Wednesday 26 July 2017

Day 6 - To Castleford 14th July

At 33 miles in total over 2 days we could maintain a very much more relaxed pace than days 4 and 5, and we would not be in a rush to be away. This was fortunate as we were yet again to have the opportunity of getting some exposure with a return appointment with "Made in Leeds". A follow-up interview from our earlier meeting with them had been arranged with a reporter at 10.00am.

We also had agreed to give the hotel's General Manager, Tata, a quick ride in the kayak before setting off bound for our final overnight stopover in Castleford (Cass to the locals apparently).


The Team with some of the hotel staff 

Interview done, Tata happily and safely back on dry land, we were ready for the off just as the cricket started at 11.00am, which pleased Andrew as we paddled downstream with him listening to England perform less than brilliantly against South Africa. Sitting in the rear cockpit I couldn't hear the general commentary but was brought up to speed by Andrew as and when anything of note occurred (which seemed to me to be fairly infrequent in cricket).

After the many locks of yesterday today would only see us having to negotiate five but each one brought its own problems. No chance today of any towpath help for the greater part there is no towpath alongside the full length of the Aire & Calder Navigation which we would follow all the way to Goole. The first 3 presented little difficulty - all the locks on the A&C are single locks but very much bigger than the canal had been as they were designed to allow very much larger boats to pass.

We discovered our first major problem at Lemonroyd lock where the wash wall east of the lock was a huge concrete structure giving no chance of accessing the canal below the lock, or at least no chance without a severe risk of getting wet! In the event, after much searching for an alternative, we found we could get the boat to the adjacent river through some woodland and relaunch just below the weir (which the lock bypassed). Although something akin to quicksand we managed to get the boat back on water and continued eastwards.


Lemonroyd Lock with the huge washwalls
(pic courtesy of Pennine Waterways)

Even with our difficulties at Lemonroyd good progress was made and we decided to carry on beyond Castleford looking to reach Knottingley by the end of the day, with David then picking us up and running us back to the Wheldale Hotel, our stay for the evening. We arranged to meet David at Bulholme Lock just east of "Cass" and were pleased that we did for he was able to recci it and tell us that it would be nigh-on impossible to get the boat down the lock without learning how to fly. A scaffolding set of steps had been installed and trying to get a 16' kayak down them would have proved very tricky.

Once again, and we were getting used to this by now, we received one of those random acts of kindness when Angie and her partner in their narrow boat, having seen our plight offered to take the boat down the lock on the roof of their boat and drop it off at the pontoon below the lock.


Yet another random act as our boat is giving a lift down Bulholme Lock

Beyond Bulhome we were left with a straight paddle for a further 5 miles to Knottingley where, as planned, David was there to meet us and take up to the hotel in Castleford.

The Wheldale, positioned directly opposite the Castleford Tigers RL ground, was likely to be very much busier than we had anticipated because their fixtures schedule had been changed at short notice (Sky Sports hold a lot of power) and they were to play host to Salford Reds this evening. With kick off at 8.00pm our host, Donna, warned us it would be busy. Busy is not the word, it was heaving and how the fans drink that much then stand for best part of 2 hours is utterly beyond me (but then again I am 61, perhaps my bladder has seen better days).

If they drank a lot before the match that was a mere mouthwash to what was supped afterwards! These people, though, were the salt of the earth and fantastically generous when Andrew braved to mingle with his collection bucket before the match. David and I, being very much more plummy of voice, decided to stay at our table (well...someone had to look after the drinks).

We left the fans drinking, singing and drinking more and sloped off to bed fairly early to be refreshed in the morning for our 7th and final day. So far we had managed to keep to schedule and with just 17 miles still to paddle we aimed to reach our goal by 3.00pm.









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