High Pressure

Well it's been five days since our last post,(sounds like confession), the longest we've gone so far this summer.

I use the term Summer lightly. However, what's this building over the UK? High pressure, yes I remember you!!
That's probably because Quidditch is heading back to our home-base for a week and not being the pessimistic type a definite coincidence that summer may have arrived at last. It appears that the jet-stream, which is the cause of our rotten summer and lying around 500 miles too far south, is making it's move northward at last.
On our previous post we'd visited the Battlefield Steam Railway and were heading back to Wigram's for a short break. Currently we're moored at Barby around 9 miles from home-base, it's 6am (yes I'm up Johhny!) and a cloudless yet chilly morning with an eerie mist rising off the cool water.
Over the past 5 days we've obviously moved off the Ashby Canal back onto the Coventry and making our turn at the stop-lock at Hawkwsbury Junction back onto the Oxford Canal. Andrew (Granny Buttons) we did see you moored at Hawkesbury but all was quiet so Granny must have been deserted.
It was the first time we'd completed the Ashby Canal having passed it on several occasions and I have to say that it was a pleasant surprise. As soon as it leaves Marston Juntion where you enter the canal it changes completely & dramatically. The industry and housing estates that accompany the Coventry Canal on this stretch suddenly vanish to be replaced by green fields, farms and trees. At the top end, only 21 miles from it's start, your in the National Forest and the scenery and wildlife is excellent, we saw several Stoat and a Peregrine Falcon during our week on the canal.
Nothing extraordinary has happened to us over the last 5 days although having once again avoided being hit this summer, thus far,the inevitable happened while moored and minding our own business at Grimes Bridge. Nothing too serious but once again the attitude of our assailant took the biscuit! "This IS our home you know" you ignorant git, enough said!! Coming thru' the 3 Hillmorton Locks is not a good idea on a Sunday and in the school holidays but a necessity due to our schedule! Pandemonium is an understatement with boats strewn in every orrafice of the canal. Fortunately we avoided any trouble through good humour and shear dumb luck. We've both finished Harry Potter and look forward to the film which we'll catch later in the week but it came as a shock when Dee reminded me last night that when we put back into Wigram's on Tuesday that's the first part of journey this summer complete. Bummer!!!!

Battlefields

Sunday July 22nd… Today the weather had returned to something resembling the summer. In fact we nearly made it through the whole day without rain.

Passing through Hinckley we had a brief stop at Trinity Marina for bread before mooring just short of Stoke Golding.
Looking at this canal on a map it appears to be very much out on a limb. In fact the Ashby was originally intended to be a through route from the River Trent at Burton to the Coventry Canal near Bedworth, but this plan was repeatedly shelved. In 1792 however the Ashby Canal Co. was formed and a bill promoted, mostly by the owners of the Leicestershire limeworks and a new coalfield between Ashby de la Zouch, who decided that an outlet southwards was required from their various works.
Monday July 23rd… Today we moved around 5 miles on to battlefield moorings. From here we visited the Battle of Bosworth visitors Centre, the site of Richard III last stand, where there’s an excellent walk around the battlefield culminating at the Shenton railway station, part of the Battlefield Line Steam Railway, which we hope to visit on Wednesday.

Tuesday July 24th... Completing the remaining 9 miles of the Ashby in beautiful rural countryside we emerged from the 250yd Snarestone Tunnel at what is the present canal terminus, another 8 miles remain of un-navigable canal to Moira. Turning about we moored for the day at the southern end of the tunnel and thankfully enjoyed a lovely cloudless evening.

Wednesday July 25th... Setting off in more rain we moved the 3 miles to Shackerstone moorings and then walked the half mile to the Battlefield Line Railway. Unfortunately today the only train running was the DMU, diesel-multi unit. The station at Shackerstone is small but original and contains a superb museum recognised as one of the most interesting and unique collections in the country. Many of the items date back to last century with special emphasis placed on the local history.

