Balmaha - Narrowboat Journal

Narrowboats across the Wash - Sunday 7th April 2013

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 18:52:27 +0200

------------------------------------------------------------
Where we are:-

6th to 11th May up and down the Ouse.
12th. Left Ely, going north.
18th. Back to Ely again.
19th Pope's Corner.
20th - Cambridge visit off. £135 (60ft boat) for 3 days, they must be joking!!
. - There is no concession for the Gold Licence. Annual licence only.
Bank Hol w/end Little Port Bridge and Brandon Creek moorings.
June - Denver-ish (Gt.Ouse)

------------------------------------------------------------

Sunday 7th April 2013

Why the Wash?

The idea came from Mike Barrie (nb.Anastasia) back in 2012. I asked about his cruising plans for the New Year and he mentioned heading east and having a go at the Wash.

Would you mind company, I asked, not at all, he said, and that was how easily it was decided. We were going to sea.

Photo courtesy of Paul Balmer – Waterways Routes

My first job was to find a pilot.

Boat club journals and boater’s blogs all pointed to Daryl Hill so after a little scouting around I tracked him down at Wisbech and made a booking for his first window after Easter (6th to 11th April 2013). Kings Lynn was my preferred destination but it’s nowhere near the easiest option when you consider the winding nature of the Great Ouse, the presence of sandbanks at Denver sluice and the shortage of stopping places if things go wrong. Not only that but mooring outside the Sluice wasn’t an attractive option to a party of boats arriving outside opening times.

Taking the Wisbech route only adds a couple of days to the journey and has the advantage of floating pontoon moorings (chargeable) within a secure gated enclosure at the yacht harbour. And it’s good to know that the moorings are overlooked by the Harbour Master’s Office.

Daryl Hill, our ‘Wash Guide’, as he prefers to be known, was happy to take up to three boats in one go but before we knew it the list of prospective Wash crossers had grown from two to six.

The winter of 2012 saw the list diminish as contenders reluctantly declined due to commitments and health problems.

This left Anastasia, Balmaha and No Problem in the party as Easter approached. Things didn’t look too good for No Problem at one stage when the new engine gave Sue and Vic concerns but everything settled down and confidence was restored in the end. It was also touch and go on the weather because east winds had battered the coast for months without a break and we needed calm seas with a relatively gentle force 3 or less.

You’ll be going nowhere, said lock keeper Mike, until the swell has decreased or you’ll be swamped at the stern as you turn from an easterly course towards the coast at Wisbech. He had a point, a two metre swell off the North Sea, all the way from Norway wasn’t going to do any good when it came up behind a one metre high stern deck.

The final week approached and we were in daily contact with Daryl, getting advice and preparing ourselves for what might happen if the weather didn’t slacken off.

Suddenly the forecast changed from vicious easterlies to gentle southerlies. Nail-biting came to an end and plan-Bs were jettisoned as we received the call to assemble at the Boston Grand Sluice entrance at 6:15am on Sunday 7th April.

You’ll be back here by 2pm if the swell is considered too high for your safety, said Daryl. Nail biting and plan-Bs went back on the menu as we funnelled into the lock entrance and waited for lockie Sam’s OK to hit the salty water.

Boston’s lock has three sets of gates and even with the inner pair opened they couldn’t close the back set, hence our wait for the tide and river to level off before departing. She’s plenty wide enough for three narrowboats side by side but only 41 feet long.

Journey time is around 9 hours, possibly less on spring tides and maybe slightly more on neaps. One has to allow about two hours at anchor waiting for the incoming tide to take us up river at the end of the journey.

Around 7:15am the front gates opened and we slipped out one by one into The Haven, Mike with Daryl on Anastasia then Sue, Vic and Paul Balmer (of Waterways Routes fame) on No Problem and lastly ourselves with cousin Roger (nb.Megan). Going down river at canal speed we passed the stump in silence, only cameras clicking to warn anyone we had a convoy heading for the sea.

What looked like shrimp trawlers lined the sea walls and the usual urge to go buy one came upon me.

Given a choice I’d rather have the Mary Angus and retain the deck crane, you could pull a small car onboard with that, in fact you could pull several cars onboard when the owners weren’t looking.

Thinking it might be a good time to eat before we hit the waves I requested Cooky dish up the bacon sarnies. Daryl let slip that he was a fan of the humble bs so we took pity on Mike, a vegetarian, and delivered ‘packages’ to Anastasia by fishing net.

The pessimists predicted a two day wait for the swell to abate enough to allow a narrowboat out to sea so imagine our surprise when reaching Tab Tower to see a mill pond stretching as far as the eye could see.

Pootling along at just over canal speed (4mph) we kept green cones to port and red cans to starboard as we headed away from the coast.

We left the coastline behind us as the haze descended onto the horizon and we realised we were all alone. No narrowboats coming the other way, no pleasure craft from the marina, just us and the occasional fishing boat on what was becoming a beautiful sea cruise.

