Monday 12/9 Leeds To Rodley

We reversed out of our mooring at 8.45am with Chas hard on our tail. The first lock was close by, Chas had walked up earlier and set it for us and we cruised straight into the lock; our cruise out of Leeds started without a hitch.

At the second lock, gates and paddles oh so hard and heavy, almost impossible. After the boats came into the lock and I'd shut the gates behind them I walked up to the head of the lock to wind the grounds paddles up to let the water in - that's when I noticed the pound ahead was very low. I told Chas, he said fill the lock and see how we go. I did and opened that gates and Chas went slowly out and went about fifty metres and that's when our departure from Leeds came to a grinding halt. Chas was stuck on what I later discovered to be a shopping trolley when we later slid over it.

Chas not going anywhere

Lawrence and Aqua Life stayed hard back against the lock, afloat at least. Chas tried calling the Leeds office of CRT with no joy, and then tried the Wigan office and got a recorded voice with options and suggesting he might like to make a donation - that got him hopping mad. I went back to AQua Life and my phone and rang the CRT emergency number, and no it wasn't an emergency, but I didn't want to listen to a recorded voice either. Call answered quickly and I explained the situation. We were told to sit tight,- Durh, we weren't going anywhere - and that someone would ring us back shortly. Within 5 mins got a call back and was told a CRT rep.  would come and assess the situation ( which made poor Chas even madder, 'we don't need a bleeding assessment, we need bleeding water'). Within 15 mins a CRT bloke arrived and said they were running water down from locks higher up the canal and to be patient and have a cup of tea. A surprisingly short time later Chas was afloat enough to scrape over the shopping trolley and we cautiously set off up, the still very low pound, the canal to the next lock, a staircase of 2. Altogether we were stuck for something over an hour.

I was halfway through filling the bottom lock when the same CRT man came along to see how we were progressing and he stayed and helped work the boats through the two locks.

So I'm afraid we got rather behind schedule before we had even really got started and after L. had watched me struggle to open the ground paddles in the first 3 locks, said don't bother just use the gate paddles, but be careful (opening gate paddles before ground paddles is a big no no as there is a real risk of swamping and sinking the boat). While that made it physically easier, it also made filling the locks a lot slower,

Anyway, back to the journey. Going past Armley Mill, a former woollen mill, now an industrial museum.

The old Mackeson brewery at Kirkstall, now converted into student accommodation

Don't know if you can see, but centre of the pic is the ruins of Kirkstall Abbey on the other side of the River Aire. It was founded by the Cistercian monks in the 12thC and trashed by Henry VIII (who else!)

This next pic was taken just after Kirkstall Lock and the bloke on his bike with his daughter helped me to open and close the gates on the lock. For which I was very grateful because when it came to opening them after filling the lock we could not budge them and it took the combined efforts of Lawrence and I on one gate and the bloke and his little daughter on the other and Chas gently ramming the gates with his boat to get them open. And he stayed and helped me close up after the boats eventually got out of the lock.

And Nigel and Kim of NB Serendipity told us the Leeds and Liverpool was much easier than the Huddersfield!

Here we are at the bottom of Forge 3 Lock staircase and woopee there is a gorgeous Lockie on duty and he's got the lock ready for us.

If I'm talking this way about Lockies now, only half way through day 1 on the Leeds and Liverpool, imagine how I am going to feel about them by the end of the L&L.?

Into the bottom lock we go

The by wash burbling down beside the lock

With the boats snug in the middle lock, the Lockies goes up to open the ground paddles on the top lock to let the water of of it and into the middle lock, which will raise the boats up to enable the. To get into the top lock.

Chas and Lawrence in the middle lock, yacking away, while the Lockie and I do all the work! To be truthful, the gorgeous Lockie did most of the work, I just helped open and shut gates and took the opportunity to take some pics of the boats in the locks.

The hanging gardens on the top gates of the middle lock

These locks are very deep

Looking back down the staircase

The next staircase, the Newlay 3 Lock, where there is another Lockie on duty - bliss.

Coming into Rodley, the first safe mooring after leaving the middle of Leeds

Gnomes, we get a lot of enjoyment seeing gnomes along the canals

Rodley

Our mooring for the night is at the far end of the houses in the previous pic. And looks what awaits me me 1st thing tomorrow

Looking back down the canal

Dinner tonight at Ephesus Turkish Restaurant in Rodley - good meal

And lastly a joke told to me by the gorgeous lockie:

An old bloke was applying for an immigration visa to Australia. Asked if he had a criminal record, he answered 'I didn't know you still needed one'.

Well I thought it was funny.

PS just to make you jealous, it was still 18oC at 7.00pm and the forecast tomorrow is 31oC for London and 25oC here.

7 miles, 12 locks, 2 swing bridges, 61/4 hours (1 of them stuck)