Month: April 2017

 

A nice stay-put day, Sunday. Not a lot to do. Go for Sunday lunch in the Unicorn, walk the dog along the Trent plus a swim or two.  Plan the next week – looks like move off to Newark tomorrow, stay Mon – Fri then maybe, just maybe head down the tidal bit to Torksey, after taking advice from the CRT staff at Newark.

They do a 2-course Sunday lunch for £13.25 (see menu ) and only 50 yds from the pontoon – the next pic gives some idea of the scale of things and how small our boat appears:

The magnificent bridge opened by HRH:

It’s a nice stay here – lots of boats have come and gone, we’re currently alongside Lauremma and Narrow Minded. We have been neighbours to a nice couple from Newark on Ocean Mist – a big Broom 455 cruiser (over 1/2 mill new!):

One crew member who has enjoyed this stopover is Toby. Grateful for the engine being quiet but also the swims he’s had. He is definitely getting old but still loves a good swim. He appears at the hatch – looking for food, I guess.

 

 

Right, we might get laughed at but life jackets on, anchor ready and tied on. Open those Meadow Lane locks gates and out onto the beautiful but very big, Trent. We are right next to Trent bridge and opposite Nottingham Forest F.C. and cricket ground. Turn left and head down to the first of the many HUGE and thankfully, mechanised locks: Holme lock then Stoke Bardolph.

Firstly, we awoke to an oil slick gently oozing past the boat

This oil tends to dissolve the blacking on your boat so, not nice.  Not nice for the wildlife either. Reported it to CRT but . . it may have come from this oddly moored boat:

Off we chugged through the centre of Nottingham, past the Fellowes, Morton & Clayton old wharf . . .

And on thru the last lock, out onto the Trent – Trent Bridge in the background

It really was a serene day but it is a deep river, so life jackets on:

Viv fancied this bijou residence . . .

The first big lock – with traffic lights! Green and red? I think it means, no, you can’t proceed but the lock is being prepared for you.  There was a boat coming up.

If you take a wrong turn just before this lock :

Very quiet . . . very scenic cruise. Under the Radcliffe railway bridge . .

Then into the Stoke Bardolph lock – already green lighted and open – the previous lock keeper having radioed ahead. Neat.

A gathering of swans at this water outlet . . . strange behaviour? They don’t eat fish??

Ah, we spoke too soon about seeing not a soul – here comes a wee boat from Gunthorpe

A pair of grebes, great crested I’m told

Under Gunthorpe bridge, then moor up on the visitor moorings

A nice spot, just us and one other narrowboat but not for long. Within the hour four more had joined us.  It is a bank holiday after all.

Time for the promised dog walk and the very much promised swim! Oh how Toby loves his swim.  It takes him a tad longer now but he remains keen.

And a squirm and a shake

We then had a lovely luncheon in the Unicorn Hotel ! For the technically minded, we bought the Boating Association’s charts of the Trent, not cheap but very useful – each page is about 40 minutes chugging and even has a red line to emphasise which side to travel.  Plus all the phone numbers and info for the locks. Neat.

 

 

Where are we now? Here’s a clue:

Nicely moored up outside Nottingham Castle marina – bit quieter here than further down, with a nice view too

And an idea of where the river is!

We had a lovely cruise from Sawley thru the big mechanised locks and out onto the Trent down to Trent Lock, into Cranfleet cut, thru that lock and then the hour’s cruise on the serene Trent. Levels are way, way below the green on the flood warning chart.  Hardly any flow at all. Which is nice. Our defects list is decreasing but our injury one is growing – poor Viv, bent a finger yesterday and now, the welded-on windlass handles on the Cranfleet  lock gate bit back and now she has a poorly arm. What with Steve’s anxiety . .  we’re are faring worse than the boat.  Half way down the Trent, I discovered that the Victron wasn’t charging the batteries! Was I going too fast, had it over heated? Was the TravelPower box dead? No, it’s got a green light .  .. . . Ah! We have a manual switch to go to batteries or shore power and some Muppet (probably me) had knocked it – switch it back, problem solved. Must get a cover for that and one for the TravelPower itself, as it’s at floor level and the dog tends to sit there and switch that off – hmm, bad dog!

