Done it

We were back on the move in just over an hour. The man from the Canal Trust had refilled the pound In quick time. Eight locks later we hit the summit.just one lock down we moored at the lock36 Visitor mooring. After all the problems the scenery at the top was breath taking. Coming down the Yorkshire side Was just as hard work but the country side made it feel better. Moorings and services were still in short supply until we got to Todmordon. The lock in Todmordon has a guillotine gate at the bottom,you still have to open paddles manually but the raising of the gate is electric. Where ever we moored for the night there seemed to be a ledge that tipped us on an angle. We arrived in Hebdan Bridge on Wednesday and had some Yorkshire fish and chips. Marlene book a hair appointment for Thursday at ten. After her appointment we left with the intension of doing the remaining locks before the Tuel lane lock, where you have to book passage through on a Thursday but it is fully manned on Friday to Monday so no booking needed, so the plan was to moor close on Thursday night and go through first thing Friday. Two locks from the end we shared a lock with a boat that had booked passage through at four PM so decided to see if we could share the lock with them. It was nearer five by the time the crew arrived to put us through. Tuel lane is a strange lock, the pound below it has to be kept drained when not in use or it floods the adjoining pub cellar. Add to this the depth of nineteen feet which then opens on to a 114yd tunnel. Coming out of the tunnel you have the final two locks into Sowerby Bridge and the end of the Rochdale Canal,thank goodness. We had finally done all three crossings across the Pennines. We moored and stayed Thursday and Friday night. Friday night we went out for a meal at the pub next to Sowerby Marina called The Moorings to calibrate Marlenes birthday. This morning we went into the Marina and topped up the diesel then set off toward Brighouse on the Calder and Hebble navigation. The locks on this stretch are not very long, they say you can do them in a sixty foot narrowboat but I find this hard to believe. It seems a squeeze in a fifty seven foot. They also have some strange paddles which require a wooden handle or in my case a mooring pin to raise them. After five locks we moored at Elland Basin, It keeps raining and after the last lock where the boat nearly got flooded with the water pouring over the top gate and the lack of room to open the bottom gates.we called it a day.