Bartimaeus

I’ve been waiting for an appointment for a dermatology check-up in Edinburgh most of the summer.  Instead, at the end of September I was invited to the eye hospital.  A short appointment in the afternoon looked like the sort of thing I could do as a day trip from York or nearby, so that was what I was planning.  As the day drew nearer, the planning got more tricky.  Leaving Clare to manage flood waters wasn’t likely to be popular, and choosing a suitable train station was harder than I’d expected.

In the end, we’d already decided it might be simpler to do a longer visit, leaving the boat in Selby.  During the trip down the tidal section of the Ouse, the decision was more or less made for us.  We got an alert saying that the swing bridge at Selby was not working, so we couldn’t take the boat any further.  There was a handy space in the basin that got sun all afternoon, so Bartimaeus could wait for us there.

My eyes, it seems, are fine – the pressures in both are within normal limits – great!  On Friday we also got notice that the bridge had been fixed, but got warnings of further flooding on the River Aire, ahead of us.  We’d planned to stay until Monday to avoid railway engineering works, but Tuesday now seemed a better bet.  As luck would have it, that also allowed us to break our journey in Berwick-upon-Tweed and visit the “Lowry and the Sea” exhibition.

We changed trains in York again with enough time to cross the river twice to restock the fridge.  The river level was significantly higher than when we last saw it, though it was well down on the level a few days earlier.  The mooring rings we’d used when we were here were completely submerged.

Wednesday went by without us moving on.  It was a cold grey day, not the best for long drives and the rest of the week was more promising.  A chat with the folk on the next boat also gave me a new goal: obtaining an axe handle (its purpose will be revealed another day).  I ordered one from a nearby DIY outlet (other DIY outlets are available) to collect the next day.

This morning, we topped up the larder while waiting for the order to be ready and then I cycled down to collect.  We topped up the water tank and had lunch before setting off in the sunshine.  The Selby Canal was covered in weed islands when we came in the other direction.  Now, a month later and there is hardly any sign of it.  We saw several kingfishers along with herons, egrets, swans, cygnets and cormorants.

The gates of the flood lock on to the River Aire were closed.  These gates stop the Aire flooding the canal and perhaps Selby.  They were sitting open when we came through in the other direction.  Today the rise was less than a foot, but we followed the instructions and left the gates and paddles the way we found them – all closed.

The current on the river was not problematic, but it was necessary to take it in to account while manoeuvring, and it did slow our progress somewhat.  We reached Beal Lock just as a cruiser was being man-hauled in to it.  We established that we didn’t think we’d fit in together, so we helped him through before cycling the lock again for ourselves.

While working, some locals told us that it had all been flooded recently.  On exit from the lock we found clear evidence that the water levels had been significantly higher.  If we’d been aboard at the weekend there is no way we’d have been navigating here.

We caught up with the cruiser again at Bank Dole Lock and helped him through again.  It wasn’t far to a convenient mooring in Knottingley, and not long until sunset.  Starting after lunch suited us today, but we’ll need to be careful not to get caught out as the days shorten.