Day 6

Today's weather started with so much promise. There was a beautiful sunrise, and birds were singing in the woods nearby. Following a wonderful breakfast we got underway by 8-30am under a sunny blue sky, but there was a bitter chill in the easterly breeze. It soon clouded over and the temperature became more like you would expect at this time of year. Yesterday we paddled in t-shirts, by mid morning we had donned all the layers at our disposal.

There were only 4 locks to portage but the distance of over 37km combined with the cold headwind made this a long and difficult day. We passed Castleford, Knottingley and Ferrybridge which are very industrial and grim. A while later we passed Eggborough and Great Heck which have wonderfully amusing names. After the last lock we had a 2 hour slog into the wind before arriving at Goole all of us tired, cold and hungry.

Wildlife of the day is the Kingfisher. As we made our way past Castleford we saw plenty of them but struggled to take any photos.