Saltaire To Stockbridge. 1 Lock, 3 Staircases.






From an embarrassed looking boat to meeting the worlds worst lock keeper!











Leaving Saltaire we passed this unfortunate craft emblazoned with flags and plastic cones.

The Village of Saltaire was designed and built by one Sir Titus Salt for his workforce back in 1850. Next to the river Aire and with him being Sir Salt, you can see where it gets its name from.
There was no pub built though as he was against drinking. Nowadays there is a Wine bar/Bistro well named.................. "Don't Tell Titus"

All the locks along here are of heroic proportions, you can feel very small indeed at the bottom of these monsters.

We had to get through the Bingley three and five rise staircases today, ( A staircase lock is where the top gates of one are the bottom gates of the other).

The three rise was a breeze as we had a lock keeper who knew what he was doing and with D's help we were up and out with no mishaps.

Then it was onto the five rise where we met him, the jobsworth, the know it all, the lockie from hell.
It took two hours to get through the five locks and he succeeded in smashing Ubique from one side of the lock to the other THREE TIMES out of five. This was down to him opening sluices at the wrong time.
He even said to D (Who he wouldn't let help because they are his locks) that he can't seem to get it right today.
To cap it all a woman on the bank said to D that you have got the bad one of the bunch there, he always does this.
It was a nightmare of a trip, which had D been allowed to operate the sluices, would have gone a lot smoother than that idiots effort.










On a slightly calmer note, when we had moored for the day mummy swan here brought her cygnet to show us.







Who's an ugly duckling then? ............Not me!

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Until next time...........................

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