jpcdriver

Ahh, that does bring back memories. It is the knocked through old lock I got stuck in for 3 and a half hours in coming down (i.e. from 3E to 1E) waiting for CRT to come and let more water down. They were busy over on the Peak Forest apparently.

Midnight, you must travel with a large crew or you engaged warp speed at some point ?, I've never done it in less than 5 and a half hours. Glad to hear everything was quiet though quite surprised given what it was like earlier in the month. I'd put a caveat on the Allerton Bywater moorings - on many boats you would need to climb on the roof to get off if the river is down (like on Monday). Otherwise very nice.

Yes, if I had to stop between Leeds and Rodley that is one place I might risk.

I thought that until I started going up there in the last 3 years. The lower end near Leeds is probably better now with all the new apartments and home which has brought much greater towpath traffic. However the staircases at Forge and Newlay continue to be vandalised along with the Lockkeepers' container/shelter. Including trying to set lock beams alight! The kids who have also been swimming in and messing around at Dobsons 2 above Apperley have this year moved up to the Field 3 (in the middle of nowhere) because CRT have got CCTV on at Dobsons now. In May we tried to moor above the Field 3 but had to call out CRT because a group of 8 youngsters came and started messing about with the locks. Unfortunately someone had left some of the locks off. CRT then advised us to move down to Dobsons because of course they knew we had called CRT out and we were starting to receive some verbal. Fortunately, it was good weather so a 7pm twilight cruise was quite pleasant. The CRT manager who came out said he was going to organise some better and more locks on the paddle gear the following day. So as much as it hurts me (being a proud Yorkshireman) to say this there are definitely some areas up the L&L I do not moor, and certainly Leeds to Rodley I always do in 1 day.

I was in the basin over the last 2 weekends. One of the paddles was left open on the night of Sat. 5th May and CRT had to come down to get the levels sorted on Sunday morning. As we left I noticed that the landing was tilted as shown in the photos. However, it had been put back correctly last weekend. I guess it will keep happening. It would have been preferable to spend some money on a better landing below the lock on the river (a single step opening in a wall shared with the Water Taxis!) than something there which no-one seems to use/want/need.