A bike on water?! : The Waterbike Collective, an epic adventure

‘No you’re not seeing things, this is a bike on water’... is exactly what we told the man enjoying his Friday evening pint as we made our way through the locks in the centre of Leeds. Prepare yourself to hear about Leeds Girls Can most epic adventure yet. It was Friday morning, 22^nd June. From 9 o’clock Kirsty and I made our way to Castleford Marina. After parking up and unloading our numerous bags of snacks (priorities) we caught our first glimpse of THE waterbike.

A water bike, otherwise known as a Schiller Bike is a nifty piece of technology. The bike rests on two pontoons and is reasonably stable, nobody even fell in to the water (although there were a few close incidents). Before setting off we loaded the baggage, a big bucket and a litter grabbing stick onto the bike. The Waterbike Collective is a campaign that can be described as a 1000 mile community waterbike adventure collecting one million pieces of litter. People can volunteer to take a stretch of British waterways, using pedal power, to collect litter out of the water. Our stint was from Castleford to Leeds, a whopping 18 miles (29km), an 11 hour journey which included some 9 canal locks. Kirsty rode the bike and I escorted her on foot (the whole 18 miles!).

We left Castleford at 11.30am, making our way along the River Aire to Lemonroyd Lock (one of the biggest in Europe). We had a smooth run at first, Kirsty even managed to pull a fully functioning child’s bike out of the water. Soon the pathway started to diverge from the River so off I went into the trees. I was reassured that I was going the right way when I could hear reeds rustling and occasional squeaks as Kirsty picked litter and tried to avoid getting caught in the plants. After a few hours we reached Lemonroyd Lock. Lemonroyd is 13ft6 deep and as it was the scariest and our first lock we decided best not to take the waterbike into it. We unloaded the bike and hauled it out of the water and into a space that was not big enough for a waterbike. It was us two squished up against a wall, trapped in by the bike and the edge of the river. By swivelling it onto its side we managed to extract it from between the water and the wall and carry it (with some difficulty – it wasn’t light!) past the lock and push it into the start of the Calder and Aire Navigation Canal.

From that point our adventure became much easier, the locks were automatic so I was all powerful pressing buttons. We continued to make our way up towards Leeds. By the time it reached 4pm we had been joined by our fellow Leeds Girls Can Ambassador Ellie. Kirsty went off to fetch Ellie and I guarded the bike. There weren’t many people around and I could hear screeching, nothing out of the ordinary when Kirsty and Ellie are together, you should have heard them on a tandem together… I decided to investigate anyway. Up the canal bank I went, to be greeted by the sight out Ellie and Kirsty holding an electric air pump, which was plugged into the car for power, blowing up an inflatable kayak. Half an hour later we have Ellie sat precariously in her kayak, getting pushed along in front of the waterbike. You can imagine the speed at which the ducks swam off when they saw that coming towards them… 

As we approached Leeds we were greeted by David and Harry, Kirsty’s husband and son. Harry was a great help, pointing out any litter that he spotted as we went along. David was also a wonderful help, as he fished out the blow up kayak (because it was going nowhere fast), put it on the back of his truck and helped us operate the manual locks. At this point Kirsty and I had been going for 7 and a half hours and were getting tired and just a little bit hangry. Fruit pastille sweets and cookies kept us going. We made our way through the centre of Leeds, past the bars and everybody enjoying their Friday evenings. Our entourage made for the perfect Friday night entertainment.

Once we were out of Leeds we made our way along the canal in the direction of Liverpool. Our final stop was Armley Marina, where we left the bike for the next person who would continue the quest to clean up the canals. I was very glad to go to bed that night and wash off all the canal muck that had made its way into my shoes but what an adventure! Thank you to Say Yes More for the great adventure. If you want to find out more about the Waterbike Collective head over to sayyesmore.com to see how you can get involved and how you can help to keep out waterways clean! Thank you to everyone for your support and good luck to everyone who takes on the challenge as the bike makes it way around the UK!

Em x

Facebook: Emily Ankers - Leeds Girls Can Ambassador
Twitter: @active_em_blog
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