Monday morning. The mist was hanging on the water surface, and the distant trees were partly obscured making the colours subtle and subdued; if only I was a watercolour artist! It was only two miles to Bank Dole lock and the climb back to the level of the Aire and Calder. The river Aire had, overnight, gone down more than 4 inches on its already low level. I will be relieved to be back on the system as we were scraping lightly on the bottom all the way out of Beal lock cut. As Martlet was rising in Bank Dole lock, I called up Ferrybridge lock and was told to watch out for Rix Pheonix, a tanker, which was heading also through Ferrybridge. I waited in the lock cut until Phoenix had passed by and then followed. The sun finally broke through the haze and the weather became very hot. I took photos of the old A1 road bridge which has good memories of journeys across it with my parents and of one with Myra and my Dad. The Aire upstream of the large power station is beautiful, with heavily wooded banks and bushes growing up on the now silent and landscaped bings, a memorial to the millions of coal hard won from deep down under the Yorkshire soil. It is sad to see the unused ‘Tom Puddings’, the compartment boats used to transport coal to Ferrybridge powers station, tied up alongside the unloading gear. The tippler could lift and partly invert them to discharge their coal onto a conveyor. Another transport job which was ideally suited to water, now no doubt increasing the pollution and lorry movements on our already overcrowded roads. (Sorry Phil!) The high railway bridge came in view with Bulholme lock close afterwards. We stopped for water above the lock, but the water point had an internal hose adaptor fitted to the only outlet, we carried on to Castleford where we filled up. We moved to the visitor moorings, passing by the Hargreaves maintenance depot with the push tugs (used with the Tom Puddings) all tied up and quiet. Pause for reflection and tears if required for maximum effect. On arrival at the moorings, we chatted to Paul and Heather on Roxanne, and ex-Black Prince hire boat. They are from Melbourne (not the Derbyshire one, the antipodean place) and are 18 months into a 5 year plan to explore the waterways of England. They parked their outdoor chairs next to Martlet and there we all stayed until supper. Phase two occurred when a very enjoyable evening was spent on ‘Roxanne’.
Weather – very warm and very sunny.
The 2008 journey thus far: 88 Locks & 229.5 Miles & 18 Swing Bridges
Journeys using bus pass: 4
