Left at 08:45
arrived at 16:30
Not too bad a night, Jess
and Orlando were a bit fidgettier than normal, they had Derek up a few times, and
they had been in the boat for a long time yesterday. When Derek had his first breakfast at about
5:45 and then tried for a little further nod, they had a mad chasing game,Jess
running back and forth down the boat corridor, Oli joining in with little yaps,
dodging her big feet.? I think she knows
shes nearly home to all that space in her own house and garden. Derek gave in and got up properly, I was up
and showered, dressed in work clothes, for
8 , the weather is fineand getting sunny already, we are filling up with
water and having a our proper breakfast.
No one is moving on the moorings yet, some are going to Torksey others?
We will wait and see. We set off at 8:45, travelling along a waater full of
giant duck weed, it feels like we are on the playing field, even the ducks were
anchored by it this morning, surrounded as they slept, I fed them before we
left. We are approaching the wonderful Railway Bridge Varzon, its quite
fascinating just sliding open and letting us through to the first swing bridge
behind it. Well we failed at the first
fence, cant see the Railway Bridge Keeper? Although Derek said he had seen
someone coming to work at 6. We pulled
into the side to wait and see whats happening, Derek walked to the gate, gave a
whistle, then went through the gate, the Keeper waved (it was a lady) and then
a train came!! Luckily Derek got back behind the gate, he ignored me telling
him not to go through the gate, they go very fast. We went through the rail bridge when it had
slid back into its open position, I got off
to do the road bridge (it swings after you have opened it with a
waterways key, and removed the brake). There were men on the railway line so
the gates to the road swing bridge were shut, on the left hand side there were
large tubes sbeing installed, they are the bases for wind turbines. There are already quite a few round here,
from the boat we cansee four bases so far, they are massive, the ones that are
fully erected, are of course still!, its not windy enough yet. They always remind me of The Day of the
Triffids, they look like giant aliens walking across the landscape. There is still duckweed but it wasn’t so thick,
I spoke too soon, it’s now thicker and as far as the eye can see, African Queen
time again, ploughing through the swamplands.
A NB Willy Nilly is coming towards us, it looks even funnier from this
way, and Derek says they have rolled out the green carpet for us! What a wag,
well green is my favourite colour.
Crowle Bridge, there is a little enclave of new houses, they always feel
like they are in the back of beyond, but I think theres a village behind them,
they are really neat and tidy. Godnow Road
Bridge, the railway man has to shut the gate to the railway line when I start
the system off. Derek got off and closed
the road barrier when I turned the key, all done, very smoothly, its now
10ish. The weed has parted a little but
its a strange still morning, quite muggy also.
Approaching Medge Hall, Derek and I couldn’t remember if the wind
turbines had been there when we left, we counted 14 very close to the railway
line but we think it could have been because we were coming in the other
direction. I’m not sure, there are tons
of them and I couldn’t have missed them
all, I think they have been busy whilst we have been away, most of them are
very still, just the odd one moving very slowly. Mauds Bridge, the Pig Lady
Bridge? The house is still lovely, the
garden is great too, some of the pigs are lying in the mud snoozing. We met a lady and man cycling, they had come
from Thorne, they said they though the walking bridge was working, we will have
to wait and see, its a problem every time we come through!! A cruisers is approaching and there is a
broadbeam moored beyond that, its been a
very quiet morning up to now with not many moving boats. At the next bridge, the gongoozlers were out,
Grandma and a boy and girl picking blackberries, they watched me do the bridge,
its operated from a large silver box with a cover on it. The problem is the instructions are inside in
very small print, Derek couldn’t shut the barrier until I had pressed the open
button, it went well in the end.
Wykewell is a lift bridge, the young boy caught up with us and was very
interested, he had wanted to see this one working, It is quite impressive when
it goes up into the sky to let Derek sail through. We then passed Blue Water Marina, its still
eerily quiet for a Wednesday morning.
