Emmerdale Country.

5 Locks, 7 Miles, 9 Swing bridges. Now moored at Rodley. 

Fields 3 Rise flight on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal near Shipley. The lock keeper wasn't very talkative.

With Dot back on board last night it was time to slip our moorings first thing this morning. But first a phone call to New Zealand for her dad’s 91st birthday, its times like this we wish we weren’t so far away.  Along the way, we picked up a new gas tank as one of ours ran out about 2 weeks ago and put 80 litres of diesel in the tank . With temperatures dropping at night the Mikuni central heating unit has started working occasionally using more diesel so we will have to start being more aware of our fuel consumption.

They live on this!! A real vagabond boat seen this afternoon.

At Dock Lane swing bridge Dot came up against a real odd ball swing bridge like nothing she had encountered before.

Dock Lane swing bridge 209 operating controls (could do with a paint, lack of maintenance is definitely becoming noticeable here).  Took a bit of working out, BW key to unlock then 18 turns with windlass on the left hand shaft and then turn right hand shaft until bridge opens with you on it.  The reverse on closing with 36 turns on the left hand shaft after the bridge is closed.  All this as well as unlocking and lowering the road barriers by hand.  What a rigmarole. Hope there’s not another one like this!

While at this bridge we got talking to a guy with his young son taking a stroll along the towpath. They followed us to Oddies swing bridge where the young lad went to help Dot while Dad chatted to some mates. He was most insistent that he could could open the bridge on his own which he did.

Dot's little helper. He insisted on opening the bridge himself.

At the BW Apperley Yard facilities we had planned on doing a pump out but the machine was out of order and guess what, it was only serviced yesterday, can you believe it.  So that’s another card that has paid for a pumpout that we never got.  Do any of these things work?  We then had no choice but to do a self pumpout  using our own machine into the Elsan.  Not the preferred option but we really had no choice. After an hour trying to fill the water tank we gave up as the pressure was so slow we would have been there all day.  We got enough to last until we arrive in Leeds tomorrow anyway.  The washer drier has been working flat out today to clear the backlog of laundry.  Nearly done, last one tomorrow.

At the Field 3 Rise locks we were apparently not far by road from the village of Esholt aka Emmerdale of Yorkshire Television fame but we had no plans to visit the area.

Bradford City Council Sewage works at Esholt. They had their own canal basin pictured and their network of railway tracks.

1826 locks, 3741½ miles, 68 tunnels, 125 swing bridges and 53 lift bridges since Nov 2006