July 2019 – Narrowboat Adagio

The Last Post?

Moored not far from Watford locks – ready to ascend tomorrow – so hopefully back in Yelvertoft for Thursday lunchtime. Been bit of a mixed bag this cruise – certainly some extremes of weather . . . here’s a reminder . .

Heatwave, now Storms

There’s something wrong with the weather, for sure. We did a short and dismal trip from Hawkesbury to Ansty. Enough to charge the batteries but lower the mood – it was getting wet so we stopped. The M69 was noisy but it was a fair mooring with rings.

Now, tell me, honestly, would you plan to cruise, navigate through Braunston, do 6 big locks with this forecast???

the only pic for Sunday . . . spots of rain already as we waited to negotiate the Hawkesbury turn

Conversely, Monday was forecast to be dry, sunny & warm. This shows the North Oxford canal in all its glory – all the Butterburs!

One of the disued arms that the canal used to follow before it got straightened out.

Had a bit wait to enter the Newbold tunnel

Viv captures some of the many blue/black damsel flies

Where we see Mark on his boat & new sheds

And we popped in to Dunchurch to get some fuel (79p/litre)

A long day – nearly 7 hours but we were keen to press on in the nice weather, to get to just beyond Willoughby and bridge 87. Under the trees for coolness..

Nice view – no roads, trains . . . dark clouds coming

Climate Change? What Climate Change?

It was forecast and lo it did get Scorchio indeed. Records broken . . .34.7°C and nearly that inside the boat too! Bedroom was a sauna. All the boats around us stayed put. Wednesday night Steve went to the Anchor with Simon & Charlie – food OK, usual 40 minute wait for a burger & chips! Thursday was the hottest – and our 38th anniversary, so we stayed put and cooked a chicken madras curry with a diy trifle to follow and lots of gin & fresh limes (run out of tonic! Gasp!!). Our closest neighbour Matt joined us a drink (his boat is Contrazoom, interesting . . ). Not much sleep that night.

Simon, Charlie and Toby2 – with Simon standing on the gunwale, as Charlie is now slightly taller than his Dad!

The next day – we moved off at 0845 – a tad cooler and the open road beckons us

Yes, with reference to the title . . . records broken in just 7 months!

And ere we be . . . again. An historic site

Ah, poor Viv . . . hobbling along with her bad knee and twisted ankle. Current medical practice is to keep walking on these injured limbs . . . especially when . . .

. . . there’s a pub in sight! Here’s the famous Greyhound – time for the promised anniversary meal

Very friendly (note the bar staff!) and served very promptly – Purity “Bunny Hop”, followed by a pint of Thatcher’s Cheddar Valley. Viv had one of their famous pies (Chicken) and Steve had their beef rib on horseradish mash – yum.

final resting place – dog on towpath with one of his toys, as usual

Here for a day or two . . . maybe . . . stores getting low . . .

Scorchio – Staying Put

Good grief – temperatures nudging 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 C) are forecast – so we stayed put or rather, moved on round the corner under the trees – still gets a bit of sun (solar for 5 hrs). Our old mate, Simon on Empress plus son, Charlie turned up – so nice to see them again. On moving the boat, Viv found a hole to misplace her foot in & did a double act of wrenching a knee and twisting an ankle – “Bloody Boat!” Poor Viv. Maybe stay put for a bit longer?

Not normally a place we’d chose to moor but the boat does get so very hot. Even under the trees it still got beyond 30 degrees inside!

And here’s the “Boy” as our good friend & neighbour Gail calls him – all a bit too hot!

Moving On – Grim Day

We stayed put for a few days, then moved up, just two locks, inbetween locks 9 & 10. Just for a change of view and to be 2/11 locks done. Last time we were here, at Easter, the pound kept dropping as the lock gates were leaky. This time it seemed OK – the next lock up was leaking, so that’s alright then. We think the whole network is getting worse – it’s creaking and what will become of it when the government money finally dries up?

Saturday was a grim day. Viv set off for the town, to do some shopping on her own. Steve was to join her an hour or so later for luncheon in the Red Lion Hotel – they allow dogs in the courtyard, do good food and stock Goat’s Milk beer! Grim? Well, on walking past lock 8, there were police gathered round as a lady boater had fallen in . . . and hadn’t come out. They couldn’t lower the ground paddle . . . so that’s probably where she was – very sad. Lots of fire engines, ambulances and even the air ambulance arrived. I walked on. None of the CRT volunteers had be told, so I wandered up and told them the grim news.

I didn’t linger – the boat was called Liberty and the boaters were in their 70’s. Very sad.

The Red Lion was great, if the mood was a bit subdued. We didn’t feel like rushing back, past that scene again, so we moved round to the CAMRA famous pub, the Angel – Steve had a pint of Hairy Helmet (yes, really) and Viv, rather unusually, chose a medium cider. Toby was fed several biscuits and had his own bowl of water.

Quite a splendid place with six real ales and about 10 ciders. They also have a big collection of LPs or vinyl as they now call it.

That was Saturday – we listened to James Burke on the wireless, now 82 but recalling the exciting times of the Apollo missions where he was one of the presenters. Sunday morning and time to move . . up through the 9 remaining locks

Bit of a poignant moment as Viv crosses over the top of lock 8

Some flowers were left – we donated one of Viv’s roses

Lots of helpers around today; both CRT volunteers and private boats who saw us coming and helped us through.

Viv gets to do the locks which always includes a good natter with the vollies

Less than 3 hours to Springwood Haven – a very familiar spot – remember we spent a week in the marina here on the way out, getting that alternator fixed.

