Worth the effort to get here.

The day dawned with plenty of sun and it was supposed to stay that way all day. Mind you I think we had the coldest night of the season so far. My thermometer registered 4.1C! Even the Hurricane heater thought so as it came on on the thermostat this morning and soon had the boat warm to get up.

We were soon into the locks as right after the next bridge we were at the fourth on round Gargrave and soon followed by the next one. There was a pole barn close to the canal that seemed to be full of wooden potato crates, the big ones that they are stored in. However I think they were logs been seasoned. I have often wondered how they dried logs for sale in wood burners. I'm not sure that kiln dried logs are very ecological but there you are.

The route from Gargrave is a dog walkers super highway and generally it seems that they are all well behaved. Something that puzzles me about dog walkers who 'always pick up after their animals' though is when did they develop eyes in the backs of their heads? When the dogs are off the leads the human just wanders on and doesn't watch the dog behind them, especially if gossiping to a fellow mutt mate. The views start to get really breath taking as you leave the town behind and to be honest they only get better.

Once again the canal crosses the River Aire which has grown somewhat from when it bubbles up from under Malham Cove.

There not quite as many turnover or snake bridges on the Leeds/Liverpool as on the Macclesfield but they are just as sinuous and beautifully made except that the rail is wooden here rather than a stone wall on the Macc. Canny Yorkshiremen saving money I have no doubt.

The countryside is so lovely in the sun and the fields dotted with sheep and lambs. It wont be too long before their numbers are reduced. I think that lambs around here are produced around April. Lamb is less than a year old, (hogget is what they are called over a year old) and they are ready for market as lamb after about five months.

The Leeds and Liverpool Canal Company completed the canal from Leeds to Gargrave by 1777. Work had been delayed due to war and by 1790 work had restarted. The date on the Bank Newton bottom lock house may reveal when this set of lock was completed and they needed a lock keeper. This flight of six that sweeps round corners and has some that can't be seen for the one below are one of the most picturesque group of locks on the system.

There were signs by the second lock up warning against some leaks from the lock wall and to close your windows and ports. When we got there they weren't too bad at all, and if that was it they would have to have the same notice on a majority of the locks we pass through. Here we are at the top lock of the Bank Newton after a bit of help from the lock keeper at the bottom end and passing a couple of boats coming down to swap with.

Between Bank Newton and East Marton the scenery is at it's best and the canal wriggles around the contour giving you a view in every direction. The TV mast seems to be in every direction as you round the heads of valleys. The stone wall in the middle distance is the canal we have just traveled on.

The views of the Pennine Hills are very appealing and certainly seem to call you to go and walk up them, or is that just me and in my head?

Some bullocks for fattening take advantage of the canal for a drink and a paddle. They must be used to boats passing as they didn't bat an eye as we slid past.

Once again the canal loops round and you can see some moored boats on the other side of the valley. We were very tempted to moor here with the view but continued on wards looking for a spot before Greenberfield Locks.

Here is the obligatory phtograph of the double bridge at East Marton. As road traffic got bigger and more frequent the A59 had to be modernised and this meant reducing the gradient down to the bridge and up the other side. This was achieved by just building another bridge on top of the old one. This meant that disruption to the canal was minimised and the cost of a total rebuild was avoided. The first bridge must have been substantially constructed to take the weight of the new bridge and it's new traffic.

The tow path becomes part of the Pennine Way  around East Marton but we didn't see anybody who was likely to be walking it. The 268 mile route between Edale and Kirk Yetholm was originally opened in 1965 and so celebrated it's 50th birthday in 2015 and it was thought that in 1990 about 12000 walkers were walking it from end to end. When A. Wainwright completed his guide book to the Pennine Way in 1968 he wrote that anybody who completed it could claim a beer on him at the pub in Kirk Yetholm. We walked it in 1978 and I think that we claimed a drink. I'm sure that at some time it was stopped as more people completed the route. I wonder if my memory is correct?

We found this mooring a little before bridge 159. It seems that water is being pumped back into the canal here, (see the water fountain),  but I'm not sure where from as the next locks take you up to the summit pound so water would perhaps be pumped to the top not the bottom of the lock, and there are no reservoirs close by.

It was a lovely quiet night and it wasn't quite as cold as the night before, but there were several extremely loud explosions and then small arms fire for several minutes. The flashes of the explosions lit the sky from a long way away. I wondered if there had been war declared or some outrage in Keighley or Bradford, but nothing on the news today so must be an Army range somewhere.