On the Calder and Hebble

20/7/2017


Such an eventful day,. From a peaceful rural mooring near the end of the Huddersfield Broad Canal, we moved down to the Calder and Hebble. These are 2 rivers running east from the Pennines towards the North Sea, which have been made navigable through massive weirs, and locks. A beautiful sunny day, perfect for our new crew, J and L from Oz. They have taken to life afloat with gusto, and we are enjoying their company tremendously.
The countryside has entranced us, with ancient bridges, 19th C viaducts, old pubs, and wildlife ranging from dragonflies to swans.

At a small town we manoevred to moor outside a supermarket, I jumped from the boat to the stone coping on the towpath, slipped and plummeted down into the canal, giving my leg a whack on a stone in the ungraceful descent. No injury, I thought,  except embarrassment, but 9 hours later we are in A&E in Wakefield, waiting to receive advice on a massive contusion that has appeared. A friendly boater drove us, another example of the courtesy and kindness of the folk here.

Now back on boat, a huge bruise , swollen, but no break. Gentle exercise will sort it.

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