A Return to Old Haunts

The last couple of weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind, beginning with the canal trip.

We are making progress on the new book, whilst learning lots of lessons about using AI to aid with the editorial side. I'm fortunate to be using some tools that aren't yet available to most companies, and the difference is incredible.

Anyway, I really wanted a quiet weekend, but our diary was already full. Still, it turned out to be interesting.

Friday evening, we went with old friends Nick and Eva  to a nearby restaurant with a growing reputation to try their new tasting menu. It was stunning.

I was brought down to earth on Saturday by the arrival of the children and 2 8/9ths grandchildren, but Nick, Paul and I escaped for a boys day out.

First stop was Foxfield for their traction engine and beer rally.

Foxfield is compact, but quirky and fun. As always in this area, the volunteers are great.

We had to ride on the miniature railway, not least because Teddy is still in the loco shed.

Then we headed off to Rudyard, to meet up with Adam for a behind-the-scenes tour of their engine shed. I don't feel I can share the majority of the photos, or our discussions about future plans, but watch this space. It is exciting.

We finished the day with a Chinese takeaway. Nick, bless him, needed a rest, but Paul and I came up with a plan for Sunday...

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Doing It All Again

 The original plan for our weekend was to head straight to Saltaire for lunch on Saturday, but the mixed messages about Canal and River Trust policy about using Bingley 5 Rise twice in twenty-four hours meant we didn't get there until the evening.

Scott, of  the excellent Micropub Adventures had recently visited Saltaire, so we followed his advice, beginning in the Salt Beer Factory.

This began life as a Bradford Tramways depot.

On a sunny Bank Holiday weekend the place was packed, and very loud, although the music was at least from our era. The beer was excellent, and fortunately, the attached pizza restaurant was very quiet, in every way. It was also presided over by a waitress of a certain age who shared our views about the main bar.

We moved on to Fanny's Ale House, which was our kind of pub and not too crowded once you got past the bar.

Oddly, whilst we were in Saltaire, Scott was in Skipton visiting the beer festival and also enjoying The Narrowboat.

As the crew of one of our two boats called it a night, three of us headed off to grice the Shipley Glen Tramway, via the superb Unitarian church.

I first came across the Shipley Glen Cable Tramway in one of my father's old tramway magazines, but somehow had never seen it in the flesh. Although it wasn't running, the brief visit did match my expectations of a delightful little line.

Sunday morning began with a quick cruise to a winding hole and back, although , as on our last trip, winding proved difficult, this time because of how shallow the water was.
After that we headed back to Bingley and another very long and hot wait whilst the flights were set for us - the one drawback of staircase locks is when the flow of boats changes direction, and although it was lunchtime, we were the first boat of the day ascending them.

A delayed, but hearty lunch was provided by The Airedale Heifer. It is the sort of main road pub you might not even realise was there, but again it was really good. after that it was plain sailing back to Silsden to hand the boats back the next morning. Sadly, the evening was marred by a local teenager having a serious accident  and the arrival of the air ambulance, which meant none of us was in the mood for a late night.

Finishing the Job

No, not a layout, though with this weather, I hope to get some jobs done that are best performed outdoors.

Back in 1986, which was a pretty dreadful year for me thanks to a workplace bully*, one of the few highlights was a canal trip on the Leeds & Liverpool with friends from university.

It was very different from the other canals we were all used to, and had some memorable moments, including that moment from films when strangers walk into a bar, and everybody goes quiet.

Other than that, it was great fun, but we ran out of time to reach our planned destination, the Bingley Five Rise.

So, forty years later, we decided to put that right with a weekend cruise.

Most of us had interesting train trips to our starting point in Silsden, thanks to various delays, but it is amazing how a pub lunch can restore spirits. Which was just as well, because the boatyard advised us that it was impossible to do the Five Rise and return in a weekend.

So we did a lot of re-planning, which wasn't helped by differing definitions of "up" and "down".

The result was that we spent Friday night re-visiting Skipton, which has changed a lot since we were last there. The bonus was that after a meal in the aptly named Narrowboat, we ended up at the excellent Skipton Beer Festival.

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We couldn't stay long, because a plan was coming together.

On the dot of 8am we winded the boats and headed back to Silsden to pick up our last crew member.

And, eating lunch on the move, we headed to Bingley to try our luck.

For once, the Gods of the Inland Waterways smiled on us, though at a cost.

The incredibly hardworking volunteer lockkeepers  took a pragmatic approach to following the published schedule, but we still had to wait over two hours until the locks were set for our descent. A wait enlivened by a Dakota flypast. The dangers inherent in working such a large flight of staircase locks mean you can only transit them with the lockkeepers in charge. And it isn't quick. They did welcome our help, though. And most importantly, they were flexible enough to agree to us returning within the 25 hour time limit that would otherwise have left us stranded with no way to return the boats on time.

As well as the Five Rise the lockkeepers also control the Bingley Three Rise, so it was late in the day when we began the final cruise to Saltaire, and the next blog.

*Four years later, I had the great pleasure of insisting she call me Sir, which is probably the only time in my career when I pulled rank.