This is Steve & Viv Carter's log of the trips and travails on the narrowboat Adagio – liveaboards from October 2015. Then back to the shore, in Trefin, Wales from November 2019. "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." (Mark Twain)” narrowboatadagio@gmail.com cranog5@gmail.com
Seem to have got a bit behind. We left Hack Green on Tuesday and chugged the few miles on to Nantwich, through the Hack Green two locks and moored at pretty much the first spot on the huge embankment. Off shopping, trolley bag in tow plus dog. Clewlows for bacon, cheese (Nantwich Blue!) and pies. Then a stop in the Gin shop and a final pause at the BeerDock for a pint and a chance to eat the pies.
Perfectly clear night at the Coole Pilate moorings, near Hack Green – note the picnic tables & BBQ spots – all moored on rings too.Gorgeous day and gorgeous sunset2nd of the two Hack Green locks and some help arrivesSorry, no pictures of Nantwich, too busy, er, shopping – we sampled No 9 – very good.RDW had some amazing gins – we’ve tried the Adnam’s First Rate before but it was on offer here and good stuff (48%!). The Henstone was a local gin and was new to us – excellent – unfiltered and very tasty (44.9%).One of the boat traders from Market Drayton was Wendy B’s floating art gallery and Viv bought one of her hand painted gin glasses (see http://wendybsfloatingartgallery.co.uk/ Friday morning – spots of rain but off by 0830 to the wharf for a pump out – need to be a lighter boat for the shallow Llangollen canal. Excellent service here – no tokens or timers – must have been there for 30 minutes! Elsan green at £10 too.Viv drives the wee ship for a bitAnd then we were there – Hurleston junction and Welcome to the Llangollen Canal or croeso i gamlas Llangollen!
Bit of a problem with the bottom lock – there’s always been a bit of a narrowing of this lock and CRT were going to work on it but have kept it open for this cruising season but only opening it for 0800-1700 and working craft through. The CRT chap on the right is the resident keeper at Saltersford on the Weaver – he told us of the sorry news that this lock is bust. That will limit our foray down the Weaver in July. Shame.See https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/notices/14822-lock-4-hurleston-locks-llangollen-canal
Meanwhile, Viv snaps this colourful chap – a grey wagtail?A bit of an ordeal getting through the first 4 locks but we stop to take off rubbish and take on water. That’s our three hours done – let’s find a quiet place to moor up. It does look very serene.Stopped between bridges 3 & 4 (Burland) – time for lunch and a restDog’s happy too.We seem to have come a long way, well it is Day 43, I think. There’s plenty of resources about this canal – see https://www.ukwaterwaysguide.co.uk/map/llangollen-canal/main-canal
Up early and off by 0730 – it’s going to get hot and we’ve 13 locks to do, so we choose to finish these before the heat of the day. Unfortunately for us, the last boat down last night was Becky and he left ALL the bottom gates open! This would have been a right pain as we would then have to close both gates and then fill the lock. But serendipitously, a local chap (moored on the permie mooring below) was out for his morning walk and he offered to close em all and prepare each lock for us! Magic!
The night before – lovely spot – time for a G&TGot this thru the post via Amazon – this is our lounge music!So, 0730 – no one about and off we go – Viv drives all the way and Steve winds – helped by our local guy, Alan – you can see the next lock is all prepared for us to drive straight inHere’s Viv “Inside No.9”No. 10 – only 5 more to go. Although locks can be hard work – this really is a most pleasant flight.Viv steams off to the next oneThere’s Alan – cheers mate!Ah and here’s “Becky” – I say nothing.It’s not New Year but here’s an Audlem Sign (groan!)Good old TelfordNearly done – just 2 locks to go.Arty photo?Hurrah! The last lock and here comes Viv
Bottom lock and it isn’t even 0900 yet! Well done.
Quite a quick descent – helped mainly by Alan. Just a short cruise now, past Overwater marina and on to moor near the Coole Pilate Halt (csd 1963) where there’s nice moorings and even picnic tables.
