We were getting ready at our own pace when we heard a knock on the hull. There was a lady asking if we would be going through the Bingley soon. The upshot was that the lockmaster likes to put through two boats at a time for this series of locks. If another boat gets ahead of us we may have to wait an hour to lock through. In a matter of 5 minutes we cast off and headed the 1/4 mile to the locks and found our locking buddies.
The Bingley Five are five locks sharing lock gates. The downstream lock gates of lock #1 is the upstream lock gate of lock #2 and so on down through the 5 locks. This view is from the top. The bottom of each lock is the long black wooden handle which is the downstream lock gate (including the white one that Karen's picture is taken from).
Here is the view from below the locks that is much more beautiful. Each of the white gate-like structures is the bottom of a lock.
So our two boats entered the upper lock and the lockmaster proceeds to do Karen's work! The other boat we are with has 5 people on board and one of the men, Robert, does the work on the other side of the lock. I talk to the other captain and Karen talks to the other non-working ladies on their boat. What a peaceful way to do locks.
Between the Five-Rise and the next set of similar locks called the Bingley Three Rise is a 1/4 mile walk so Karen just walks it while I motor down to it.
Our new friends have done several canal waterways vacations. (Holidays, actually they're British). They are a nice couple from Australia traveling with his sister, her husband and daughter. The threesome is from England, east of London. The Australians have both worked in Australia for ten years for the same company and that earned them 3 months off. They had been in Italy and most of the same places we've been. She teaches school, he is an engineer.
We fly through the last 3 locks with help from another lock master and Robert and we have finished all 8 locks in 70 minutes!
Three locks to get us down to the level of those two boats in the distance that are waiting to go up.
We've all collected our crews and we're off down the canal.
We all decide that our destination today is the town of Saltaire as we lock through another two locks together and finally go our separate ways when we get to town. Locking is hard work for the captains.
The old mill on the left and the new mill on the right as we enter the town of Saltaire.
Karen and I have lunch and then go off to explore. The town's name comes from the founder, Titus Salt, and the river that runs through it, Aire. Mr. Salt and Walt Disney have something in common. They both wanted to create a city where people could work, live, and play.
Salt, however, accomplished his goal by building stone houses for his workers in 1851...
...and a hospital, library, concert hall, schools, and a recreation park.
...and a huge steam-powered textile manufacturing facility.
The reason for all of this? The living conditions for his workers were killing them. Thus, the stone houses he built for them were larger, had running water and proper sanitation areas. Ah, the good life.
His old mill is gradually being turned into a shopping/eating/gallery area for tourists.
Our boat needed to be returned from where we picked it up so this required that we determine how far away we could go and then make it back to Barnoldswick by Saturday morning at 10am. THIS was our turnaround point.
There are designated turnaround spots on the canal. The guide books list them so it isn't a mystery. In some places the canal is only 4 boats wide (about 25') so you can't turn a 60' boat around just anywhere.
We boated out of town another 1/2 mile to one of these spots and without incident we made a wonderful 3 point turn and headed back the way we had come.
As we approached a lock there were two boys playing around. They wanted to help us lock through. They were fun to talk to and they WERE helpful.
Our destination this evening was a Pub. Yep, Karen and Pat going to a Pub. It was recommended by one of the lock masters this morning and we owed it to him to check it out.
A few hours later we tied up the boat and headed up to The Fisherman's Pub (recently redecorated and renamed The Fisherman at Bingley) for food. Out on a limb we each ordered Sausages and Mash (mashed potatoes). We had a nice chat with the waitress who was surprised that we hadn't tasted this English dish and she assured us we would get the best Sausages and Mash that we'd ever eaten tonight. Huh?
We both really enjoyed it but left the vegetables for the compost pile out back.
Today's locking buddies showed up while we were eating and they were going to eat dinner and watch the English soccer team on TV. Despite the chance to engage in the English culture, we passed and headed back to our boat.
some great times it seems.. and something that will never be forgotten.
ReplyDelete