So, we entered Beeston lock, with the Trent being low, there was only a foot’s difference in levels. And on to Castle Park.  It can be noisy here as you’re right by Castle Boulevard but it’s handy for the city and very near Sainsbury’s.

Plan A is to spend a few days here – get more coal as it’s freezing! Restock the larder. Buy dog food from Pets At Home. Oh and buy a bike!!

I wandered up to Evans Cycles, just for a look-see and they had a demo bike I could borrow. Hurrah. It was a £970 folding Brompton (a la W1A? If you haven’t seen it – here’s a clip: W1A ) but it was mine for 24 hrs! Cost = £00.01.

A bit pricey for us but quite good as I cycled the mile back to boat via Gauntley’s to restock my pipe tobacco. A smashing little bike but we went for a Bickerton in the end as it was on offer (£200 off – last year’s model) and had more gears, a light and a rack etc.  We shall see.  Handy for those let’s walk 4 miles just to see if they have a replacement radiator cap moments.

Oops, these moorings are private & owned by the marina – so move on . . . . just down to the Sainsbury’s 48 hr mooring, oops, loose manhole cover can be heard, kerbump kerbump, no, that’s no good so on to the isolated moorings towards the town lock. Rings all the way down here but no boats! Moored outside the HMRC offices (and therefore not far from the Vat & Fiddle pub!). Sun’s coming out! Nice. A much quieter spot – opposite some apartments with a small lake and fountain:

Plan to stay here for a bit – maybe a week?

Ventured out in the evening to the Crafty Crow a fairly new real ale pub, opposite the castle gate:

They had 8 real ales, 8 ciders and dozens of keg “craft” beers plus 100’s of bottled beer.  Here’s one for Dave Thomas – drinking halves! Here, trying the coffee stout & whisky barrel cider!

We also tried the Magpies “Two for Joy” and the Hex, sic hop IPA – all good!

Picked up the new bike today – the Bickerton 1707 Country:

Small enough to be inside a narrowboat

Folds down 3 ways (supposedly in 10 seconds!) and weighs only 12 kg

And the assembled item – maybe a video of me actually folding it? Hmm. Has a built-in dynamo front light. Which is nice.

Friday morning and we’re off. 0900 departure and thru two locks and out onto the Trent.

 I seem to have got over my Black Dog days.  I don’t know if it’s an age thing but this trip does seem all uphill, which is odd as gravitationally, we are slowly moving downhill . . . all the way, almost to sea level. Lots of little things set me into that downward spiral. Still, worse things happen at sea, eh? Talking of which we moored in Shardlow – very pretty but fairly noisy so we moved on, no, not opposite the sewage works, so on to Sawley Cut – opposite the Derby Motor Boat Club. We are on a vast piece of water – very quiet and fairly safe. We’ll stay here another day for a bit of R&R and maybe wander over to the Sawley Marina office to enquire about moorings (even though I got an earful of abuse on Saturday, more on that later).  They are part of the BWML group of marinas and allow you to visit & moor in any other marina.  Meanwhile, here’s some pix of our travels since the last post:

  

We chugged past Mercia Marina – one of the biggest on the network, complete with a big branch of Midland Chandlers, shops, cafes, restaurants etc. All very well looked after but big.

A beautiful day on the last stretch of the Trent & Mersey and on to the first of the big locks: Stenson

Lots of volunteers to help us through this lock (over 12 feet deep!): Bob, Mike and Richard, cheers!

And they gave a collective but sarcastic, Ooooo! At my use of the newly restored bow thruster!!!

Moments later a circle is completed as we pass the megastar Vlogger, Cruising The Cut!