Thank you once again to everyone who's emailed and phoned regarding our status in view of the weather. As many of you will know canals are not renown for flooding, in fact most of the canal sluices empty into nearby rivers when the depth becomes too much, our current canal, the Ashby, is about 6 inches higher than normal! We can tell you that we remain in constant touch with British Waterways who are excellent at advance warnings of stoppages via email and have therefore managed to avoid any serious trouble. However, we've heard from friends who are unfortunately worse off than us and who are currently marooned on various rivers, fortunately still afloat! By a shear coincidence we'd decided at the beginning of our tour that we'd navigate any rivers late in the season. A damn good call if you ask me!! Our trip down to the Thames in August is obviously in doubt though at this time.

Harry & the Ashby

Thursday July 19th… Has summer arrived at last? We completed another long day but this time in glorious summer weather. Leaving our overnight mooring we continued our journey south stopping at Fazeley Junction where the Coventry Canal meets the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal and stopped for water, elsan and provisions once more.
After upping pins we continued through Tamworth completing the only 2 locks of the day at Glascote. Fortunately we’d had an email from BW informing us that these locks were closed yesterday for emergency repairs, causing very long tailbacks for the unwitting and subsequent delays. When we arrived the back-log had obviously gone but lock no.1, the repaired lock, was still extremely slow resulting a queue of 4 boats behind us by the time we cleared through.
We eventually moored at Meadow Lane Bridge just after Polesworth, by coincidence behind NB-Ethel Fidget and remarkably I noticed NB-Maria Jesse another Wigrams moorer pulling in a little while later. After a nice cool beer and chat with Ethel Fidget Dee and I barbecued for only the second time this summer, it was a lovely summer evening with a beautiful red sunset. Shortly after calling it a day the rain once moor returned!
Friday July 20th… Summer had vanished, was it only a dream? The rain had continued unabated for most of the night but to make it to the Ashby Canal by Saturday meant another day in the rain. Gearing up in our wets we duly set off around 11.30am for the Atherstone Flight, not my favourite locks as their renowned for being painstakingly slow. We eventually cleared through the 11 locks at around 2.30pm with very few locks in our favour and once again we were soaked to the bone as the rain had now become torrential. We knew we were mooring for the night in around another 2 miles so we battled on finally arriving at what was now a completely flooded towpath and in what had become a major thunderstorm. There’s one good thing about mooring in torrential rain and that’s jumping straight into the shower and settling down to some hot soup and in this case sausage baps, lovingly stored from yesterdays ‘summer’ BBQ! When we logged on later we’d received another stoppage email from BW informing us that the Oxford Canal was completed closed to navigation due to flooding, the brunt of which was around our home marina at Napton and the rain continues!
Saturday July 21st… Harry Potter day! We departed at around 11am and the sole aim was to grab 2 copies of the new Harry Potter books on our way to the Ashby Canal. The only possible solution was to moor at Nuneaton, not the most auspicious of locations. We moored just after bridge 20 and I duly unhooked my bike and while Dee remained on board boat sitting I cycled the couple of miles into the town centre. About an hour later I returned and haven't seen Dee since! I can't drag her away from the damn book, good job we got two copies!
Around 2.30pm I made the turn onto the Ashby Canal, new ground for Quidditch and we shortly moored for the night just after bridge 3. It's finally stopped raining too.

Seclusion Shattered.

Sunday July 15th.. The weather forecast for today was correct! As predicted the rain came & stayed for the whole day, as did Quidditch.

We just couldn't’t face another wet miserable drubbing. We’d found our quiet secluded mooring in the middle of nowhere and it was a good call to stay put for the day and in fact we didn't even venture out. It wasn’t until around 6pm when I stuck my head out of the hatch that we realised a boat had snuck in quietly behind about a boat lengths back.

However, the big shock came at around 9pm just as I was settling down to watch ‘Rome’ on BBC2. I could suddenly hear a loud blurring music and it was getting louder, and then suddenly appearing out of the window was not one but two ‘hire boats’. I seriously could not believe my eyes and ears as both boats slotted into the tiny gap left by the earlier arrival and buttied up, our seclusion destroyed. I won’t even describe the antics that occurred the following morning, just prior to our quick and hasty departure, as the immediate towpath was turned into something resembling a Butlins holiday camp!’.
Monday July 16th.. After our early departure today we planned to drop down onto the Staffs & Worcester Canal at Great Hayward Junction and moor overnight at Tixall Wide (pictured) where we’d moored for a couple of days on our way up north earlier this year. We stopped for water and elsan and were surprised to find the door locked and a charge of £1 for use of the elsan, which is also not available once the shop closes at 6pm. How can there be a charge and why is this locked beyond the BW key as this is clearly a BW elsan and has been for years? I'll let you know the response to my email.

