Hebden, Hebble (Again!) and Huddersfield - Where Hurricanes Hardly Happen......

I am absolutely knackered.  Totally pooped.  But why, when I have such a lazy life??....  Today we did the Standedge Tunnel, which aside from two hours of solid concentration on my part, meant getting up at 7am!!!  What's the Standedge Tunnel, I hear you cry (well, those of you that don't know..)...

 But before I let you in on more of that, here's how we got there.
After we got the washing machine fixed, we headed off to Hebden Bridge (doing a load of laundry on the way obviously). Leaving Sowerby Bridge behind we headed into some really lovely countryside and the weather was being kind too with the morning mist breaking and the sun joining us for the afternoon.  The locks on the Rochdale continued to be quite hard work with fiesty paddles pushing the boat around, and only about half the paddles working on each lock.  However, we weren't in a rush and reached Hebden Bridge mid-afternoon.

Our mooring at Hebden Bridge

 We had a wander around the town, which is prettier away from the canal and on the river to be honest, then had a quiet night on board.  Next morning we picked up some coal from the local merchants (who lent us a wheelbarrow to bring it back to the boat), had a coffee at a local bike shop/cafe on the canal, then walked up to Heptonstall, a wee town on the hill.  It was really pretty and we walked a little bit of the way to Hardcastle Crags (wish we'd had time to go the whole way) then had a beer before getting the bus back to Hebden.

Pretty Heptonstall - worth a visit if you're at Hebden Bridge

 

The ruins of Heptonstall Old Church

Sylvia Plath is buried at Heptonstall

We then headed back to the boat, winded and headed back the way we came.  We were booked to go back through the Tuel Lane tunnel on Thursday morning as I needed to be in Huddersfield to pick up a hire car on Saturday to head south for my darling English Princess's hen night.

Some of the pretty scenery I mentioned earlier.

 

The locks were slightly easier going down, but the paddles were still a pain in the @ss!

Coming through Luddenden Foot

When we got to Sowerby Bridge, there was another two boats ahead of us travelling together, so we knew it would be a long day as we couldn't lockshare as we are the max length for the locks on the Calder and Hebble and have to go in diagonally in most of the locks.  We did try to go in with one of them, when the other hooked up with another smaller boat, but we couldn't get out, so had to refill the lock, reverse out and go down one at a time.  It would have been a really trying day apart from two things; the sun was shining, and the kiwi lady travelling on the other boat was hilarious and just made us smile.

Managing a lockshare on the guillotine lock

Don't be misled by their good looks - these locks are evil, pure evil ;)

 We left the laughing kiwis at Elland and we carried on, picking up a solo boater bloke who claimed he'd lost his spike to do the locks.  We helped him through, but noticed he seemed to be hovering to wait for us..... I think he thought we'd get him through all the next locks - sorry mate!!  We pulled over for a cuppa and let him get ahead and by the time we passed him at the next lock he'd moored up for the night.  We got to Brighouse just before 7pm and arranged to meet Kirsty and Andy for some drinks and a bite to eat.  I still had a hangover from seeing them on Sunday (and this was Thursday!!!), so took it easy, but had to laugh when I asked Kirsty, " Can I just have a tap water please?"  And she looked me straight in the eye and said, "No."  I had a small wine instead....
Our heads weren't too woolly the next morning and we headed off just after 9am, looking forward to getting off the Calder and Hebble back on to canal to Huddersfield.  It was a glorious morning and we tootled along nicely.
We then went onto the Huddersfield Broad canal and I'm sorry, but we took absolutely no photos for a couple of days......  It was fine though, a bit shallow in places but nice locks with good, well maintained paddles.
We stayed in the town centre, where we bumped into Pete and Lesley on NB Descent of Man, who we met back in Liverpool.  They'd come up the Huddersfield from the Manchester side, so I went to pick their brains on the locks and tunnels.
Then I went to my hen do in Chippenham - which was FANTASTIC!!!!  I didn't take any pics there either, but that's maybe just as well.......
After dropping my hire car off on Monday morning (another bloody early start to get it off the parking space before the meter kicked in at 8am), we filled with water, stocked up at Sainsburys and headed on to the Huddersfield Narrow canal.  Ahhhhhh.....narrow gauge locks.......easy paddles.... bliss.  But they don't call it the Huddersfield Narrow for nothing you know...

That's narrow!

So's that!!

Narrow, but with a view....

Taken moments before realising we'd need to take the chimneys off - narrow AND low...

 We did a long day on Monday to reach Slaithwaite (pronounced Slowit - I can't say anything, I was brought up near Kirkcaldy - Kirkoddy) and though it was quite industrial along this section, it was interesting and the locks were easy....

Going passed this old mill we were delighted to see and hear through an open door, the looms still working away.

 At one point the boat behind us caught us up and helped us to move us on a bit more quickly.  Like us, they were booked to go through the Standedge Tunnel on Wednesday morning and hoping to reach Slaithwaite in the evening.  We all got there before dark and with no dramas.
Next day, we set off last.  The family chasing us were up with the larks and away before I'd reached any point of conciousness.  The hire boat moored behind us (also doing the tunnel on Wednesday) left as we were having breakfast.  We followed on through the pretty town of Slaithwaite and I excitedly offered to do the guillotine lock, as the one on the Calder was operated electrically using your british waterways key.
This one wasn't.
It took feckin' ages to wind up and I felt as if I'd done a round with Mike Tyson by the time it was raised.

