Today's progress was slow. The combination of warm weather, stiff lock paddles and heavy gates did nothing to encourage a long day. The locks on the Calder are very hard work and because of the way we are sharing the work if we travel through 8 locks I have probably done the work for the equivalent of at least 12 locks. It is a pity because the scenery is lovely and I would be enjoying this stretch far more if it wasn't such hard work. I shall be glad when we get onto the Aire where the locks are so big we can all fit in (in a line behind each other if we choose), they are also mechanical locks so either there is a lock keeper or you just insert your BW key, push a couple of buttons and job done.
We stopped briefly at Sainsbury's at Brighouse for butter and flour, Chris has presented me with a huge tub of mincemeat so mince pies are on the menu for elevensies and I don't normally make much pastry. After that we headed down to a mooring above Kirklees Top Lock where the fishing was lousy until Ray caught a crayfish on his line. Chris has a couple of crayfish traps so he dropped them in (baited with dog food) and we soon had a couple of dozen crayfish. This is only about enough for one portion but we figure if we leave them in overnight we might get enough for a crayfish dish for dinner tomorrow.
We are hoping to manage to get almost to the Aire tomorrow and leave these awful locks behind us.
Today's journey 5 miles and 5 locks.
So far we have travelled 296.7 miles, 335 locks, 12 swing bridges, 4 lift bridges and 9 tunnels.
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