Waterway to take in country’s canals
I ALWAYS fancied walking the Pennine Way but when I looked into it, I realised that was perhaps a bit ambitious.
Then I found out you could cruise along it in a barge.
The Leeds-Liverpool canal meanders, climbs and tunnels 127 miles through the backbone of England.
Its journey reveals timeless scenery and the era of industrial revolution that forged its place on the landscape.
We joined Shire Cruises to spend a weekend on a narrowboat, discovering all the canal has to offer.
The first thing you notice as you load your stuff on the 60ft craft is the quiet – ducks and swans gliding along the canal, diverting their course for the occasional boat softly chugging along at 4mph. It was a welcome peace. Navigating our way from Barnoldswick toXGXaXrXgrXaXvex,xYxoxrxkxshire, was not easy. We wereXxaxccxompanied by Matt. After casting off and moving into forward gear, he said: “There are no brakes. You have to put it into reverse to slow to a halt. And the barge won’t steer unless it is in forward.” “Oh,” I thought. “It’s a good job the owner wasn’t in,” he said after my first collision with another barge, stationary at its mooring.
After taking us through the first three locks, telling us how to wind open the sluices of the giant gates before pushing them to the side and motoring in, we were on our own.
The panic on our faces before the next likely collision was noticed by the seasoned hand on the tiller of the barge coming towards us. We might as well have had L-plates on the bows.
But it was a balmy Friday evening in the Yorkshire Dales and soon we began to relax. Our first destination was East Marton, five miles away. We were told we could moor anywhere on the towpath for the night by banging in two giant steel stakes and tying up. But East Marton, close to where the Pennine Way joins the canal, had all the amenities we needed – a pub called the Cross Keys, which had a highly recommended restaurant.
To minimise the number of locks, engineers built the canal along contours of the hills to stay at the same level. The first three locks had lowered us 135ft, but we were still cruising along at 459ft above sea level.
Congratulating ourselves on just one slight scrape going round a hairpin bend, the famous double bridge of the Pennine Way came into view and we had reached our destination.
At the pub, we met two couples coming up for retirement who were using the holiday to see if they wanted to invest in a boat and fully explore the 2000 miles of waterways in England and Wales.
We were only here for the weekend and would make Gargrave after tackling six locks the next day.
The next morning we cast off and Gargrave was a welcome sight.
By the time we headed back everyone was at home with their hand on the tiller.