 This was lock 24E (east of the tunnel) and we wanted to get to Lock 42E by the end of the day.  Everything was going quite smoothly til lock 30 when the hire boat grounded in a low pound (the stretch of water between two locks).  This is common on the Huddersfield Narrow, as apparently the reservoirs at the summit that feed the canal were sold off at some point and if Canal & River Trust (CRT) go over their allocated amount of water, they have to pay a premium for extra - so they say...... Normally you would just run some water through the lock above, but this far up there is a danger you might drain the pounds above and ultimately the tunnel, so you have to phone CRT for assistance. They came out quickly, saw we were coming up behind the hire boat, so ran enough water through to keep us going to.  Despite this, we did grind along the bottom in some places which is quite disconcerting and really slows you down.
As we came up lock 35E, the hire boat were sitting in lock 36E having their lunch, so I politely knocked and said they'd need to move on.  They were a nice bunch and moved off straight away allowing me to ready the lock for us.
At lock 37E we realised they weren't moving so I ran ahead to see what was going on.  They were wedged at the lock entrance.  As they'd entered the lock, a huge piece of tree trunk had snuck behind the gate as they nosed in and they were completely wedged.  They reversed, they pulled ropes but nothing.  We were going to try towing them but Mike said it wouldn't work.  Meanwhile, I noticed the pound between 37 and 38 was getting lower and lower.  I realised that the bottom gates of the lock we were sitting waiting in (full) were leaking like a seive, so I quickly shut the gate and closed all the paddles.   The pound began to recover but we started to go back down in the lock, as all the water leaked out of the gates.  Finally they used our saw to hack a bit off the tree trunk, then a lump hammer to knock it out and they were freee!!!!  It had taken about an hour, and just as they got free teh CRT guys arrived to help.  They ran more water into the pounds so we'd all get up to and through Lock 42E safely.  At this point the heavens opened and our last three locks were done in the pouring rain.....
We moored up at the tunnel entrance, ready for Wednesday's big adventure and then took a walk into Marsden, the attractive town at the summit of the canal.
Sorry, I should get some pictures in here - too much talking!!!

Gorgeous scenery more than makes up for the low pounds

Mike tries a new method of crossing the lock to save walking back to the little bridge....

Reservoirs close to the summit

Blue Peter assisted in the refurbishment of this lock - they've not done a very good job on the tail gates - leaky as hell :(  I suppose there's only so much one can do with a squeezy bottle and stickyback plastic....

The Standedge Tunnel Visitor Centre - because of the log wedge we were too late arriving to visit :(

The closest Mike's ever going to get to a rodeo - Sculpture on the walk into Marsden

Don't think I'll be challenging that...

Waiting to get going this morning

 And so to this morning and the tunnel.  The tunnel is very long and very narrow and very low in most places, so you have to book (as it's oneway traffic) and a chaperone comes on your boat with you.  The chaperone assists by shining his light on sticky-out bits and warning you of stuff coming up and pointing out interesting bits and bobs.  They also stop off a few times to meet up with or to radio CRT staff going through the disused railway tunnel that runs adjacent, to let them know our progress and that everything is okay.  The driver has to wear a hard hat and high-vis jacket and all on board wear a life- jacket.  I was nominated driver as my attention threshold is much higher than Mike's and we figured I'd be able to concentrate for the duration of the journey .......

Bidding farewell as Mike would sit at the front of the boat while I drove.  He wouldn't be able to pester me for a whole two hours - woooohooooo!

Just brickin' it ever so slightly.....

Mike's friend Trevor (not to be confused with Trev, who was our CRT chaperone) joined us, which was great on at least two counts; Mike could pester HIM at the front of the boat and he brought bubbly to have at the other end :)  Trevor, you are very welcome to join us whenever you need a boat-fix ;)

The tunnel.  It's FANTASTIC!!! Constantly changing from brick, rock, sprayed cement.

 As well as two disused railway tunnels, there is still a live railway tunnel running through the hill, so every so often you'd get a blast of air (like in the London Underground) and hear a train passing - somewhere..........

Will we really fit??!

I'm proud to say I got in here without a scratch!!

A few bumps and scrapes did come later....

Two hours later and daylight at last :)  Exiting the tunnel at Diggle with Trev, our fab chaperone.  He gave me 10/10 ;)

We stopped for a coffee and to put the fire on as it had been quite cold in the tunnel and I was frozen in a stooped position (I'm still doing it now and it's been hours.....).  And then headed on down the other side with Trevor setting the locks ahead for us, which was great.  It was raining when we came out of the tunnel and it remained overcast until we moored up for the evening at Uppermill, where we restocked our meat and Bakewell tart supplies.

More leaky locks - shower anyone???

Never a train crossing when you want one....

And here we are..... Another marathon entry, hope you're still awake.  Mike's cleared the engine bay of water whilst I've been doing this and now he can make the dinner whilst I fritter away my time on something else important, like trying to tune the tv for the Bake Off final :(  Have a good week people xx