Saturday 5 May.
Stainforth to Keadby.
I often wake up and think, ‘Will I have anything to write about today’; by the end of the day I always find something – I hope interesting – to fill the diary with. Today was no exception.
Setting off with plenty of time to reach Keadby Lock this afternoon, all went well (even the weather) until just before Thorne swing bridge when guy in a narrowboat shouted over, ‘Thorn swing bridge is playing up again – yesterday it took us six hours to get through’. Yelp!
My humans wondered what could be the problem as we passed through last week with no trouble really. On arrival we could see a gaggle of humans standing at the mechanism for the bridge so Leigh jumped off to go and see what was happening. Tom followed too!
The bridge was well and truly jammed – it would neither open nor close. Even pedestrians couldn’t access the bridge as the pedestrian gates would only open to reveal a six-inch gap; not many people are slim enough to get through that!
The other boaters had called the emergency number displayed by the touch buttons on the control panel for the bridge. All they could get through to was an ansafone. Leigh tried too and left a message – thinking the more people who rang, the more the engineer would realise it was necessary to come out and fix it.
One of the other boaters also called CRT – so did Tom – explaining that although they are not responsible for the bridge if boats cannot cruise their waters then surely they need to put pressure on the town council to come and fix the bridge. CRT were doing their best to help I guess.
After about two hours the engineer arrived – duly apologetic – and told us, ‘I was at football practice and had my phone switched off’. Yelp!
Whilst waiting, I spotted this rather gorgeous and very apt bench – designed by a local student. How lovely it is?
So…after this delay, some warm and sunny weather, fabulous views across open countryside, with several wind farms visible, we arrived at Keadby around four-thirty.
Leigh immediately took advantage of the weather and early finish to sit outside and read. Tom did some boatybitsandpieces. I played with a little Cairn Terrier who was waltzing past the boat. All was well with us.
Woofs, Martha xx
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