Staying put for a few days whilst this heatwave passes thru. This was our second spot as the first one had some wasps nesting by the hatch!

Long Day

Seven hours – yes, a long day for us. Why? Because we were delayed at Glascote – a queue of 6 boats but wanted to reach Atherstone . . .

Viv drives for a few hours – very hot today

The canal from Fradley to Fazeley is quite pretty

I think the military firing range helps to keep this area quite rural

The shady trees help cool us all down – not many would call the Coventry Canal at first, beautiful . . ?

Ah, Glascote – a bit of a queue, I think we are No6 – always a pinch point here – the bottom lock is notoriously slow to fill. So . . . an hour later . . we got thru. A brief lunch stop and a trip to the Co-op for more Stuff and then off, yes, let’s go on . . .

Steve gets thru – note the port side is still shiny!

Ah, the big farm with alpacas and these geese . . .

And there are the alpacas – they look freshly shawn

Ah, you may spot a bit of deja vu – we were here at Easter, where we stayed put (it was a scorcher and Viv did her crochet work). After the long day we think we’ll stop for a bit.

I struggled through the weeds to get the photo from the other side!

Eleven locks, that’ll have to wait for another day . . .

Time to go shopping (twice on the bike) as well as fix a few chores . . .

14th July – Sport, beer & BBQ

Stephen & Lucia moved off early-ish, we waved them goodbye but would catch them up later at Fradley bridge. In fact we leapfrogged them at Rugeley when they stopped to visit Tesco. Just one lock, Wood End today plus the excitement of two very narrow stretches near Rugeley and Armitage.

The narrow, rocky bit – just room for one boat – luckily we followed a guy . . . so it must be clear!

Surprisingly quiet this Sunday morning – the Trent & Mersey looking good

Still following that same chap . . . past the Armitage Shanks factory

This doesn’t help the waistline but is rather nice

Final resting spot – taken Monday. Sorry no pix of Sunday evening, when we were obviously having toooo much fun! A pint in the Swan followed by a MrD BBQ – with his fancy fan driven BBQ machine – producing excellent results – belly of pork strips plus Bratwurst & sausages. Lots of nibbles, a super Lucia salad and some quantity of Sicilian wine followed by either Zubrowka vodka or Navy strength gin! All this with the background of the British Grand Prix (British win & a record set!) plus probably one of the greatest cricket matches ever – the World Cup, going to a tie and a tie breaker! Well Done England and well done Mr D & Mrs D for a lovely evening. We got up to see them off on Monday morning, helping them through the two locks. Hopefully we’ll meet up again back in Yelvertoft.

Four’s Company with Two’s Company

A lovely morning’s cruise down through Great Haywood – just three little locks and moor at Wolseley Bridge to await the arrival of Stephen & Lucia on Twos Company.

We only had 2 hours to get to Wolseley bridge, so we were there about 11. Another hour later and . . “They’re here!”. They were doing the Leicester Ring but had spurred up the 4 – 5 hrs from Fradley Junction to meet up with us at bridge 70 – so very nice of them . . . just so we can all go to the Shimla Palace restaurant. They needed to turn their boat around, so they shanghaied me to help them do the 3 locks (twice!) . . .

Our final mooring spot – chairs out for cocktails at 1845 – time for a “Bitter Lady” – very nice

And there’s the mighty Trent – yes, Toby get his promised swim earlier on but he’ll have to be a good boy and stay on the boat tonight.

Here’s the Indian restaurant, Shimla Palace

And curiously, a Wine Loft, formed from the former bull pen, moved brick by brick from Bishton.

A veritable Aladdin’s Cave of wines, gins etc

And here’s the team after the splendid meal – having had their fill of Tawa’s, Achari’s and Naga dishes – highly recommended.

Stone to Ingestre

Our glorious chums, Stephen & Lucia, known by all as those Sicilians! Are back. And they’re out on their boat, Two’s Company, doing the Leicester Ring. We hope to coincide . . . somewhere and that somewhere is Wolseley Bridge (No 70) on the Trent & Mersey for the sole aim of dining together at the Shimla Indian restaurant. So we slip our moorings at 0845 and bimble a few hours to just beyond bridge 78 and adjacent to a rare nature reserve – an inland salt marsh.

We slip away . . . no one notices . . leaving the two lovely ladies on Lazy Days . .

Another M&S purchase (2 for a tenner) – got to keep the old girl sweet! 😉

One of those “awfully nice” hi-ziz a rind har

Some wild geraniums (meadow cranesbill?)

And some more wild flowers – wild sweet peas

You do meet some lovely folk on hire boats – here are some Netherlanders from Zeeland – yes, a new flag for me! Such grace, they all speak such excellent English… how’s your Dutch? I did say there’s a song from OMD but I don’t think it’s that Zeeland.

And after letting out the Zeelanders, in comes Steve

Three locks today, all well spaced out. Aston, Sandon and then Weston

There are some lovely bridges on the cut – such a lot of work went into these and probably by guys upside down for most of the day?

Um, as we used to say in Nottingham, “it looks black over Bill’s Mother”, luckily the rain really did go away . .

Final mooring point.
Oh, that restaurant https://www.shimlapalace.com/ notes to follow . . . Tripadvisor review to follow . . .

Stoned

Perhaps, just perhaps, our favourite stop is the town of Stone. Decent, quiet and all so convenient moorings. Convenient for shops, water, refuse, pubs, shops, pubs . . . Chance for a good stop. A few days of rest and recuperation and beer. And a new shop – a mirage perhaps? No, it’s a real M&S foodhall, right by the canal. Yes, we’ll stop here for a bit of R&R.