Ripon is a Gem!

An interesting observation this morning.  All the steel boaters were up and about at 8.00am, however there was no sign of life from the Tupperware boats.  I guess they can afford a later start to the day as they are able to go faster.

We quietly crossed over to the Canal Garage mooring and purchased 80 litres.  It’s self declaration and the domestic price was 87.9p.  I’ll have to do the maths to work out what we paid for propulsion.

It was more wide and isolated river to cruise as we headed towards Ripon.  There were four locks today and the first (Westwick Lock) is the shortest between York and Ripon.  It went very well and we were soon on our way to Oxclose Lock.

There are daylight only moorings at Newby Hall.  Actually the moorings are only available to boaters visiting the hall.

The hall was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and built in 1697.  Apparently the hall was identified as one secret location to house the Royal Family during WW2.  Today the hall and extensive gardens are open to the public.

It was quite a hot day and Jan pointed out some of the locals had taken to the river to cool their feet.  I noticed a few had udder things also requiring cooling.

We discovered the approach to Oxclose Lock was rather congested.  A large CRT barge was dredging the approach to the lower gates.  They were working quickly and very efficiently with less than a 5 minute pause to allow us to pass.

Below the lock is the River Ure and above it’s the Ripon Canal.  The change was quite dramatic.  We had gone back to narrow and shallow ditches.

The final two locks came and went very quickly.  Albeit they were slow to fill and had anti-vandal locks.

We are now moored at Ripon