We’ve come full circle and the summer, if you can call it that, is already half gone. After securing our mooring at Tixall we took a stroll back to the junction and visited the local farm shop for a few provisions and on our return spotted NB-Castle Howard who we’d met several times on the River Avon and Gloucester & Sharpness Canal in 2005. Dee and I spent the evening playing scrabble and amazingly at around 9.30pm the two hire boats that had given us so much grief the night before drifted past. Fortunately the whole mooring was full so we were all spared the grief!

Tuesday July 17th.. After chatting for a while with Castle Howard we turned and headed back onto the Trent & Mersey Canal turning south once again. Knowing this stretch reasonably well we planned to moor around 2 miles from Fradley Junction at bridge 55 where we’d make the turn back onto the Coventry Canal on Wednesday. Just prior to Rugeley we bumped into NB-Ethel Fidget one of our neighbours from Wigrams who were on their way back down from the Macclesfield Canal and slowed very briefly to say hello. The day was showery and we only got soaked twice but it was a nice little jaunt in some occasional sunshine and only 2 locks.

Wednesday July 18th.. The day began with a brief chat with NB-Moody Blues, who came along side, they were on their way up to Stone and are also from our home marina.

Today we completed our transition of the Trent & Mersey Canal turning back once again onto the Coventry Canal at what was a very busy and hectic Fradley Junction. The weather today after a brief morning shower was beautiful and we ate lunch and dinner in the front cratch for the first time this summer. Just prior to mooring at Bridge 81 we stopped briefly so that Dee could jump off and secure a hire boat that had obviously been poorly tied and who's bow was drifting across a narrow section of canal making navigation difficult. These things happen but the most disappointing aspect was the fact that just prior to coming around the bend we'd passed two privately owned boats who had neither warned us of the danger or indeed took the time to stop and secure the boat themselves! After what I've witnessed so far this summer I'm getting a distinct and sad feeling that courtesy on the canals like in the rest of society is becoming a rare commodity!!

Steady Progress to the Ashby

Thursday July 12th.. After our long day yesterday we completed the remaining 14 locks of ‘Heartbreak Hill’ mooring just short of the final one in a torrential downpour to visit the nearby Tesco supermarket.
At around 3.50pm we moved off, once again fully provisioned, completing the final lock on our approach to the Harecastle Tunnel. Our timing was excellent as we were waved thru’ the tunnel without any delay with 2 minutes to spare until the tunnel was turned. *(The tunnel operates a 1-way system allowing 8 boats access at a time. It takes around 50 minutes to complete the gruelling 2,926 yards).
This was the 4th consecutive year we’ve completed the Harecastle but this remarkable feat of engineering never fails to impress. There are altogether 3 parallel tunnels through Harecastle Hill. The first built by James Brindley, was completed in 1777, after 11 years work. As has become a tradition with us once we emerge at the southern exit we immediately moor for the day, this year mainly to dry out!
Friday July 13th.. Today we moved from the southern exit of the Harecastle Tunnel to Barlaston, 9 miles and 6 locks, taking a slight detour onto the Caldon Canal at Etruria for water & Elsan . It turned out to be a hard day in driving rain & for some reason the remaining 2 locks, in particular Stoke Bottom Lock, were painfully slow. We finally moored for the day absolutely soaked to the skin, even in full wet gear! However, it’s always a bonus to pass through Stoke city centre and out into the countryside once more with little effort and due to the appalling conditions not many other boats to hinder us.
Saturday July 14th.. As the weather for today was set fair, it was like the REAL summer out there, and we knew more heavy rain was coming tomorrow, we set off at a leisurely pace at around 11am progressing further down towards the Ashby Canal, which we hope to enter later in the week. The plan was to pass through Stone, which we have visited twice before and moor until Monday somewhere beyond & secluded, not being one’s to moor too close to town centre’s when where fully stocked. We sauntered through with the usual mass of onlookers at Star Lock, ‘for god’s sake get me out of here’ says I when Dee prepared the lock, it took an agonising 5 minutes to clear!
Immediately after clearing the lock to the designated moorings for Stone 3 boats pulled away simultaneously resulting in a slow transition to Aston Lock, our final lock of the day and inevitable queue. We finally cleared some 45 minutes later and found our secluded single mooring at Bridge 89.
In my earlier post 'Strim Your Own' I described how I’d prepared our own mooring using a strimmer which was picked up and posted by Andrew Denny on his site Granny Buttons. Well Andrew you mention in your piece that a strimmer would have come in handy on your visit to the Ashby where you say BW has ‘Vegged-out’ on it’s pledge to keep canalside vegetation under control. Well by an amazing coincidence Quidditch is on-route as we speak. So look out on the Ashby Canal cos Quidditch is on a mission!!!

