Bartimaeus

Our exit from Sheffield was delayed by a day so that we could join another boater who was already booked in for Thursday.  We had already met “Geordie Paul” who had hailed us when we arrived at the marina.  He had told us it was fine to overstay the signed two day limit if we liked and advised on the best mooring spot.

We set off at his chosen time (a bit earlier than we might have picked) and ended up just ahead of him on the cruise to the top of the Tinsley Flight.  The gates of the top lock were already open so we drove straight in and greeted Pete and Nigel who were helping us on the flight.  Clare hopped off with a windlass leaving me to drive.

Paul and I had agreed that we only needed one gate open, so once it was ready, the tail gate on his side opened in front and he roared off.  Bartimaeus was pulled over in his wake, and with a little bow thruster I was able to follow him out.  Before I’d cleared the gates, Paul was already in the lock ahead reversing hard to stop.  He leapt off with his centre rope and pulled his boat over, before tying it to a bollard.  That left him free to close the gate on his side behind him.  By the time I had stopped alongside, Clare and Pete were just catching up to close the other gate and start winding.

It turned out all the head gates were open ready for us.  The first seven locks got the same treatment.  Occasionally I hopped off to close the gate before the ground crew arrived.  Sometimes Paul was even far enough ahead to wind the paddles before anyone else.  We were just as fast through the lower section of the flight where the locks are more spread out.  I noticed at the bottom of the flight that we had cleared it in (just) under two hours – the official advice is to allow four hours.

Paul was still keen to press on, so we agreed to chum him through the remaining manual locks and as far as the bigger locks in Rotherham. The big locks have a control panel at each end.  The head end is easy to access because your boat is at the right level.  The tail end is often awkward involving ladders or distant floating pontoons.

I hopped off at the first big lock leaving Clare to drive, intending to help Paul by operating the tail half of the lock.  He was already dealing with the head gates, and had a plan involving us going ahead to the next lock.  We looked up to see that Clare had got caught by the suddenly gusting wind and was now across the canal and being blown sideways.  She was not happy!  I was reluctant to start shouting orders, but she really did want advice this time.  A bit of reverse and a long blast of bow thruster got her out of trouble.  Unfortunately a minute or two later she was in a similar position.  This time the bow ended up at the bit of bank I was on, so I fended and then hopped on to help.

As luck would have it, Paul had opened the gates by then, so I was able to apply some throttle and drive a U-turn in to the lock.  We both stayed on the boat in that lock, and Clare got off to operate the next one.  On exit I told Paul not to wait for us – we were stopping.  We carried on to the moorings at Swinton where we had stopped for lunch on the way up.

After lunch we explored the nearby nature reserve marked on the map.  It seemed to be a cow field with some paths on it.  I managed to add a small amount of interest to the walk back from the shop by finding the end of the disused Dearne and Dove Canal.  The locks are still marked on the map, but they are clearly unusable.

The following morning we sat out the forecast strong winds and then headed for a country park in the early afternoon.  What looked like a quiet lane on my map turned out to be a busy narrow road with no pavements, so we abandoned that plan.  We got back to the boat and decided to move on in the sunshine.  After a couple of the big locks, we were back on the River Don.

The wind had died down and the late afternoon sun was pleasant.  The flow wasn’t strong, but we were going down stream with the sun out, so I was tempted to pull the throttle back to the point where the batteries were not being discharged.  It was pretty slow, but very pleasant.  As we approached a railway bridge I remembered to increase power, the currents around narrow openings can be surprising.

Before we reached our mooring at Sprotbrough we passed under the Conisbrough Viaduct again.  The mooring is directly opposite the pub, it seemed rude not to find out if we could have dinner there – we could!

Next morning we walked up the river side path and over the viaduct.  I was intrigued to see that the ornate stone caps to the towers are absolutely flat on the side where the trains ran.  The fancy features are not for the benefit of railway users.

We returned along the path on the other side of the river, finding our way back to the pub again.  They also serve lunch – we checked!