alafloat

Travelling from Leeds to York entails sailing on a number of rivers and joining canals, through some really wonderful scenery even though it is Yorkshire scenery its not so bad.

You also have to go through some strange towns and Villages, one such town is Castleford famous for its Rugby League club. Yesterday we Moored up for the night in Castleford whilst there we took the opportunity

To gather a few supplies mainly Maggots for fishing. So with google map in had and listening to all the instructions we set off for the tackle shop after numerous wrong directions by google we found the shop however it was in Carlton Lane not Carlton street that’s where google became confused. Having found the bloody shop we found it was a specialist Carp fishing shop and being so did not sell Maggots I had never heard of a Tackle shop that didn’t sell maggots But hey now I have, The very obliging owner of the shop put me in touch with another tackle shop only ten min away so all ended up well on that score, As my lump hammer (required for knocking in ground pins when mooring up) had gone missing in Leeds (people will nick anything if its not tied down) So we called in the hardware shop next door and tried to get a lump hammer and the only one I could get was one that had a bolster chisel sold with it now there is not much use for a bolster chisel on a boat I tried explaining to this very pretty Yorkshire Lass that I as a boater had no requirement for the Chisle so could I just have the Hammer Nay lad came the reply “its either all or Nowt tis up to theee “ then all of sudden that girls beauty went right down the plug hole. Only a few hundred yards away there was a shop that from the exterior look for all the world like a Garden centre the outside pavement was covered with platers, tubs, plants bags of compost and soil a whole assortment of gardening material, on looking into the shop one could see a large variety of fruit and veg, Not unusual for a garden centre to sell fruit and vege what was odd was the shear volume and variety of it there really was veg there that I had no idea of I can only imagine that it something they give to the Rugby players. This shop had one more surprise for us towards the back was one of the biggest wine shops I have ever seen it was vast stocked with some very interesting wines and amazing array of world wines Then came the biggest shock walking back outside, we realised that we were on the forecourt of a drive through off licence cars were zooming in and out among all the gardening merchandise stopping to load the boot up with as many cans of ale as you could cram in I can only imagine that again it was for the Rugby League Players (well they did beat St Helens the night before) The only ither drive through Booz I have seen before was in Australia this was my first in the UK. Walking across the street and back to the boat we were having a laugh and saying how strange the shops were Then Noreen remembered she wanted Milk and across the raod was what looked like a little News agents so we crossed and walked in, and to be sure the front looked as it should with racks of mags and papers Noreen asked for milk and was escorted around the back this again was a shop like the Tardis that just kept revealing more space for this room was packed to the ceiling with Groceries and a fridge for the milk, to get back to the till was an even bigger revelation as we had to pass by the Fish and Chip counter?? On reaching the outside we both double checked the exterior there was no signage to the fact that this tiny little corner shop was in fact a Tardis combing a News Agent, Tobaconist, General Store, Green Grocers and Chippie

What PLACE Castleford is a place if you are passing is a must for a shopping experience never mind the Trafford centre Get this en up to Castleford for a reet Yorkshire shopping experience

Tomorrow we eventually get onto the river Ouse and head for York John and I went to reccy the lock that tomorrow will drop us down onto the Ouse tonight was low tide and the drop is about 30ft but you can only go through the lock at high tide and hopefully the drop will be a lot less and the river running a lot slower because on leaving the lock its a very tight turn into the river, fingers crossed everyone.

God Bless

Buggerlugs