On downstream (day 2)

Mum and Dad muster early, still being a bit in work-mode, but the Silverwoods are recovering from their over night ferry which featured Toddler-R deciding to tantrum instead of sleeping, so they're all a bit wiped. My pics today are of two special features of the holiday. Those who know us will know of the connection to a well known Supermarket, so here's a nice pic of the good ship Northumberland moored alongside the said shop in Brighouse.

Those who know Mr S will know of his avid fan-dom of Liverpool FC. Mum and Dad thought it'd be fun to get hold of a "Calder and Hebble hand-spike" (a chunk of hardwood used to open the ground paddles on some of the C+HN locks) in advance of the holiday and paint it up in Liverpool colours, decorate it with stickers and present it to Mr S st the first lock. It went down well. Mr S loved it!

And so, we tootle gently down stream, everyone falling into the pleasant regime from last year, Dad doing most of the helming (occasionally ousted by keen trainee helmers of all ages), with Mr S loving his lock-wrangling assisted by any combination of Mum, Mrs S, Em-J, J-M and M. We chug down to Brighouse where we stop for a major provisioning shop (and are witness to a racist "incident" which we are determined to stay out of). On down to Cooper Bridge, alternating sections of canal with the River Calder, where we divert off to check out Huddesfield's Aspley Basin. Brilliant place with lots of canal-side facilities and canal-facing pubs etc.

Just out of Huddersfield we moor up near Deighton in a lovely rural stretch where dogs and children can safely explore the tow path. We are really starting to enjoy this holiday now.

Deefski

Keeping the Faith

We couldn't resist one more narrow-boat related blog, nor the photo's that came with it. An interior of the galley area, looking for'd through the 2 "double bedrooms" to the bow doors and the foredeck. Mum did most of the cooking - and it was proper cooking - roast joints, risotto, bolognese, lamb chops, even pigeon breasts. No messin' about with microwave ovens and ready meals. We dogs mostly ate on the aft deck.

A picture, too of the scenic "Old Royd Lock" from our overnight mooring (and the scene of Em-J's life-jacket exploding inundation). And finally one of the boat moored outside Sainsburys at Brighouse (hence the blog title, but if you don't know us it'll mean nothing).

It truly was a best holiday ever, and the humans have been talking about doing it again but with a different chunk of canal.Maybe the Rochdale canal again but from the West (Lancashire) side up to the summit and over at least as far as lock 25, linking up with where we had to stop this time. We met one group who had done the whole northern loop - Burnley to Sowerby Bridge via Leeds (93 miles, 86 locks and approx 50 hours of sailing). Coming back up through Salterhebble, though, they looked all in; exhausted; like a group who had perhaps bitten off more than they wanted to chew. One of the ladies, at least said she'd had enough after one day, but then had started to get stuck in with a kind of dull inevitablity.

We toyed briefly with the idea but decided that with 2 young children who are not interested in purely and only sailing (and who would be?) we'd be better off doing a leisurely one again with stop offs. Mum is, anyway, an English Literature buff and was spitting anyway to be that close to Haworth and not be able to go see.

But now we're all home again and the joys of home, garden and the local town walks are once again our thing. It's Ellie's, Archie's and my birthday on Monday (did I mention that?), so we've been trying to organise a joint walk with all 7 dogs (Meg, the H, Mollie and Hector of course) as a celebration. If it happens, we'll keep you posted with some 7-dog photo's. Should be a blast

Meanwhile, carry on enjoying your weekend

Deefer