Hmm, makes you really want to stop here! Maybe next time:

You do meet a few navigators who fall into the class of “non-powered” but this one is a first:

A nice straight bit and time for Viv to steer, leaving Steve to have one of those quiet, relaxing moments in the cratch.

Weston Lock and another volunteer to help us through

We’ve never seen so much rape in the fields – here’s a 180 degree panoramic shot

We arrive in Shardlow, the mini inland port and find a convenient mooring outside two pubs. Sunday looks like a hot day. So the plan is to stay put.

The New Inn had a good range of real ales (Derby Brewing Co.), we chose Triple Hop and Stone Fruit, both marvellous (take note DT – Stone Fruit was the best)

They had a little steam rally out side – some biggish steam engines . .

and so ickle ones too . . .

We decided to move on as it was a bit noisy overnight, well, it was a Saturday night. Plus the boat was rubbing against the silt at the front which alarmed the dog, causing him to lie anywhere but the front! Finding a spot nearby was tricky as there was a huge sewage farm (why farm?), so we went on thru the lock and out into the wide confluence of the rivers Derwent & Trent and on to Sawley Cut.

This is a flood gate – always a tad worrying when you pass thru these

And out on the rivers! Hmm, lots of water all of a sudden.

This the river Trent on our right . . . all very serene . .

And this is the river Derwent, entering on our left.

You get lots of pipe bridges on the canal system, usually thin affairs and hardly noticeable but this is what I would call a pipe bridge – bringing water from the Peak district to Leicester.

Don’t look now Steve but there’s a HUGE weir over to your left. OK, I won’t look!

Sunday’s final resting place – Sawley Cut, opposite the grandly named Derby Motor Boat Club. Here for a day or two.

The duplicated Sawley locks are ahead of us – all mechanised – then it’s on to the river Trent for a stretch before heading up the Cranfleet cut to Nottingham. Just by the lock is a new cafe and to come, in May, a micro pub! Yahoo!  A new pub. Quite a niche place as you can’t drive here – so moorers, walkers & cyclists only? Dave, who runs the same, was kind enough to show us round – what a gem, very well kitted out with benches and log burner. A fabulous location for a pub. We’ll come back in June to see how it’s doing (open day is 11th May – enquiries to thelockkeepersrest@icloud.com). Here’s a Google earth view of the location:

And here’s a zoomed out view of where we are and where we plan to go – the canal that leaves the Trent Lock junction and heads north is the Erewash, going south is the river Soar (and back home), we’re heading off east-ish . .

 

Alrewas, such a nice place to be, so we stayed another day, didn’t do much, so no blog! We paid a visit to the King William IV – just to try their beers – Ringwood Red Boar, so so but at £4 for a pint and a half, pretty good value.

Next day, time to move on. Out onto the short bit of river then past Wychnor, through a few locks and then lunch stop at the Branston Water Park before mooring up for the day in Burton – opposite the Marston’s brewery.

The might river Trent enters here – nice & docile at the moment

And 50 yds later it exits – over a weir . . . nicely buoyed

Steve steers serenely through a narrow bridge arch and on to Wychnor lock

Here’s a piccie for Stephen & Lucia – a bridge 42!

A brief glimpse of the big Barton’s Turn Marina and no, they couldn’t help me with my bow thruster shear pins . . . . the search goes on

There are some very narrow squeezes on some canals – only an inch to spare

A brief pit stop for lunch and a walk around the water park for Toby

We moored up at the visitor moorings – opposite Marston’s brewery – a bit noisy but quite safe.

Brief visit to Shobnall marina & to thank Jeanette in the office for searching for shear pins for me but no luck here either . . .

A long walk into town, to find “The Alfred” – a reknown Burton Bridge Brewery pub, who, unbeknown to us, had just had a beer festival and there was beer left! Steve had a pint of Hopping Mad and Viv had some Shagweaver!

