It was such a beautiful day yesterday that rather than waste it we decided to go on a canal walk of our own beginning in our little town and walking in the opposite direction towards Halifax. We joined the canal towpath a short distance from town where the little lockkeepers cottage is situated. Lot’s of other people had the same idea as us, and there were plenty of walkers and bicycle riders (plus one guy out jogging) taking the opportunity to enjoy the summer sunshine.
As is usual along the canal, there were lots of narrowboats travelling along and also lots of fishermen sitting quietly at the side of the canal patiently waiting for a bite. The new David Bailey aka J accompanied us again and insisted on snapping everything in sight including moving into lots of my intended shots of the surrounding area. He frightened us at one point by disappearing into the side wooded area to take some shots of the river which runs adjacent to the canal. He had been gone for ages, and as is usual for this Mum (despite the fact he is now 26 years old!) I panicked thinking he might have fallen down into the river, it’s quite a steep drop where he had chosen to leave the towpath in order to make those ‘cant miss’ taking a photograph of that shots. Besides which K and I couldn’t have rescued him if he had fallen in! He eventually emerged unscathed thank goodness and we continued along the towpath.
Everyone we met along the way smiled and greeted us with ‘Good mornings’ and conversation. How different everyone seems when the sun is shining! Most were dressed appropriately in t-shirts, shorts and cool summer clothes. One fellow had a nifty sunhat that resembled one that an Australian person would wear with the corks hanging down. As is often the case near water it felt cooler walking along the towpath. We had the canal on the right hand side, and the river on the left with the cool shady trees in between. There are also quite a few locks to go past and we also saw two more lockkeepers cottages which were both sadly boarded up.
“I’d love to do that little cottage up” I said, “It would be so lovely living here at the side of the canal, so peaceful and quiet.” What a shame that they have been abandoned.
It was quite a walk, and K was unusually quiet. So quiet in fact, that even J noticed she wasn’t herself. I kept asking her if she was okay, but she said she was. She made J and myself laugh though during one of our forays into the wooded area to take some pictures of the waterfall on the river. Earlier whenever we passed one of the men fishing on the canal, I reminded J and K to be quiet or they would frighten the fish away, so when we entered the wooded area, we took a few photographs of the waterfall then turned around to return to the towpath. As we returned K stepped on a twig which snapped under her foot. “Sorry I trod on a stick!” she said. It sounded so funny as we were obviously miles away from any of the fishermen!
Eventually we arrived at some civilization where an inviting public house called aptly the ‘Barge and Barrel’ was situated and we all had some lunch. I had a beef stew (without the accompanying large Yorkshire pudding of course) and K and J both had a Chinese chicken wrap with chips, all ably washed down with shandy for K, ( tell you she wasn’t herself. Shandy?) a glass of white wine for me and a pint of Fosters for J. Following that excellent and welcome meal to finish off our enjoyable walk we caught the bus home. I so enjoyed the walk. It was a long way, but a wonderful way to spend a glorious summers day.
TG 
