NB Zindagi: Dodging the Floods!

Plan? What Plan?

When we started out in 2007, we had a vague idea of the main places we wanted to go first, and then worked out where we might go after that. Our plans have been flexible, to say the least, and we like it that way!

In 2007, though we started up in Lancashire, we headed south and spent spent most of our time exploring some of the waterways in the south of the UK – but not all of them!

In 2008, we headed north and stayed there for most of the year, heading southwards in November to moor up in Blisworth Marina for the first time. After that, it became our usual winter 'home' until early 2013.

2009 found us fitting our cruising around Val's replacement knee joint operations in January and July. They were very successful! In the Spring, we went down the Nene to the River Great Ouse and the Cambridgeshire Fens. After the second op, and more recovery time in Blisworth, we set off for the Kennet and Avon Canal, via Braunston, the southern Oxford Canal, Oxford and the Thames.

An eventful time on the K & A, and a magnificent frosty journey back up the Thames from Reading to Oxford – and we entered 2010.

To start with, largely immobile in Aynho and Blisworth, but then we headed north-east via Leicester and Nottingham to the River Trent, from which we branched off wherever we could, down to Lincoln and Boston and back, then along the Chesterfield Canal and back before leaving the Trent on our way to Rotherham and Sheffield.

Then north and west over the Pennines by the Rochdale Canal, down to Manchester and then via the Macclesfield, Trent & Mersey and Staffs & Worcs Canals south to near Wolverhampton, via Birmingham and on down to the Severn at Worcester. Right down to Sharpness, then back up to Stourport, to head up the Staffs. & Worcs. Canal near to Wolverhampton again.

Blisworth again for the winter, then in the spring of 2011 we took a trip down the Grand Union to London, through and out the other side to the Lee and Stort – and slowly back! Then over to the Stratford Avon and up the Severn to visit the newly re-opened Droitwich Canals.

By boat to London for Jeremy and Laura's wedding in October 2011, then back to our 'second home' in Blisworth for the winter, enjoying a little more involvement with Christian folks there, too.

In 2012 we started by heading north again to see the Caldon Canal in the Spring, then changed our plans and decided to cross the Pennines again - up and down the Huddersfield Narrow Canal and then back over the Leeds & Liverpool to the Bridgewater. Our proposed visit to the 'Shroppie' and the Llangollen followed on after that – beautiful countryside on the way and once we were there.

Then onto the southern section of the 'Shroppie' and from there the Staffs. & Worcs. – we decided not to go down to Stourport but turned north again to Great Haywood, then south via the Trent & Mersey to the River Trent and then the the River Soar – up to Leicester.

From there, we dawdled back towards Blisworth for the winter again. The folks at the marina were expecting us on 5th November 2012, and we just managed to avoid being there early!

January 2013 saw us move back to the land in Lapford, and very little 'boat-related activity' until October 2014, when we moved Zindagi onto the 11-mile long Grand Western Canal near Tiverton in Devon. 3 years there gave us the opportunity to carry out some needed maintenance, but we did very little cruising!

The future? Well, as you can see, we moved Zindagi back onto the main national canal system in early October 2017. Just those couple of days gave us a fresh taste of enjoying life on board – almost like old times!

So, we hope to get out for some more trips, hopefully sometimes with friends, re-exploring some of our old haunts. Looks like there may be some interest from the younger members of the family, too. Lots of different routes to follow from Hatherton! Only about 3 hours drive to get there from Lapford – not too bad!

Monday, July 02, 2012

Dodging the Floods!

As soon as we heard that the River Calder was navigable again, we 'set sail' from Huddersfield, under this unique lifting bridge, the Turnbridge Loco Liftbridge (1865). If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you may see that the whole road section is lifted vertically by its own crane while the boat passes underneath. Nowadays it is electrically operated – it used to be wound by windlass. No wonder it's called a 'Turnbridge'!

Just a few locks and miles out of Huddersfield, we moored up for the night on the Huddersfield Broad Canal. We had been through our last narrow locks for quite a while! We joined the River Calder (Calder & Hebble Navigation) at Cooper Bridge, and were glad to find the river level was comfortably down – no problems!

We had a little surprise near Battyeford, when a fluttering noise announce the arrival of a temporary passenger! This racing pigeon hitched a lift with us until Mirfield. He was hand tame and seemed uninjured – maybe just a little tired or disorientated?

Ivy-leaved Toadflax in a lock wall near Wakefield.

The Calder and Hebble joins the Aire & Calder at Wakefield's 'Fall Ing' Lock. (An 'ing' is a water-meadow). After quite a delay with an earlier boat coming up, we fitted three narrowboats in with no difficulty, though the nearest one lives up to its name – 'Dinky'.

We stopped for lunch and so had a later lock all to ourselves, but this gives you an idea of normal-sized locks on the Aire & Calder –

but no hard work is involved, just pressing buttons! They are all mechanised with electrically-operated hydraulics.

At Castleford, where the Calder joins the Aire, we passed 'Dinky' again as he was setting off after shopping. We waited for him at the gigantic Lemonroyd Lock and moored above for the night. Here we are at Woodlesford Lock the next morning – about the same length but only 7'6" deep instead of 13'6".

The few miles up to Leeds were a bit of a race against time, as it had been raining through the night and we knew that the River Aire gets fierce when rain falls in the Dales. Fortunately, all the river level indicators at the locks were 'on green', including this last one where the Leeds & Liverpool Canal turns off the Aire.

The next day, after more rain, the river was totally un-navigable, not quite a raging torrent but heading that way. With later news of floods in Yorkshire and on the Rochdale Canal (upstream on the Calder) we were very glad that 1) we had made it safely onto the L&L in time and 2) that we hadn't opted to cross back over the Pennines via the Rochdale this year – we had talked about it as a possibility!