Duckweed!

25/7/2017


Across the coastal plains of NE England, from the Calder, Hebble to the Aire river, moving east, then a leap north on the Selby canal, taking us to the Ouse.
We left Ferrybridge on 21st, intending to overnight in the old abbey town of Selby, where Henry 1 was born. The canal is green with duckweed, fortunately non toxic. Larry speculates on a new industry, turning duckweed into fertiliser,  or was that fuel?
It is gathered up at Selby by a creaky cranky machine, dumped into the large Selby tidal lock, for discharge -with us!-  into the tide.

The day's cruise takes us past woodlands of alder, beech, larch,  water life including herons, kingfishers, canada geese. Our resident photographer is in action, and gets some fabulous shots.

At Selby Fred the lock keeper advises we exit his lock today, at 5pm, as the Spring tide tomorrow will be more hazardous. Keep lookout for logs, go through the bridge's second arch... and so we wait for the high tide to start.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Heading west

Image
 Where shall we go for our last Santiago voyage?😢 initially we thought Llangollen,  over that amazing unpronounceable aqueduct  the Pontcysyllte. But time is short, still Scotland, Portsmouth, Lancashire, Yorkshire and London to fit in to our last 5 weeks So we settle on Chester. Not so many miles or locks as Llangollen. Funnily enough the River Dee runs through both, in Chester close to the sea, in Llangollen high in the Welsh hills, feeding part of its flow into the canal, enabling the transport of stone. So we travel back through the Harecastle tunnel, approximately 40 minutes, the Cap'n  sensibly wearing a lifejacket. Falling into an unlit tunnel, banging your head on a metal boat...it has happened, but not to us.
Read more

Chester

Image
 No heroics  we agree. That is we won't stand on the back of the boat, charging into pouring rain. Even gentle English rain is wet. Who would've thought  it. So we get a bit wet, then moor up, about 15 miles east of Chester, on the beautiful Shropshire canal. It wends nor west from below Birmingham towards the Mersey. On an earlier trip we pushed west from Chester to Ellesmere Port. From there you can 'ferry across the Mersey' to Liverpool.  We were organising this, using a pilot, some years ago, but bad weather kyboshed that. Moored up yesterday afternoon in Central Chester, 5 min walk into the ancient town centre, from the city walls 🧱 , second only to York for their intact remains. After dinner on the boat, plus a reviving GnT, we strolled into the melee of coronation madness. The odd, very, hens' parties. Bah humbug. A pic of boaters dressed up for the coronation. And 2 of the canal. The odd round building with a pixy hat was the lock keeper's hut when comm
Read more

22 April Oberhafen

Image
 This small town fringes Lake Thun, trad wooden chalets climbing up towards pine forests. An ideal place to live or for a tourist A small cafe at the ferry wharf, so a coffee before heading east to Interlaken, or west to Thun.  Or a guacamole bagel for lunch! Our friends' house is a recent build, the roof covered in solar panels. K is an artist with fabric..a  puppet leans at leisure, quilted birds against a wall. Such skill and patience. Nearby a pool complex,  well used, a practical protocol of pre showering, shoe removal etc, that allows a high patronage with courtesy observed. Everywhere garden corners  fit in the urban landscape.
Read more