Castleford to above Lemonroyd Lock
Two outsides again for Tilly today. This end of the moorings seems to be preferential, maybe there’s not quite so much fence to get through. She wasn’t seen for quite sometime as we had breakfast and then made a big fuss when the door stayed closed after she’d come in.
I walked round over the lock and then towards the flood lock, my calf still playing up a little, my morning stretches a little hard to do right now.
On the roof of one of the long term moorers sits a car. At closer quarters I don’t think it’s a very useful car as it has four flat tyres and if you sneezed close to it it would disintegrate into a pile of rust dust.
The flood lock was open both ends so no need for me to press buttons, I just needed a lift. Castleford flood lock used to have a bridge over it, there’s still the remains of it, but pedestrians can’t cross it and with both sets of gates open to boat traffic it’s quite a long way round to the road bridge as two cyclists found out.
We turned right onto the river. Early last year we’d been stuck at Castelford due to flooding and waited for the lock light to return to amber from flashing red, we made a dash this way towards Leeds as soon as we could to escape the night time generators. Today the river was tranquil, three herons stood fishing at the waters edge, only flying off as we approached. The willow drifting in the air like snow and lying on the waters surface.
We passed several boats coming towards us, would the big lock at Lemonroyd still be empty when we reached it? Or would it have had time to refill? It came into sight, it had started to refill, by the time I’d got to the pedestal it was level with the next pound. I waited for Mick to secure the bow line to the lock landing then set the paddles going. So much water! It takes ages to empty, I was surprised that the gongoozlers stayed to watch us so long.
A top up of water was required. Plenty of boats moored by the water point. Thankfully Sarah from NB Honky Tonk, a Finesse boat, had warned us that the water point was out of action. Not good! But there was another tap at the service block if we moored close to it then our hoses might just stretch to reach it. If not the next place would be to moor close to the marina entrance and they’d try to pass a hose out to us. We managed the former solution and filled the tank up, lending it to the cruiser moored in front to top them up as well. I had a shower as we filled up to keep the tank at full for as long as possible.
Onwards to the mooring we prefer. Under the bridge, past the arm and alongside some trees which would hopefully give shade in the afternoon. Shops quite close, water point nearish and Woodlesford Station along with plenty of things to keep Tilly occupied. She was given four hours shore leave and told not to use this outside all up today, ‘It’s got to last you a while Tilly!’
With most things ticked off the list of mooring requirements, over lunch the internet was tried out. It was okay, not as quick as I’d have liked, but okay.
A walk up to the Co-op for some bread and a few bits. I set off, sadly half way there my calf complained, so brisk walking had quite a hobble to it. The Co-op maybe hadn’t been the best choice as many of their shelves were empty after their IT problems of late, but I managed to get enough provisions to last a while.
Two boats had pulled up, who could blame them it’s a nice mooring, but they had three woofers! Then I spotted quite a sizable hole about ten foot away from our stern. Too deep to just be woofers digging, was it a fox or badgers home? Maybe here wasn’t such a good place to be after all!
Then the internet slowed right down too, hard for websites to load, not so good for online meetings. We may be moving in the morning!
2 locks, 1 being an open flood lock, 4.5 miles, 1 right, 3.54 miles walked, 51 minutes briskly, 2 hose filling,1 shower, 10 gongoozlers, 1 tea boat, 1 quiet mooring, 2 more boats, maybe another 2, 3 woofers, 1 big hole, 1 painful calf, 1 not so perfect mooring.
