A Visit from Christine.

Wednesday 12th August, 2015 at the Top of the Bingley Five-Rise.
The day dawned misty but it soon cleared as the sun rose.

A quick walk up to the Co-op was in order, as we were hoping that our dear friend Christine from Hope Farm in the Lake District would come and visit, so M needed a "few bits" to be ready for lunch.
And Christine made it!  Hooray!  M was a bit upset that it was a washday and Christine's first sight of MM was the boat festooned with our unmentionables but the sunny day was good drying weather and too good an opportuntiy to miss!

Christine was on her way back to the Lakes from Lytham and had made a special detour to find us. She wasn't able to stay for more than a couple of hours but there was time for lunch together and a good catch-up. It was wonderful to see her again and for her to see MM at last. She appeared to enjoy her visit and a well deserved day off from farm chores, especially as she was able to visit a very old friend in Slaidburn on her way home.

After we said goodbye to Christine, we set off south from Silsden. The "little" town was not as little as we thought as there was much new building on the east side of town but most of it was as imaginatively designed as the houses opposite our mooring.
This section of canal has no locks but an abundance of swing bridges, eight yesterday and another nine today! Locks are relatively easy, but swing bridges are a pain.

We observed a tractor busy bailing hay in a field next to the canal. In a good year, farmers would be working on a second cut at this time of year but this year has been so wet up north that they are only just doing a first cut.

So nice to see such a lovely pastoral scene with geese and calves with their mothers grazing in the fields.

Although M has developed an antipathy for swing bridges, it still gives her great satisfaction to be able to have mastery over the progress of some of those horrid little tin motorised boxes and their (often) impatient occupants!

Finally, we approached the top of the celebrated Bingley Five Rise and the café at the top which used to be the stables for the canal horses.

The flight of five staircase locks (where the bottom gate of one lock is the top gate of the next with no "pound" in between) will tomorrow drop MM down 60ft in just 320ft. It is celebrated as one of the "Seven Wonders of the Waterways".

The owners of the café at the top of the locks kindly said that we could moor next to the café for the night.
We walked to the top of the flight and looked down the vertiginous drop - with considerable apprehension on M's part!

Then we walked down to the bottom to confirm what we remembered when we came her two years ago by car. It was clear that some work had been done to improve some of the paddle gear, but it was also clear that there was still a lot that needed doing.
When we returned to the top of the flight, the sun was setting and MM had turned a beautiful peach colour.

It was a truly splendid sunset and we sat and watched the sun as it sank below the horizon.

Later, we lay down on the stern deck in the dark looking out for the Perseid meteor shower, supposedly at its best tonight. After an hour, we had only seen seven shooting stars - and had jolly stiff necks! It seems that much later in the night it was as spectacular as predicted but by then we had long gone to bed!
Today: 6 miles, 0 locks and 3.7 hours (and nine swing bridges).
Trip: 222 miles, 115 locks and 138.0 hours.