Thank you for reading my story, I hope that you enjoy. Love Mica xx. Yorkshire, England
I like cycling along tow paths. They are flat, usually, and often quiet with just the sounds of birds, farm animals and occasional boaters. Boaters, why would you want to live in a home that rusts that lives on water? I don't get it, and they are so cramped, I think I am taller than they are wide for goodness sake. But they are quite pretty, the canal boats, and they often have little painted buckets and watering cans on their roofs, painted with flowers, birds, that kind of thing. Do they moor up somewhere and sit and paint them, the way people in Cornwall paint harbours and fishing boats in water colours?
I had just got off my bike and walked, I was at what was known as Bingley three rise locks. A lock is used when a boat needs to go up or down hill, it is just a giant brick container with doors at each end that a boat goes into, the doors shut, it fills with water, the boat obviously floats on the water and so as the water rises, the boat rises, the doors open and the boat floats out at the new higher level. The process is reversed if you are going down. The tow path is just too steep for me to ride as it goes past the locks, it flattens out again at the top side.
Usually the locks are just a pair of doors that raise or lower you a few feet, but here at Bingley they have two separate sets of massive locks that are joined together in a staircase configuration. The smaller set of three locks raises a boat thirty feet, and the bigger set of five locks just beyond raise a boat sixty feet. They are massive feats of engineering and are wonders of the water world. I rested my bike on the fence on the side of the tow path and had a look, a boat was going down. There were official people operating the locks, letting the water in or out, opening and closing gates, and generally controlling movements. As far as I could tell a boater did not need to pay to use the locks, at least I never saw any evidence of payment.
The rush of water through gates and sluices from the full chamber to the low chamber was both impressive and frightening and the locks looked so deep, to me it was like looking down into a cold version of hell. I tired of watching boats moving here and got on my bike and cycled the few hundred yards up to the five rise. My God they were an impressive sight and very intimidating to look at. There was a canal boat, 'Marie's Rose' was its name, moored up at the side of the canal and a woman stood at the rear deck, where I think all steering and engine controls were managed from, and she was looking up at the lock flight.
"Hello," I said, "are you going up?"
"Yes," she answered, "but I need a little more courage yet to go through that on my own."
"Oh crikey, yes I suppose it could be frightening, I mean you have been up the three rise though?"
"Well, yes, and that scared me silly, the speed the chambers fill is amazing, faster than any other locks I have been in, and I have not done that many, I have only had my boat six months."
"Oh wow, it is a beautiful looking boat, it really is."
"Oh thank you, I am Marie, and this boat is one I commissioned. I was sick of living in a city, I used to live in Leeds, I can work remotely as long as I can get a signal, and so, had this built to my needs, sold my house and here I am."
"Oh wow, I so admire you Marie, my name is Josh. I don't think I would brave enough to live on something made of rustable metal that floats on water."
"Ah yes, well, there are things that you can do to compensate for that."
"Wow, I never knew."
"Would you like a cup of tea?"
"Er, yes, but my bike?"
"Stow it in the bow then come aft, the kettle should have boiled by then."
"Okay Marie, yes, that would be nice."
I walked my bike to the front of the boat, there was like an open deck area. I lifted my boat in, made sure it wouldn't scratch her paintwork, and then jumped back ashore, or is it 'aland', I wasn't sure of the correct terminology for a canal boat, and wandered back along the towpath to the back of the boat.
"Hello," I called to the empty rear deck.
Marie popped her head through a little door opening and smiled.
"Come aboard, kettle won't be a minute."
"Thanks," I responded and did a big step onto the boat, all the time hoping that I wouldn't fall into the canal. Lord knows what lived in that, it didn't look like the water at the Cottingley swimming pool, that was for certain.
I realised that there were a small series of steps that led from the back down inside the boat, I descended and found myself in a really nice looking living area. There was a kitchenette, was it a galley on a boat I wondered, a seating area with a table, and beyond there was sofa and TV area, and then a door that led to the rest of the boat, bathroom and bedroom I guessed, unless the table turned into a bed, I didn't know. It kind of looked a bit like a long thin caravan.
"Right Josh, how do you have your tea?"
"Oh, just white please, no sugar."
"Bag in or out," she asked.
"Oh in please, I like the way the tea gets slowly stronger."
"Good answer." She passed a cross a mug with 'I'd rather be afloat' emblazoned on the outside.
As I sat there cradling my mug I thought I could detect a slight sway, but nothing unpleasant.
"How have you found it, living in water, how do you deal with doctors and things? It must be awkward."
"Oh you would be surprised, doctors and things you just dial 111, explain that you live on a canal boat and they get you an appointment at a near by surgery, all you have to do is get yourself there, thank God for Ubers."
"Oh yes, I suppose, no car, yes."