We moored right at the end, near bridge 84 – a bit quieter as the earlier boats had music playing and later had the bbq going too.Ah, frequent flyers with us will know from blogs passim that this is the site of the Secret Nuclear Bunker, well, not so secret I guess. Steve went last time and it’s Viv’s turn today.Being of a certain age, we lived under the threat of nuclear war and can clearly remember the sinking of the Belgrano in 1982 – it put paid to any Argentine ship ever leaving port again. And this is the actual kit used to send the VLF message – all a bit chilling. I’m sorry but for security reasons we can’t show you any more – you’ll have to visit yourselves. Just don’t press any big red buttons.
Meanwhile back in the sunshine, orange tip butterflies. Time to sit and enjoy the 20 degree sunshine – tonight it’s gin & fresh limes to go with our strange meal – Venezuela’s national dish Pabellon Criollo – beef, plain rice, black beans (here done in a chipotle sauce) – normally with a fried plantain but we had garlic bread instead – fusion food eh?
It actually looks a bit like Summer. We thought we’d move off before Monday as the floating market traders should be packing and going then. Meanwhile, we had some morning visitors…
Viv now has new solar powered LED lightsThose hungry little cygnetsA brief pause to take on water – it was very slow – took over 20 mins!And then the 5 locks at Adderley – Viv drives & Steve windsBlues skies! It’s warming up . . . just after this lock, the bowthruster broke – too big a log going thru! Oh, well, Steve knows what to do . . .Very tranquilThis lot seemed happy – they were running around and having a good frolic.We moor up, 2 locks down the 15 lock Audlem flight – a nice quiet spot and time to fix that bowthruster. Luckily, it is designed to break a small sheer pin, rather than the expensive (and boat-out-of-water job) propeller. Just a pain to get at. The horizontal tube is open at each end on the boat. Luckily, the motor can be unscrewed and lifted off without the need to take the boat out of the water.I’ve done this before!Meanwhile, another pain was the weather station – it just packed up – didn’t want to receive outdoor data, but I dried it all out and lo, it’s alive again and showing 22 inside and 18 outside.It really is a nice spot. Steve walked down the locks with the dog – hmm, it does seem lock after lock after lock! Another day.Time for the steward to bring us “things on sticks” – our thanks and a Hello to Steve & Lucia for teaching us this tapas style canapé – here we have a slice of chilli, followed by silverskin onion, gherkin, preserved lemon and cheese or chorizo plus the gin on the rocks of course! Happy Days.
Got a bit bored and it was a bit shallow here – the boat bumps and the wee doggie da nae like it! And with the forecast of rain coming we pushed on just a short distance to Goldstone Wharf – managed to get in, just. This would mean our cruising time on the wet day was short.
👋 Big wave to all our readers! New hello to Tim & Heather 👋
The next day saw us chugging through Woodseaves Cutting – again our Mr Telford had got his navvies to cut thru the sandstone – this is an infamous couple of miles, shallow & narrow with the sides sometimes reaching 100 feet.
Looking ahead to the narrow cuttingA bit creepy and jungly – our last visit here, with David, saw us (well, Steve) making monkey & other jungle animal noises!At the end is Tyrley wharf – this house is still for sale – with its own mooringThese locks area bit fearsome, with nasty by-washes after each lockToby is looking his ageAt the end of the locks . . .Moored near the huge aqueduct, as usual. Then off shopping and erm, pubbing!Market Drayton is home to the Joules brewery – an old brewery that has been revived. Their pub, the Red Lion is a marvellous place – good beer & good food (beef stroganoff & Jambalaya) And there’s Mr Joule himselfThey do 3 or 4 regular beers plus a new stout and this Shropshire hop – very tasty indeed
Well, that was the wet Thursday which lead to an even wetter Friday. Steve cycled to Morrisons to shop – inspired to make his own Jambalaya! Saturday & Sunday sees the Floating Market come to town – a dozen or so trading boats display their bunting and wares . . .
