Yorkshire at Last. Ee By Goom!

 Tuesday 17th May 2022 near East Marton.

A beautiful morning, so we set off quite early. 

Only a mile further on is the Foulridge Tunnel where we met up with two hire boats waiting to go through the tunnel. The group of friends on "Sweet Caroline" stayed with us for most of the rest of the day.

The tunnel is one way and controlled by lights. At 9:30, the lights went green and we led the little convoy of three boats through the tunnel.

As ever, it was dark and cold and the tunnel roof has a tendency to deposit large drops of water on you as you pass. Best to keep an umbrella at the ready!

Beyond the tunnel, we finally passed from Lancashire to Yorkshire. Or I should say that, in the past, we would have passed into Yorkshire - because very unpopular boundary changes mean that the "new" border is the other side of Barnoldswick, which used to be in Yorkshire but has now been told that it is in Lancashire. Shades of the War of the Roses all over again!

We moored up outside The Anchor pub, where we had arranged to meet our good friends Malcolm and Kathleen. They live in Barnoldswick and we had met them for lunch here in 2015 as we passed through. The Anchor is featured in the canal guide books, as it has stalactites in its cellar!  Last time we passed this way, the landlord was kind enough to let us go and admire them!

As we waited, we watched great goings on in the pub car park. A cabin cruiser was being removed from the water by the C&RT and loaded on to a truck. The process was not helped by the fact that the cruiser would not fit on to the truck with the outboard motor attached! Several men spent a considerable time trying to remove the motor, which they eventually managed.

It was great to see Malcolm and Kathleen again and, after a brief catch up, we set of for lunch, only to find that the Anchor was closed!

So we all hopped into their car and drove to the Hare & Hounds in Foulridge village, where we had an excellent lunch. They then took us to their house, which is only a couple of hundred yards from the canal, for tea and coffee. We'd not seen the new house before so it was lovely for us to be able to picture them in their new home, which is very nice indeed.

Back on board, we set off to go through the first three locks, going down this time. In the pound between the first and second lock, we met up again with "Sweet Caroline" and so went through the other two locks together. It is so much easier to go through wide locks with two boats. 

Rather endearingly, they were complete novices and had not quite got the idea that you push the tiller left to right etc!  So there was a good deal of confusion and shouted advice from their crew as the boat wandered one way or the other.

Even the onlookers were a bit nonplussed by the goings on.

This unusual double arched bridge resulted from the creation of a new road at a higher level, so the simple solution was merely to build a new bridge on top of the old one.

Finally we reached the open land beyond East Marton. In 2015, we wrote in the guide book that this is where we should have moored at the time. Now, after seven years, we finally made it and moored up in the most glorious countryside. Mr Pearson, in his guide book, says, "One could easily be beguiled into mooring up here forever." He was right! Perhaps we will!  Watch this space! Our friends in "Sweet Caroline" moored up in front of us.

More photos in the morning because just after we moored up, the heavens opened and there was an impressive rainstorm. We just timed it right!

Today: 10 miles, 3 locks and 4.7 hours.

Trip: 145 miles, 91 locks and 69.1 hours.