A third of the journey done we began a gentle right turn around Roger Sand and headed into the sun. A slight swell and small waves bumped the boat’s side for a while but nothing high enough to wet the gunwale. We’d had worse on the Thames and Trent.

Mike and Daryl were deep in conversation as we pulled out to take photos of Anastasia.

Sue and Vic’s heads popped up and down from time to time as Paul B took turns at the tiller on No Problem. She certainly looked good cutting through the waves, a tribute to their recent engine change.

But what’s that on the horizon in front of us? Would we have company on the way home?
Through the binoculars we could see a general cargo vessel of about 2000 tonnes, something V and I were familiar with when working the coastal trade on tankers.

This was the EEMS DART, fresh out of Bremerhaven, sitting at anchor and awaiting Monday’s tide before entering the Nene, bound for unloading at Sutton Bridge.

We took turns showing off our tiny boats next to her bulk but, like the Mary Celeste, she was deserted.
I can only guess everyone was busy on Captain’s inspection, being a Sunday morning.

Enough excitement for one day, we left deep water and headed southwest to tie up to a buoy on the edge of a firing range. No firing today and the seals are out on the sandbank, well they were until we arrived and they charged off into the sea. But lovely for us they came back to have a look at the intruders.

We couldn’t have asked for a better day, although it was cool the sun was shining, the sea was so flat you could have played snooker and there was hardly enough breeze to blow out a candle.

Swinging on our makeshift anchor we were fed by the cooks amongst us and refreshed by wine from the bar on No Problem.

A couple of hours passed with stories and tales of a nautical and aeronautical nature and then all too soon we were off to Wisbech via Sutton Bridge.

Crew had hardly put ropes ashore when familiar faces were spotted on the jetty – Mike and Jo from Sarah-Kate with a champagne reception !!
m
Get that gate open and let them in….. break out the glasses and fill ‘em up.

Big thank you to Mike and Jo for putting the final touches to a wonderful day.

Photo courtesy of Paul Balmer – Waterways Routes

Well we’ve done it, adventure over, the Wash has been conquered. Where shall we go next year? Actually Mike (Anastasia) has an idea but it will take a bit of research before we are sure we shall manage it.

NOTES
As we didn’t find the Wash information readily available I’ve included some notes that might help others in the future.

Our GPS plot went like this. Leaving Boston (in the top left corner) we cruised northwest around Roger Bank and then south to pick up the entrance to the River Nene.

On the inbound tide we were made aware of tidal streams. “Crab this way, then crab that way” were the instructions on our approach to land. Tides rarely flow in straight lines when sandbanks are encountered especially in a bay like the Wash. Strong streams cut across intended tracks and local knowledge of the way tides behave is invaluable.

Not all the buoys were present but this chart extract gives an idea of what signage to expect.

It is recommended that narrowboats have a full tank of diesel, almost empty water tank, and the only clutter on the roof being the stuff that you are prepared to lose over the side.

Life vests must be worn by all members of crew and all passengers.

For convoys a marine band VHF radio is essential to listen for pilot’s instructions. Those without an operator’s certificate will just have to listen and wave arms to acknowledge. Pilot takes his own VHF and flares (no, not 1960s trousers).

Walky-talkies can be a very useful addition for general natter between boats. That sort of thing might be “Look at that football on your right”. “That’s not a football that’s a seal”.
Or, “Watch out for that green buoy, if you don’t change course it will hit you broadside in a minute”.

An appreciation of buoy markings helps when deciding which side to pass if the tide catches you unawares. Apart from hazard buoys you'll see red cans and green cones though not always as many and as regularly spaced as you might expect.

The anchor: bow or stern? No one insisted it was on the bow or on the stern. Between us we had a mix of both.

It goes without saying that the diesel tank needs to be purged of water and diesel-bug just before the crossing and it helps (as in our case) to check the fan belts for splits and cracks. We carried out an oil service the week before and checked the coolant level in the days leading up to the crossing. Oh, and one shouldn't forget to tie a line to the life ring (as we nearly did).

Clear shelves and tables of loose objects just in case the wind picks up and it’s a good idea to use that 'sticky matting' stuff on the stern hatch for keeping binoculars and cameras from sliding overboard.

Speed: on a calm day the engine may not need to exceed 1500 rpm but one must expect to maintain cruising speed for five continuous hours on the outgoing tide and two hours on the final approach to land.

1800 rpm might be necessary if the weather deteriorates (and for dodging buoys) but no one seems to expect more than 6 mph through the water, at the very outside.

A GPS device with a coastal chart is useful because one is out of sight of m for some of the journey. Phone signals may be weak but we were never completely out of contact.

Seals and sandbanks: the occasional black football floating a hundred yards away is probably a seal's head. At low tide they can be seen sprawled across the exposed sandbanks and though panicked by approaching boats they are curious enough to swim close enough for cameras with zoom lenses.

Clothing needs to be wind as well as rain proof. Consider head, hands and legs if a cold breeze is expected.

