, a possible painting, but they weren’t how I’d remembered them, not so picturesque, the rain wasn’t helping.
A couple more locks, was this next stretch the location used in Happy Valley when Tommy Lee Jones was on a narrowboat? A hunt round the internet later on found the Wandering Turnip who gives a guided tour of the area. We’d for some reason always thought the scene had been shot along this stretch, but it turns out we were very wrong and had passed under Bridge 5 coming out of Sowerby Bridge. It also turns out we’d bought some broccoli in one of the locations a couple of days ago.
Onwards and upwards, this will be the theme for the next few days. At just about every lock we had soggy gongoozlers. A couple ran to watch, one of them from Germany asking if they could help, I asked them to help with the top gate whilst I walked on to the next lock, they were very happy to oblige.
Pulling in at Rawden Mill Lock the canal was shallow. Five years ago this pound was even shallower. We had difficulty getting into the side and ended up enlisting passersby to give me a hand to jump onto the bank. Thankfully today that wasn’t needed.
The offside of locks were very muddy, at the bottom gate it looked to almost be ankle deep just where you needed to stand to wind the paddle back down. Extra care walking round locks was required today.
Two young ladies at another lock, one had never seen a lock in action, the other grew up near Saltaire and has helped push gates at Bingley. Then a couple who normally are on their motorbikes, but had opted for a canal side walk today, everyone helped with gates and chatted away.
Our aim for today was to reach a mooring where Tilly could have some shore leave. A small playground alongside the canal just after Lock 14 caught our eye, the railway and road a distance away too. The depth in places was shallow but we got moored up in the end.
Tilly took one look out of the backdoors and turned round to request I stopped it from raining. She tried again and suceeded in heading through the wire fence and into the play area. This is where you can go to learn woodcraft, I didn’t need any tutelage, I know all about trees!
A late treat cheese lunch as we dried off, the stove was built up ready for some jacket potatoes and settled down for the remainder of the day. Of course now we’d stopped so did the rain!
A lengthy phone call with my brother catching up on news from Hackney and then some frogging of a pair of socks. The ankle had become too tight with colour working, so I had to frog it down to before the heel turn. This will mean I fall slightly behind on my pair a week, but I’d rather every pair fits their sponsor and anyway I’m sure I’ll catch up with where I should be.
*Petrichor is the smell of rain. The word comes from the Greek words ‘petra’, meaning stone, and ‘ichor’, which in Greek mythology refers to the golden fluid that flows in the veins of the immortals.
As part of our Nebolink subscription we get a monthly report from them, listing all our journeys along with a map of where we’ve been. Thought it might be interesting if I included these. So here’s where we travelled in March.
6 locks, 2.3 miles all of them soggy, 1 full water tank, 1 cruiser moored, 1 lockdown buddy, 27 gongoozlers, 6 helpers, 1 woodland playground, 1 cat amused for a while, 1 catch up, 1 missing Tara! 1 sock frogged, 3 treat cheeses started and yes the Wensleydale is very yummy!
Petrichor after a dry spell is the loveliest smell in the world!
It’s a shame we don’t have the dry spells at the moment to be able to appreciate the smell.