Every second day seems to be wet, and this one more so than most.  We spent the morning relaxing and catching up on things, then decided to brave the rain.  We’d entered an orienteering event in Guiseley, outside Leeds, so we decided to make our way there via some other places. We headed north into West Yorkshire – Bronte country.

Our first stop was the town of Halifax, noted for its splendid Piece Hall. It was once a cloth hall for handloom weavers to sell their “pieces”.  It is almost 250 years old, and had 315 separate rooms, opening onto a central courtyard. Today it is home to a number of eclectic shops, along with the usual cafes. It also hosts events, and they were packing up from one. We strolled around poking our noses into whichever shops caught our interest.

Next we attempted to see a viaduct which traverses a wide valley, but as is the case with these things, we couldn’t find anywhere to park.  So we continued on to Bingley Locks.  This flight of 5 locks is the steepest in Britain.  In the distance we could see a factory, with “Damart” emblazoned on its chimney.  So now you know where the gloves come from.  We enjoyed the views from the top, while Ian ventured down to the bottom. These locks lift canal boats 59 feet.

It was still drizzling on and off when we pulled in at Nunroyd Park, the venue for our traditional Wednesday night club orienteering. This was organised by the Aire orienteering club, and there were about 60 people in attendance, including a group of scouts.  We had line courses, with Sportident used for start, finish, and 3 unidentified controls – thus ensuring you went to all of them, just in case.  My course was a fairly straightforward park short, while Ian’s course was more sprint style, but went out into the streets.  Both of us made silly mistakes through lazy map reading – not identifying things like walls.  Nonetheless we both enjoyed it, although we didn’t exactly set the leaderboard alight. Driving home, a thick fog settled on the hills, and as it grew dark, all we could see were stone walls looming at us.  If Heathcliff had darted out in front of us, I would not have been surprised.