Strim Your Own!

Well we didn't actually leave Cholmondeston until Tuesday having met up with NB-Nesta once again, this meant that by the time we left we'd spent 8 days in total at one location.

Another good thing about our extended stay was that we were moored right next to Ivor & Mel aboard their diesel boat and so filled up with diesel at a reasonable 48P.

Even when we did eventually leave we only moved around 4 miles because we discovered that NB-Tagine Queen who we'd completed The Montgomery Canal with last month were making their way toward us.

We'd decided to meet up at a lovely designated 48hr mooring Dee & I had moored at last year overlooking Winsford Flash just short of Bridge 22. You can imagine our frustration when we arrived only to discover that not for the first time this year a designated mooring was completely overgrown.

It was finally time to take matters into our own hands and extract the strimmer for the first time this year!! I'd completed our 60 foot mooring when I called John aboard Tagine and establishing his ETA told him I'd strim him a mooring when he arrived. Around 45 minutes later, having spotted John coming thru' bridge 22 I began to prepare his 60 foot. Ten minutes later a stunned John & Joan, ("I thought you were only joking when you phoned"), moored bow to bow where we had an evening on the towpath drinking a nice little vintage at our newly tended mooring. A nice gift to the next person who moors once we've left in the morning.

My message to British Waterways, who have disappointed me yet again, is to supply all boat owners with a free strimmer once we've handed over our hard earned licence fee money! At least that way we can help in some small way with the upkeep of our beloved towpath. Just prior to departing this morning (Wednesday July 11th) we got an email from NB-Best'O'Mates who'd read the blog and discovered that they were only 4 bridges away at Bridge 26. We then met & buttied for a short while to catch up with Jennifer & Graham who are on-route to the Lancaster Canal via The Ribble and then continued on our longest day for a while, completing 19 locks and mooring just short of Bridge 144 on the Trent & Mersey. It was great to catch up with Best'O'Mates who we last met when completing the River Avon last year.

The Harecastle Tunnel beckons tomorrow!

Short Break

After a 5 day lay-up we're now back on our travels again and heading across the Middlewich Branch for the Trent & Mersey Canal.
For the past 3 years we've moored at Cholmondeston for a short break from our travels to return to the normal world!
Cholmondeston is strategically placed with the Venetian Marina & Cafe serving a top breakfast and easy access to Crewe. From here we can hire a car from Enterprise who will pick you up & drop you off at the marina. Over the lay-up and having transport available we have the option do things like a major re-stock of food & wine and any other chores that require a visit to a large town, plus an opportunity to visit the cinema, this time to see Shrek 3.
I can also drive the 50 miles & pay a visit to my dear mum in Liverpool who doesn't get to see me as much in the summer.
Back on the tour again and the weather doesn't seem to have improved greatly. One example of not being prepared for the monsoon's this year is pictured above. We spotted this boat on the Shropshire Union Canal, one of several we've seen this year, which could be a casualty of the weather. The amount of rainfall we had in June has to filter somewhere and if your bilge is blocked and your boat lies unchecked for a while this could be the consequences. As your boat fills & fills with water it's eventually weighed down and then bingo!!
So that's it! Were back on the tour again and our thanks to Nick & Linda, you didn't name your boat, Andy from NZ and Carl & Cara who we met in Llangollen Basin on their hire boat, who have recently posted to our Guest-Book.