Danger money rather than donations please

Having taken the kayak from Apperley Bridge through Leeds last weekend and ending in Swillington, a distance of 15 miles through lots of locks, we are just about ready for anything the canal can throw at us. However, we hadn't bargained on other things being thrown at us such as half-bricks and other missiles!

This was the warning we received from a canal-user when he warned us that great gangs of youths gather to cause mischief at a few places on the way to Leeds beyond Apperley Bridge as he seemingly cheerily told us of the high probability of our running into such ferrel kids. Hell.

We can cope with this we thought but then on Tuesday we discovered that a body had been in the canal in the lock near to Apperley Bridge just a couple of days after we had been paddling in the area! Bloody Hell. http://www.itv.com/news/calendar/2017-06-13/body-found-in-canal-at-apperley-bridge/

News report of body found in canal

Now this was OK as well, we can cope with that too. However, on the same day the news reported that armed police had been deployed along the towpath in Silsden on the hunt for someone reported as being armed! Now, this is getting beyond a joke and we are planning a small turret-gun on the bow of the boat!

Update to the story of the Silsden gunman

OK, so it turned out to be a BB gun, but we wouldn't know that if we encountered such a person and it's hard to outrun a crazed wazzock when your only means of escape is a kayak.