Brewery Lane Swing Bridge to Bradley Swing Bridge 182A

Thank you to Anne, Jo, Debby, Christine and not forgetting Duncan (of course!) for the help in identifying our shrubs at the house. Maybe we should harvest some of the St John’s Wort and feed it to the seagulls so they sleep through the night.

Anyhow, we woke to rain, so no need to rush anywhere. We took our time getting up and put a load of washing on. By the time breakfast was eaten and put away the weather was improving so we got ready to push off.

Which water point to use? Well the one just before the next bridge had just had a boat pull onto it, so we chanced a tap being free round the bend by the bus station, we were wanting to get rid of rubbish too. We waved goodbye to Margie and Robert even though they had most probably headed off before we’d had our morning cuppas.

It seemed like everyone had decided to move at the same time. A Slisden boat had sent crew ahead to work the bridge, we followed them through, being followed by at least a widebeam. On the other side of the bridge there were at least two more boats waiting their turn, the poor chap with the key of power would be there for sometime along with the cars wanting to cross the bridge.

The service point was free so we pulled in, filled the water, emptied the yellow water, disposed of rubbish, cleaned Tilly’s pooh box and sorted our bucket. A little blue boat pulled up in front and busied themselves doing similar.

Just as we’d untied and were just about to push off, the blue crew came out from below untied and pushed off without even glancing over their shoulder. They soon caught up with a trip boat, their speed being commented upon by the chap at helm of the trip boat. Just how fast were they going!?! I’d heard the chap make a comment about Keighley and 11 miles, maybe they were hoping to reach there for lunch!

We pootled on at our more sedate speed, respecting the banks of the canal and moored boats. As Snaygill Swing Bridge came into view we could see the cloud being emitted from the exhaust of the blue boat as they sped off again into the distance. Oh well, we’d not be leapfrogging at the swing bridges with them then.

Snaygill Swing Bridge was an easy push and pull back to lock it. Onwards we went looking for a shady spot to sit out tomorrows higher temperatures. This stretch tends to hug the A629 quite a lot, every now and then it meanders away from the road in a loop, keeping to it’s contour. The first such loop heads towards Bradley. Before the swing bridge there was a line of boats moored up, we were hoping for space shortly after it where trees might just give us some shade.

I hopped off to operate the bridge but was just beaten to the job by a lady from a boat coming the other way. Two boats came towards us then it was our turn. Just through the bridge sat the blue boat moored up, they seemed to have paused for lunch.

We pulled up a little bit further away from the bridge, checked the surroundings and let Tilly out to explore for the first time in days a life time! The washing was hung out to dry on the whirligig and we pottered away the afternoon doing a little bit of research on electric hobs for the house. Should we go induction or not?

TV signal was bad so we caught up with the days news on line. New lock down restrictions for areas in Manchester, Blackburn and into West Yorkshire are to come in at midnight. Would this affect us? At the moment we are between covid hotspot areas, but we’ll soon be into the Bradford area. The new measures won’t stop us from moving so we can continue to head eastwards, we just might not be able to catch up with friends and family on the way.

Tilly seemed to have had advanced warning of the new measures, cat curfew came and went. The mad cat woman came out and walked up and down the towpath several times with no sign of our second mate. Another try just before our pizzas came out of the oven and she showed her head right at the other end of the big field we were moored by. Blimey it took some time for her to make her way back to the towpath, at least she’d had a good afternoon.

0 locks, 2.78 miles, 1 keep to the right, 2 swing bridges, 8 let through, 6 held up, 1 empty wee tank, 1 clean pooh box, 1 full water tank, 6mph maybe 7? 1 slighty shady mooring, 1 load washing dry, 1 cat out past curfew, 1 area of new measures ahead.