Leeds!

11 Locks, 6 Miles, 2 Swing bridges. Now moored in Leeds.

Ross Mills at Rodley, L & L Canal.

As we had a longer than usual cruise planned for today we were on the ball bright and early. Another reason was that we had actually moored over night on the swing bridge moorings which was our only option due to the visitor moorings being full. The boss from Rodley Boats had told us not to go any further last night and to set off early today which we did.

Armley Mill Managers house and Weavers cottages.

BW workers were at the flights of locks so we only had the single locks to do solo. The only hassle we had was at Spring Garden lock where we had to open all 3 working paddles to get the lock to fill. The moment one paddle was closed you could see the water level dropping. We spent over half an hour at this lock before we finally got through.

The remains of a wooden ice breaker lie submerged. (dyslexic?)

The lock keepers who had some knowledge of the cut, and all of them are only part time casuals these days, suggested that we go as far as Granary Wharf today as we had to pick up our prescriptions from the chemist at the railway station but the actual moorings are closed due to redevelopment of the area.

Our first sighting of modern Leeds.

The old long term moorings above Office lock have now been made into 7 day visitor moorings (not sure you would want to stay for that long by choice). The site is on the non towpath side and is fenced off so hopefully is reasonably secure. If we leave the site on foot we need to take our anti vandal key with us to get in and out.

Oddy 2 Rise locks Leeds. It is wearing a BW sweat shirt. Was somebody trying to make a statement.

Oddy 2 Rise locks Leeds.

We are directly below the railway so it is a wee bit noisy but it will only be for the night as we plan to go down to The Royal Armouries moorings on the Aire and Calder Navigation tomorrow.

1837 locks, 3748 miles, 68 tunnels, 127 swing bridges and 53 lift bridges since Nov 2006