A really old-fashioned town pub, with even a space for the Dog . . .

No, Viv wasn’t happy with this photo – not sure why!??

After a noisy night we set off towards Willington, first, through Dallow lock

Beery murals of Burton

Ably assisted by Michael – a lovely lad who is just around to help boaters!  He helped us at Branston lock yesterday. and this morning, at Dallow.

Past Horninglow wharf (note the RCR rescue team helping a boater)

Some greylag geese on a nest

Always a bit odd and unnerving when your boat which is in a water channel, goes over another water channel – this time it’s the famous river Dove.

And after a pleasant morning’s cruise, we stop at Willington . . . outside a pub of course.

This is the famous Dragon – quite a posh & splendid establishment, serving beers from the Boot Brewery of Repton.

We were impressed by the Clod Hopper and Tuffler’s Old – both very full of flavour. Quite a compact village – with a good Co-op, Indian, Chinese and a chippy! Plus a tea room. A recommended stop but boaters be warned – adjacent to the railway!

After a stroll along the towpath to Mercia marina – no, again, no help from Midland Chandlers or Aqua boats re shear pins! But quite an eye-opening marina. Very helpful staff. Nice flower beds and excellent, clean facilities!

On arriving back at our boat, we had been joined by the narrowboat The Oak, from Ilkeston. I was chatting away when I noticed that in the back of his boat, he had a BCS control panel for a bow thruster, so I idly mentioned . .  Oh, do you have any shear pins and he said “Yes!”. What’s more he had spares and within minutes had laid his hands on them – he freely gave me one of his four spares! I was over the moon! A shear pin and one that was actually meant for my thruster.

An hour or so later, I had taken all the junk off the boards and had got down to the thruster compartment, taken off the motor and fitted the new pin . . . switch on and Voila! It works – we have thrust in the bow! Viv replied – I’ll happily drive again . . . success. Thanks to The Oak!

Saturday morning and The Oak is off early – they decided to keep going as they need to get back to visit family. We were supping our morning tea & coffee, so got up to wave them goodbye (0700) – thanks John for the very vital, shear pin and for reinforcing my belief in the altruistic behaviour of the boating community! I hope we can pass it on.

Hope we meet up again, later this year.

 

With early sunshine due and in keeping with our Hodma’dod  existence; we aimed to stay put today, let the solar panels soak up the energy and perhaps embark on the long walk to the National Memorial Arboretum, just a few miles away. Alrewas is such a pretty little village and we marvelled at all the blossom on the trees – not sure what the trees are (answers please!):

However, getting to the Arboretum is another matter – there’s no public transport and the “getting there from the canal” instructions had a convoluted walk along the A38.  There is a gap to walk across the A38 – but why on earth is there no bridge? There is a memorial garden to road traffic victims – maybe a bridge too?? Ironically people have been injured and even killed crossing this road.

Four lanes of 70+mph A38 plus a slip road to cross!

It’s about 30 minutes on this route.  The Arboretum sits on 150 acres and has 300 memorials with more than 30,000 trees. The rivers Tame and Trent meet (see top of diagram) and there are cafes and restaurants – a splendid set up indeed. We walked (over 17,000 steps!) around the whole site, popping in to visit some of the memorials – especially the ones we sort of were involved with – such as the Falklands conflict – Steve had just joined the Combined Cadet Force and as a little, naive temporary-acting Sub Lieutenant, was on an army camp in north Wales when the Falklands were invaded! He thought he would be whisked off to war! A lot of military personnel were – civilians too. Some didn’t come back.

Obviously, lots from the two world wars – some grouped into campaigns, others by the regiment that took part. Beautiful but chilling.  The whole park is exceedingly well laid out – even has a dog path.

More poignantly for us – the Falklands one:

And the Naval memorial – beautiful . .

When I did my “advanced” training – it was just one week at a curious place called HMS Royal Arthur – now long since demolished.  It was where they trained Petty Officers for leadership . . . it was a tough week!

