Heavy traffic to Skipton

 Monday May 24 Kildwick to Skipton (5 miles, 0 locks, 5 swb)

 

With hire bases at Silsden, Snaygill and Skipton, we had literally dozens of day boats and hire boats passing us today, plus the usual narrowboats and wide beams. Liana chatted with the South Pennine Boat Club boat crews we first met at Castleford. 

 Norman enjoyed steering for much of the way, while John sat in the cratch for a change, and helped at some of the swing bridges, which were operated mainly by Liana, Angela and Wendy. 

We passed the memorial to WW2 Polish airmen who crashed in their Wellington bomber on a training flight

This level section is pretty, with lots of wildfowl, sheep and cattle pastures, stone walls and buildings, bluebell woods and beautiful views across the Aire valley to more distant hills.

We spotted a cratch cover maker with his measuring equipment sticking out at Snaygill Boats. 

Reaching Skipton, we moored in the middle of town at Gallows Bridge visitors moorings, opposite the services. You can moor all along the towpath here, a good job as Skipton is so busy with boats.

We went shopping. Skipton is pleasant to walk around, near the canal and short Springs Branch canal leading to opposite the castle. Rock falls have limited boat access recently. There are plenty of pubs, cafes and shops of all sorts here, plus the Pennine Cruisers hire base for diesel and boat bits.

After our walk in the sun, we ate out at The Royal Shepherd (ok) and played Settlers of Catan later.