One of the woes of boating is the lack of getting stuff delivered, or is it? Viv’s little set of fairy lights in the cratch finally died and so we ordered a new set, solar powered from Amazon – there’s a locker inside Morrison’s! Next day delivery.A casualty of the Tyrley locks – a stud was ripped off – luckily it was still inside the top button, so could retrieve it but how to fix it? Another Amazon order – pop rivet gun & rivets . .Our final stop, had to run the engine today, too many dull days and we did watch a movie (Bluray player on, TV on, sound bar on…..), so we were down 110Ah but the sun did come out later and pushed more amps into the batteries !Lots of lovely (?) things . . Including these mirrors – bought one for GailHmm, not a usual thing you get to see in people’s cratch – a wood fired pizza ovenThe one (and only) floating bar! It being only 10:30, we didn’t linger. By 1330 Amazonians had delivered the pop riveter but the blind rivets are all too short! Back to Homebase!!These seem better – I only want one rivet!!Job done – added some super glue just to make sure!
The day was rounded off with a swim in the river for Toby and a “wet” for us two, back in the Red Lion – to try their seasonal keg beer IPA! Nice. Off tomorrow . . . heading for Audlem and lots of locks.
Toby hasn’t had much in the way of walks – not long walks, anyway. So, it being Bank Holiday Monday, we thought we’d avoid the town & crowds and head off down the disused Stafford-Shrewsbury railway. This was a bit boring, well, it was a long and mainly very straight path but we met a local who suggested a detour – a loop around the Windmill hill.
We did walk miles . . .Pretty much at the top of this loop we came across a footpath that included the edge of someone’s garden – rhododendrons & azaleasQuite an astonishing find – especially the yellow azaleas – Steve used to grow these and they have a marvellous scent – squirrel gums!And acres of bluebellsWe looked it up and it’s called Broad Hill & it does have an old windmill too.Native bluebells – such a deep hue of blue
Had our fill of Wheaton Aston – pubs with mediocre beer – one that let dogs in but didn’t open until the afternoon and didn’t do food and t’other that did do food but was dog unfriendly. And it rained and it was cold! Fire back on then. Time to move on. There’s a big canal festival at Norbury, so we’ll avoid that – there’s no moorings as they are all taken up by trading boats. Two hours to Gnosall – a good spot (see blog passim) with a good micro pub and a water point.
This the canalside pub – Jennings Sneck lifter plus a good menu
But, having to eat outside as there’s No Dogs inside
Our spot – pretty noisy as there’s a lot of traffic, both boats and walkers plus all the permie boats seem to run their diesel engines for hours every day – solar panels guys?? Give it a miss in future.
Ducks ain’t stupid! They know who’s got the food and they knock on the window for more
Nice spot, early in the morning, before the rush.
An unusual sign but quite necessary
Steve often gets into his Victor Meldrew mode when he sees yet another No Name boat! So here’s the CRT official terms & conditions that we boaters all signed up to when licencing our boats – updated April 2019
A short video showing the straight, wide and serene Shropshire Union Canal
Well Telford was a “modern” canal builder, so he didn’t meander around hills or valleys but went over them in huge embankments or deep cuttings – straighter meant a shorter route and time was money. Here’s one of the cuttings.
Not quite the scorching May of last year
They do try at keeping the village looking good (Gnosall – like Knows All)
Our spot
I really do think these two have followed us along the canal – breakfast time.
Just down from the Navigation pub are two water points and a community herb garden
Also moored here – Neil on Jonorolo – the plant boat – seen him a few times (Brewood 2 yrs ago) – bought Viv a nice lavender plant plus some strawberry mint.
Probably off tomorrow, Tuesday – beyond Norbury and to Black Flat bridge – a good spot (see blog 2 years ago – first time we saw Neville on the Bond boat)
Did we stay at this nice quiet and rural spot? No. There was a bird scarer nearby and it made quite a bang – Toby no like. So we pushed on to Brewood. But this was a bit dark and nowhere nice to moor, so we pushed on again to Wheaton Ashton (2 pubs, shops, Indian and cheap diesel).
Bridge No 10 – the Giffards of Chillington Hall insisted on this ornate bridge
Hmm, these typical deep cuttings on the Shroppie lend themselves to a certain, hard to see, gone in a blue flash bird . . .
And here he (or she) is.
