A life on the ocean wave...

...or, more accurately, "A life on the Leeds to Liverpool canal".


For her boyfriend's birthday, Katie booked a barge for the day allowing 5 people to explore the 17 miles of lock free canal surrounding Skipton. Katie, Scott and their friends Chris and Bruce were going and I was invited to join them. So at 10.15am on Saturday I got off the Skipton train and wandered down to meet "Jim" our boat.

Katie and Scott had been given a quick technical introduction to "Jim", and were shown how to steer and open the sway bridges that we were going to come across. Our only provisos were not to go through any locks (we hadn't been trained) and to return before dark (no headlights) so we merrily tootled off towards Silsden, stopping off every now and then to open a bridge and once at Kildwick for a pub lunch. There was lots of idle chat and admiration for both the green, woodland parts of the trip and for the historic industrial waterfronts that we came across. When in rained we'd either sit it out with hoods up, or sit inside and play cards. All very genteel! The sedate pace of the barge really affects your mood and as long as you have a steady hand at the tiller, the whole thing is very relaxing. So much so I'd consider doing it for a holiday.

Anyway, I'm sat here at my PC writing my blog and I feel like the room gently swaying - evidently I still haven't found my landlegs! I'm off for a lie down...