This is a second World War memorial to 47 squadron (I think) :

There were memorials to folk who lost their lives whilst involved in non-military service, such as the RNLI, YMCA, or even as civilians resisting invaders – like the Falklanders:

We walked our socks off! Toby too. But he enjoyed a game with the ball here at the confluence of the Trent and Tame.  Odd to think we’ll be on the Trent soon .  . . .

One of our friends served with the Paras – here’s their wonderful memorial

These next two photos are ancient and modern. The ancient part is the “Shot at Dawn” memorial to the mainly, boys who were shot for desertion or perceived cowardice.  The modern bit is the government who only recently gave a pardon to these sad guys.

Each post has the guy’s name, rank and age – if known – usually 17 – 26 years!

Back in the main hall there was an exhibition of war pictures, using mixed media (?) with large ceramic poppies – very striking:

         

This the big Armed Forces memorial – to those losing theirs lives since the Second World War.

Looking back to the main hall.

And on a much lighter note – the famous butcher’s was open in Alrewas – Peter Coates. Where we bought in more supplies, including a kilo of mince for £4.95! Smashing little shop.

 There’s an Alrewas Fryer in town too – so chips could be on the menu tonight.  We can wholeheartedly recommend a stop here for a few days – there’s a Co-op, Indian & Chinese as well as those three pubs.

The Arboretum is also a must-see and free to visit.

 

 

With the prospect of a dull day, washing needed doing plus batteries down to 65%, we decided to move on to Alrewas – just 2.25 miles and 5 locks away.  The next day, Tuesday looks set to be fair and sunny, so a good day to stay put.  With 3 lock volunteers on and boats coming up the locks, we sailed through . . .

Lock 16 – Junction lock

You have to watch your stern – too close and you get that damp feeling in your trousers!

Lock 17 – Keeper’s Lock – looking back at the busy Fradley junction.

Viv gets to work & Toby just takes it easy

Nice to find lock volunteers – always friendly & helpful

Less than an hour later and we reached Alrewas (Ol-ree-wuss), lock 13, Bagnall lock and into the cutesie-pie village.  Twas famous for it’s basket weaving. It has a famous butcher, post office, Co-op and three pubs (we scrutinised each one with an intense scrute – none seemed worthy of a visit having mainly ales that didn’t float our boat!)

Adagio rests up at the visitor moorings.

An amazing amount of ancient and mainly thatched properties.

Here’s where we be . . . last year we went all the way to the end at Preston Brook and beyond.  This time it’s to Shardlow . . . and beyond.

One slightly dodgy piece of navigation ahead of us – the Trent makes a very brief appearance, as it enters the canal and then leaves. The “danger gauge” is to the left of the lock – all calm & serene and in the green now. This can cause the canal to be closed when in flood . . meanwhile, here’s a photo for me Dad – a very wee bowling green!

And here’s the mighty river Trent . . . flowing under this walkway

Along the “canal” for a bit and then exits right, over a large weir.

Always a big sign but I note the symbol in the triangle is a narrowboat!

Ship’s Log: 2.25 miles and 5 locks today. Engine hours read 2432.6 hrs.

 

A longish day today – we didn’t set off until 11 – we’d phoned ahead to Streethay Wharf and yes, they did have a replacement radiator cap – yippee! They also would have a look at the busted bow thruster. So we set off, through Fazely junction, the delightful Hopwas . .  the very slow and shallow section (Hopwas onwards!) and then past the Kings Orchard marina until we reached Streethay. Quite an Aladdin’s cave and full of helpful people. We picked up the new cap (£8 and not the £16 note RCR) and had a few head scratchings about the BCS bow thruster. Yes, they could have a look (£48/hr) but in their experience, the bottom pin usually goes and not the top one. Hmm, and they didn’t have any pins either, so onwards. Skipper will take off the motor head and see if the top shear pin is indeed sheared, then at least we will know what’s what. Meanwhile, we is sat at the delightful mooring just before Fradley junction. Rain tomorrow, so will stay put for a while – anyone for a pint in the Mucky Duck?

