Early in the morning I reversed back to the junction, then reversed up the Springs branch to Pennine Cruisers to get a pumpout. The guy there said they were too busy with the day boats and come back later after 10:30. So we all piled into Andrew’s car and drove up to Bank Newton to

5 miles, 5 swing bridges We are back in Skipton again and we have just heard from the hire boat company that Bank Newton locks will be closed until further notice from 5pm today. I rang C&RT to be told that hire boats will be allowed through to ‘return back to base’ by private boats

5 miles and 5 swing bridges Today has been a stop start sort of day. We started out at 9:15 and breasted up with Cray at the water point and both filled up. The rest of the day was dominated by swing bridges. We approached bridge 182A to see a queue of boats. We were

6 miles, 11 locks and 3 swing bridges. The Bank Newton locks are padlocks overnight as a water saving measure. They are supposed be unlocked at 10:00, but when we arrived at about 9:30 they were already open. There was so much water coming down that it was overflowing onto the towpath, so why do

Only a short trip today. We didn’t start until 10:00 and we had moored up by 12:00. We chugged slowly up to the winding hole by bridge 158 then back to where we had lunch yesterday. A picnic lunch was taken out on the towpath and then we did a very pleasant 4 mile walk.

We are moored up only a few yards from where we were before, but facing the other way! Grandson Josh, Georgia and her parents came to visit. They were on tneir way back home from the Lake District. They arrived just before noon and we took them for a short trip for about two miles.

Only 8 miles and 3 locks today. We needed to moor up somewhere where grandson Josh and his family can find us tomorrow, so we chose here. We are now in Yorkshire. We came through Foulridge tunnel first thing. That took us over the Pennine watershed and into Yorkshire. The scenery around here is stunning.

We have reached tne summit of tne Leeds and Liverpool. This is highest we’ve ever been by canal. A slightly later start at 7:10, it was cold and cloudy not at all like the previous days. We made good progress through Burnley and it’s suburbs. It looked very sad with decay and dereliction everywhere. I

A hard day today. We set off very early (5:30). We had been warned by several people that we could encounter trouble in Blackburn. Also the town currently has a very high incidence of the “Indian” variant of Covid, so we were keen not to meet people. From those points of view everything was fine,

Another hot day. A slightly later start than recently, about 8:00. The Leeds and Liverpool is lovely, wonderful views over the countryside and very quiet boatwise. All day today we have only passed three boats. There is evidence of past industry with various disused mills. We arrived at the Johnson’s Hillock locks about 10:30, and