Take it away Maestro (Plan C that is.........)

Monday. We had a look around Brighouse. It has the remains of a fine town about it.
Sainsburys right next to the canal, Tesco a walk across the ring road. If you had wondered what became of the people that ran your local Indian/Asian takeaway after it had closed, I can give you an update. They are alive and well, living and trading in Brighouse. We have never before seen so many restaurants (full take out meal service available) in one small town. We estimate that you could eat out nightly for about three weeks, more if you were prepared to slum it and include fish & chip establishments. We went looking for old buildings and found a couple of pubs near to the railway, good stone bridges and a couple of mills on the banks of the river Calder. One silo had banner at the top advertising a car hand wash, they have a good sense of humour up ‘ere. We asked a helper in a charity shop the whereabouts of the bus station. Ooh, we don’t have one of those do we, she asked her friend who had just arrived. No, not here she replied. Cutting a long story short (!) the bus station was directly behind that very charity shop – clearly an example to shoot down the adage that it begins at home. Very good bakers shop, still selling Yorkshire Ducks (the EC object to the name because they have no duck content) and Scotch pies. Very nice they all were, which is more than my teeth said about the Pork Scratchings – the first bite broke off a piece of a filling, now I will be wearing out my tongue checking that it still has a sharp edge (the filling – not my tongue). Tomorrow it will be bus pass day. Chatted to John who arrived this afternoon on his boat, he works for David Brown pumps at Penistone, a company to which I used to deliver stainless steel castings from Crawley in the early 1980’s. He has a Barrus shire engine and looked at my modified air cleaner, he was also reluctant to pay in excess of £40 for a paper replacement element. Chatting to some residents of the canal basin; apparently the new gearbox has arrived for the Salterhebble guillotine and will be fitted as a matter of priority as the hire fleet operators have been giving BW some grief ( why not a lot!). We will now invoke Plan C, and go back up the canal heading for Gauxholme. Our indecision is final.
We then spent a couple of hours chatting to his lady wife and John on their boat in the evening.

Boats seen moving – Private 1, Hire 1

Weather –overcast with light wind.

Tuesday. At the Bus station we caught the 9.40am to Halifax, where we changed buses for the run to Todmorden. Beautiful countryside, but why do the buses have to cover so much of the side windows with advertisements? It makes your neck ache looking around them to see the view. Wandered around Todmorden, took a few pictures and need to use the toilet. Then we discovered that all the public toilets have 20p coin mechanism on the doors. We obtained directions to the canal and used the BW service facility toilets. Well! We had a picnic sitting next to the canal on a picnic table next to the moorings. Todmorden library was advertising a book sale – Fill a bag for £1. We did, what a good thing that we took some to a charity shop in Brighouse as we would have been overflowing with books. The outdoor market was closed, the indoor market was partly open, we decided to catch the next bus back to Hebden Bridge and spent an hour and a half looking around there. Lots of nice buildings and we will have a proper look when we arrive by boat. Called in at Tesco on the return to Brighouse, then moved off through the lock to the water point and purchased 100 litres of diesel from Sagar marine. I revived quickly owing to the effect of the smelling salts and paid my £88.01. It seems more when you look at the figures in cold print. Just imagine the cost next year; I will put in a petrol engine and run it on malt whisky, I am sure it would be cheaper. We moved up through three more locks and tied up above Cromwell, nice and peaceful and plenty of light.

Boats seen moving 0. Boats arrived at Brighouse basin during the day – Private 2

Weather bright sunny intervals, dry.

The 2008 journey thus far: 128 Locks & 252.5Miles & 18 Swing Bridges

Journeys using bus pass: 8