And on the next section . . . another one
Who landed on the front of a moored boat
Viv now uses her “burst” mode on the ickle Panasonic camera to take 5 images a second
And got these wonderful shots . . .
Wheaton Ashton lock – looking back. A “down” lock at last!
Very nice facilities here – 4, yes 4 water points, waste disposal and a toilet (all well kept)
We went thru the next bridge to take on fuel at Turner’s garage – famous for supplying the canal trade from what is a roadside garage and the cheapest too at 70.9p a litre ! And then we reversed back, to take up a mooring 4th, on the left.
We’ve met Neville on “the name’s Bond” boat – recognised the sheep! Behind him is Anne & Ian on Eclipse and ‘clips she does too, for she is a mobile hairdresser! Contact us if you want her details.
We could have stayed put but it looked a bit grey and there was rain forecast, so we fired up the Isuzu and cruised the last bit of the Staff & Worcs canal to Autherley junction and into the Shroppie. On the way we went through the Pendeford Rockin – a weird narrow & shallow bit where James Bridley had to get his navvies to cut the canal through rock. As luck would have it the gas ran out just as Steve was making some tea and so we called in at the boat yard (Napton Boats, Autherley jn) and a very nice chap, James wheeled out a new gas cylinder plus Viv bought a duffel coat! She just needs a red hat to complete the Paddington Bear look.
Pendeford Rockin – luckily there are passing places but we didn’t meet anyone
Or touch the rocky sides
Ah, haven’t seen many of these
And up into the Shroppie (looking back towards the junction)
Nantwich is just about as far as we go on this canal before taking a left turn into the Llangollen
There seems to be a lot of this about . . .
Final spot for today – less then 3 hrs chugging
Between bridge 7 & 8 – been here before. Nice mooring on rings. PLenty of water. Quiet.
It may say 18/4 but we have taken 27 days to get here
Oops. Getting too narrowboaty. Forgetting to do the blog or even recall what day it is. This is one reason for doing all this – so that when we are in our dotage (or more in our dotage . . ), we can use it to recall things. For example we met up with nb Rosie – I didn’t remember the boat or the people until Viv said, you know, they were the boat we teamed up with to enter Liverpool docks – the nice Welsh couple! And yes, I do now. Chris & Lesley, continuous cruisers for some 16 years, there’s lovely! It was great to see them again and have a natter. So, where are we? And where have we been ? Well, down by there and now, down by ‘ere!
Leaving Tixall early Sunday morning
Five locks, heading forever upwards
Over the river Sow
A turnover bridge – horse enters the ramp on the left and spirals up and over the bridge, down to the right and back on the towpath with no need to unhook the tow rope
Viv drives the first few locks – Toby supervises
Acton Trussel – posh moat house restaurant here – Brindley included the moat in his canal – saved a few pennies
What we didn’t know, was that it was a big fishing competition – 100’s of JR Hartleys! Slow progress.
A longish day for us – nearly 6 hours but we reach Penkridge and stay put in the sunshine for 2 nights. Off to the Boat Inn for a pint (then another in the Littleton Arms!)
With the thought of not mooring close to the M6, we pressed on through 5 locks to Penkridge. Lots of interesting shops here, including a big Co-op. Big on the outside but oddly small in its offering inside.
Monday afternoon and a pint (3rd pub here!) at the Cross Keys
Viv shows off her new earrings
We had planned to stay here but fancied moving on – an afternoon cruise. So we chugged on the next five locks (still going uphill) for a few hours, again, avoiding mooring too near the M6 or any form of habitation – we like it quiet.
Viv drives all the locks today & Steve does the winding
Very pleasant locks and the occasional dog walker
It looks charming but the M6 is nor far away
Looks like we’re heading in the right direction – Wales!
Viv does a great job
These locks are quite deep and only an inch either side to spare
View from . . . above
Boggs lock with . . .
Our Boggle
Viv steams effortlessly in
Last lock for today at Gailey
Famous for a hire base and its roundhouse
BIG chemical works next and ominous signs saying – do not stop, do not moor, even if you hear an alarm!
We didn’t.
Is it a real one or plastic? Well, it did move, a bit! Enough for one day – moored up after bridge 74. Nice quiet spot.