This pub has had mixed reviews over the years but a new couple have run it for 18 months or so and it’s really good – 4 or 5 beers on plus a huge variety of food. They also travel up to Grimsby on a Tuesday to shop for fresh fish – indeed monk fish kebabs and a fish stew were on t’menu.

 

 

A murky start. No bow thruster and no replacement radiator cap but we bimble on. Water point Bradley Green. Then fuel at Alvecote but no cap, alas. Lunch at Tamworth then on to the aqueduct – closest point to the exciting Ventura shopping park/mall/hell-on-earth. Lots of pix, including the Muppets on Jacob’s Creek II, a wee yoghourt pot,, breaking two rules – don’t moor in the short lock pounds and don’t moor on the lock bollards!

 

No pix today see blogs passim, on from Springwood Haven to Atherstone. Slight pause as a Skipper Steve found that the radiator cap came apart in his hands when checking the coolant level. Hmm, they are not all the same. The adjacent marina couldn’t help,us as there were too many to chose from. On to Atherstone. Luckily, the auto shop helped as they scratched their heads and ordered one. Be here 0830 tomorrow. Oh good. It took me a two mile walk to get there and back. So, same again tomorrow. Luckily, the Angel was open (N. Warks. Pub of the year last year) and made it worthwhile. Still, it is a nice spot between locks 9 and 10. Viv did good by driving ALL the locks. Unfortunately, I think she has had enough and this may well be our last . Me too. I’m not finding this enjoyable and having a partner who hates it doesn’t help. So anyone want to buy a boat?

And then my tooth fell out – looks like an old crown plus bits underneath, yuk. Is there a dentist in Atherstone?? Tis Thursday now (Maundy Thursday) and Viv admits it was a bit of a Black Dog day, yesterday, when there were toooo many boats coming towards her and the wind kept pushing the boat away the lock she had expertly lined up! So maybe not sell up just yet then? 🙂  The nice chaps at Denplan (for which I pay nearly £1 a day) said they’d help, even though we are (unbelievably) less than 40 miles from our home surgery. So all good – ish then. OK here’s some pix then . . .

Not too early for bluebells?

The best view when approaching a flight of locks – volunteers at the ready and paddles up! The top of Atherstone flight of 11 locks – with help through the top five.

And on to the long gap between locks 9 and 10 – ideal mooring spot

Very quiet but also a fair way back . . .!

A few passing boats – including this friendly, single-hander  . . .

And just for completion . . . the offending items – radiator cap in 3 pieces plus tooth!

 

Well, the end of Maundy Thursday, some success today; I walked the long walk into Atherstone but the “auto equip” order was toooo small. Shame. Denplan came good. A nice Jordan phoned around and got me an appointment for 1230 and even though we are less than the stipulated & won’t pay, 40 miles, they agreed to cover us as we couldn’t easily jump in a car and get back to Long Buckby! And I can say, it all worked. Dentist saw me 10 minutes early (a first ever in 40 yrs) and did a bit of drilling then put a dressing on . . .10 minutes and £20.60.  I think Denplan can manage that.  Hopefully we can find a supplier for my radiator cap – Alvecote yard (a few miles ahead of us) couldn’t help but were very friendly. If we moor near the Tame aqueduct tomorrow we can walk to Halfords in Tamworth – such excitement!

Talking of excitement – we just seen the Easter bunny, no not really, just about 6 boats all full with scouts, then guides . . . a bit late (1900?) and with 9 locks above them, a challenge! Steamed salmon fillets, fresh greens and homemade savoury rice (basmati, chinese 5 spice, peas, mushrooms, red pepper and fried egg!).

As my TV keeps telling me . . .    Life’s Good!