The Canal Navigation through the Selby swing bridge and along the Selby Canal, the River Aire, the Aire and Calder Navigation, the New Junction Canal and finally the Stanforth and Keadley Canal which zigzag network took us from the Yorkshire Ouse to within striking distance of the River Trent whilst avoiding the tidal stretches.
It had rained overnight, then dull and showery, ending up with a downpour as we neared Thorne and we stayed in there for the night. I had an argument with Di who has not liked this boating trip so far; saying that it was poorly planned and that we should have just stuck to the Great Ouse and the Norfolk Broads and so we slept apart.
We slept well after our exertions, and it rained again during the night but was thankfully fine again first thing this morning. We had to wait for the bridge-keeper to swing Selby Swing Bridge this morning at 9.30am, but I used the time to buy a transit pass for the canals and a British Waterways "Sanitation Key" which gets access to all of the facilities and swing bridges on the canals. Then we finally got through the first swing bridge at 9.30am and made our way along the Selby Canal as the second craft in a convoy. We had folded everything down and even stowed the windscreens on the cabin roof to aid headroom so that we could get under the arched stone bridges; but found that we had plenty of room in the end. The depth of the canal was also 1-2 metres which was better than yesterday on the Yorkshire Ouse.
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Our cruise for nearly eight hours took in the River Aire, the Aire and Calder Navigation, the New Junction Canal and finally the Stanforth and Keadley Canal which zigzag network took us from the Yorkshire Ouse to within striking distance of the River Trent whilst avoiding the tidal stretches that caused us so much trouble on the way up. In fact, we could have got to the Trent if it were not for the early closing of the final navigation at 4.30pm. The weather was always going to be dull and showery and ended up in a down-pour as we neared Thorne and we stayed in there for the night and spent the evening walking round the town, shopping and then relaxing watching a video film together. At the end of the evening, I had an argument with Di who has not liked this boating trip so far; saying that it was poorly planned and that we should have just stuck to the Great Ouse and the Norfolk Broads. After all of the effort I had made, I found this rather provocative and said I was fed up with her and she then tried to make up her bed in the saloon. We all went to bed early at 9.45am after a long day.