Farewell to Skipton

We have spent a very enjoyable few days in Skipton, I'm not sure the cats were very impressed as they had to stay onboard because of the traffic.

I'm not actually in love with Skipton but I do like it a lot. Unusually for these days virtually every shop in town was in business, with far more independent or small local chain shops than the big national companies. A superb range of butchers selling excellent sausages and pork pies, plus local meat, bakers that sell real bread and a market three days a week that lines both sides of the High Street. My favourite, however, has to be The Russian Tearoom with its range of 156 different teas. There are also Tesco and Morrison for the boring necessities of life.

On Wednesday we had a stroll round the market then went to explore Skipton Castle. Compared to many such places admission is relatively cheap and my opinion it is worth a visit.

Skipton Castle

The view from the castle

Thursday was the day for a trip out to Embsay Mill, which houses a needlecraft centre, unlike the castle the bus fares are not value for money in my opinion, over four pounds for a round trip of less than four miles. The visit to the mill was enjoyable and as the buses were only one per hour we took a stroll to the station where the steam trains run. Apart from school holidays they only run Tuesdays and weekends but we still had a look round.

We did consider moving on Friday but the combination of a very windy day and not being able to spot a good place for a picnic on GoogleEarth meant we decided to stay in Skipton until Sunday so that we could see Tim, Margaret and Nicholas again on Saturday and go for a picnic in the park.

Saturday was gloriously sunny, like the rest of the week, the wind made it a bit cooler which was good in some ways. Nicholas loves to climb so was very happy to find a children's play area at the park.

Nicholas having fun

After our picnic we went for a stroll, then back to Morgana for a cuppa before they had to head back to Leeds. We then enjoyed a drink with our neighbours Jim and June before settling down to watch the footie.

We didn't move very far today, just far enough to get into the countryside so the cats could enjoy some freedom. We moored near Low Bradley and I had to take this photo of the quintessential English Sunday afternoon.

Sunday afternoon cricket in the shadow of t' mill

Tomorrow we aim to reach Riddlesden and visit Puffer Parts to buy a new battery, we used to have five batteries for our domestic use and one starter battery but have been down to four domestics for a while so it will be nice to have the extra power again.

Today's journey 2.3 miles and 2 swing bridges

So far this year we have travelled 386.5 miles, 232 locks, 15 swing bridges, 1 lift bridge and 11 tunnels

In 2011 we travelled 461.4 miles, 444 locks, 3 swing bridges, 34 lift bridges and 15 tunnels


During 2010 we travelled 740.3 miles, 642 locks, 53 swing bridges, 4 lift bridges and 25 tunnels


Since Ray retired we have travelled 1588.2 miles, 1318 locks, 71 swing bridges, 39 lift bridges and 51 tunnels