There are white water lilies here as well as the yellow buttercup types,
I hadn’t noticed them when we came through, but they probably weren’t in flower
then. Thorne, approaching the dreaded
footbridge, it was open, YIPPEE, I hate it its always cantankerous, I shouted
to a cruisers that I thought had opened it for me, no it’s just broken
again. We were going to stop for a paper
and bread but Mr Indecisive, left it too late,
I thought there was a space near
the facilities, he didn’t, and then there were lots of boats near the fence, we
decided not to bother. Thorne Lock (not sure thats its name) was set for us and
another boat was approaching from the other side. Its a funny one, lots of buttons and a road
bridge in front of it. Derek entered, I
shut him in then the man and lady from the other fNB came to do the road
bridge. You can only open it when the
lock is ready to let the boat come out of the lock. Derek came up, they did the bridge and I let
him out to the other side, let them in and closed the gate as it wouldn’t let
me have my key back till all the system had been done correctly?? Another man on a bike said his boat was on
the way up, so would they leave the gates open for it, the NB in the lock said
would he use his key then so they could get straight off, so all were happy
with it all. I made lunch, and a large
Dutch Barge came by, I was just sitting in the cratch after delivering Derek’s
lunch and who should come towards us but “Ill see thee”, Dave and Pat from our
moorings, we gave them a bit welcome wave and I shouted how good the boat
looked, its now got its name on and Dave has been painting it whilst we have
been away. It was lovely to see them out
and about enjoying the water in their very shiny boat. Its 12:30 and getting very warm, I’ve changed
my T Shirt for a cooler one, there are lots of butterflies about and some very
large Dragonflies flitting about. I’ve
also spotted some of the pink flowers we saw
down south (they look like members of the onion or garlic family) so
maybe I may be able to find some in the local garden centres to put in the
water trough at home? Passing by Thorne Cruising Club Marina there was a very large boat called Vulcan, its painted
in glorious shades of green and really sparkles in the sunshine. We did another
road bridge, it was fully automatic, beyond it was the Charity Boat Ethel,
filling up with water, and they set off just before Derek sailed through so
they would be at Bramwith Lock before us.
Ethel was pulled over to the side to let its crew off to prepare the
lock for it, as it entered the lock I got off to see if I could give them a
hand. There were lots of helpers
chatting at the lock, it’s a proper one, you have to use your windlass. There were quite a few old ladies and a few
gentlemen on the boat, one was explaining what was happening. We had to let the paddles up three turns at a
time so as not to jolt the boat, its a slow filler anyway and the paddles are
very heavy, they got through ok. There were two young boys on bikes watching
the proceedings, one of them lives on a Barge, I prepared the lock for us and
the boys came to give me a hand with the very heavy gates. As we were going
through New Dawn caught up with us, as we left the man from it came up to get
the lock ready for them, they are going to Doncaster where they moor. I waved bye to the boys and said we may see
them along the way. We met Ethel, they had been through the guillotine and over
the aquaduct, and they all gave us a cheery wave as they passed us. At the next road bridge, it was ok but at
they seem to take a while to put the barrier down and start the warning noise,
a white pick up came a careering round the corner of the lane, I thought it was
going to crash into the barrier but he
pulled up with a screech of brakes.
There are lift bridges in front of us as far as you can see, it always
feels a bit daunting, luckily at the next one, a BW Man did it for us, we
pulled over to the moorings and waited as a very very large oil barge came
through. The Humber Princess, there were
two men on the decks painting as they went along, it was looking splendid, its
certainly scrubbing up a treat. The man
doing the lock was in his van, driving ahead and getting the bridges ready for
them, we got a freebie after they passed through. At the next one we met the boys from
Bramwith, they are cycling home, they did ask me the way but I was no help,
they have their map and a mobile and were unperturbed by my answer, they were
sure they would get home safely. Mr
Heron just flew off in the front of us, that’s two today, I forgot about one
this morning, hes doing his strutting on the towpath, as we approached he flew
off. Next came Sykehouse Lock, its
another funny one. A long lock with a path/roadbridge
in the middle, the controls for the gates are at either end the key is in the
middle to control the bridge. There were
2 NBs in and the gentleman on NB Heron, who is heading home to Torksey, very
kindly did it for us, thank you Mr. Heron that was a relief. The next road bridge is next to a lovely
house, it went well and was very quickly done.
The next bridge could be seen and it was being raised, there were lots
of men in high vis jackets around the controls and bridge, hope there isn’t a
problem, we’ll see shortly? The men were
milling about, messing (or should I say apparently checking) various
things. They did the bridge for us, so
another freebie, it must be my day. Just
before the last bridge we saw a Cormorant diving and coming up with a foot long
eel in his mouth, he was trying to gulp it down, went under again, and after
what seemed to be an age, came up near the boat with only bits hanging from his
mouth. Derek had spotted it so you can
tell how quiet it is on the water. We
got to New Junction and turned left to go to Pollington, I feel were properly
in Yorkshire now, theonly thing spoiling it is the very loud gun shots, I think
there is a shooting gallery (clay pigeons) near us, Jess will be scared in the
back. Along this waterway the weather
has turned windy, its been so still till now, there are a few boats moored
before the bridge and a NB and a large wide cruisers (not sure what type it is
) they obviously live aboard as they have the washing spinner on the roof. There was a large Goose all by itself just
before them as well. We arrived at
Pollington at the lot of the lock at 4:20.
We had a suprise visit from Ingrid, she bought me some magazines,
stopped for a cuppa and a chat and left us to our teas at 6. We had a
conncotion from tins, with the now famed Wok chips, then spent the rest of the
evening watching tele and snoozing, Derek more snooze and snore than tele.
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