At 41 feet long Boston lock is too short for most narrowboats. It can handle three abreast but it's a case of waiting until the outgoing tide drops the water outside the lock to match the height of the river inside.
At Dog in a Doublet (outskirts of Peterborough) the lock is more than long enough for narrowboats and can take three abreast. Coming upstream (from Wisbech) with the tide one should expect a journey of up to 3 hours. Daryl said it could be done in two and a half and by leaving Wisbech immediately the tide turned we made it to D-in-a-D in exactly two and a half hours at 1700rpm.

Other considerations include tide times of six hour flood followed by six hour ebb. Like some other rivers on the east coast this rule doesn’t apply to the rivers on the Wash where it can vary by as much as three hours of flood followed by nine hours of ebb.

Insurance: best to check with insurers well before the event that they will cover your expedition.

Costs: One can halve the expense of pilotage if three boats share the cost.

Everything is down to weather watching and I’d recommend two weather sites:
XC Weather
Find a fishing boat

Mooring at Wisbech: for contacts and mooring fees see Wisbech Yacht Harbour
We paid just over £20 for a 60 foot narrowboat for one night. There are 16 amp and 32 amp electricity sockets on the pontoons plus water taps.

Wash Guide contact: Daryl Hill, mbl: 07909 880071
email: ongarhillbillies@hotmail.com

In conclusion – if you’re in any doubt about doing the Wash I’d say go for it. It’s a doddle when the weather behaves itself and it shouldn’t be too taxing on a reasonably quiet summer’s day.

boston grand sluice

Comments

Saturday 12th January 2013

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 21:26:59 +0100

Don’t get excited this isn’t a blog update, I’m only adding things of extreme worthiness as they come along.

Christmas was brilliant, thanks to family and friends and some of them still writing cards after many years since we last saw them – thanks to you all.

This update is to let you know that the new Iris DeMent album is out and well worth the spend. Her voice has gone up several octaves but it’s still brilliant, well I think so and I’m sure there’s one other person in the world who agrees.

The album – Sing The Delta.

Released last October but I had to wait for Santa to deliver it.

Right now V is away at Mum’s, the boat is parked up out of earshot of anyone else (Barrow-on-Soar) and Iris is belting out at 100+ watts. The speakers are rattling, the wine glass is full and tears are falling.

Wonderful.

Next week we’re back to normal. Ipod and headphones are wonderful things aren’t they.

ADDENDUM
V would like to point out she's away helping Mum, she hasn't left home!

Comments

Happy Christmas everybody

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 18:43:08 +0100

Hearty Christmas greetings to all our readers, wishing you a stressfree (eh?) holiday and a sunny, prosperous New Year.

....and sorry, no blog update from us, far tooooooo busy.

Comments

Narrowboat Balmaha – G&S to Staffs&Worcs

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 13:49:47 +0200

============================ ==========================
MOVEMENTS
1st Oct. Birstall, (Leics Line)
2nd Oct. Kings Lock, Aylestone
3rd Oct. Kilby Bridge
2nd week Oct. Market Harbro'
3rd week Oct. Harbro', Debdale, Foxton
1st week Nov. Kilby Bridge
2nd week Nov. Barrow upon Soar
Nov-Dec. Sileby, Barrow, Loughborough, drifting with the winds and tides.

============================ ===========================

Wednesday 15th August 2012

It’s time to leave, our summer cruise is over.

With MiL onboard we paid our last visit to Sharpy. V wheeled Mum down the towpath to the old lock to see the river at high tide and I wandered over the hill to see what ships were in.

The weather was perfect for icecreams on the way back.

The only thing left to do was pay our respects to Purton’s hulks, smile and wave for the last time at Saul’s camera and buy up the last tray of sausage rolls at Gloster’s Sainsburys before drawing our summer cruise to a close.

Once Claire and Ter had called in to pick up Mum we plonked ourselves on the wall at Gloucester dock and waved our fists at the seagulls for the last time.

First in the lock at 8 o’clock on Saturday we savoured the distinctive local accents until they opened the gates and discharged us onto the River Severn.

Keeping to a modest 4.5 mph we enjoyed the cruise up river to Worcester, V remarking how the colours along the way had changed since we were here in May. One more push and we made it to Stourport, to the good ol’ Staffs & Worcs canal.

And that’s it, done, adventure over, we’re cruising canals again retracing our steps across the Midlands.

This will be the last Blog for a while. We’d only be taking pictures that appear on a dozen other Blogs and repeating what’s already been written by Bloggers weaving their way to and fro across the waterways.

So we’re hanging up the keyboard, putting up our feet and going quiet for a while.

============================ ==========================

Comments

Narrowboat Balmaha – Splatt via Gloucs to Splatt again.

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 18:00:29 +0200

Weekending Monday 6th August 2012

The sun brought out the plastic – big time.

White boats of all sizes zipped to and from Sharpness in bunches of threes and when two bunches met up and hit the swing bridges it was time to pull over and let the blighters go past.

I had to laugh when one old timer in his ancient narrer-boot refused to acknowledge them, let alone pull over.
While he plodded along in the middle the retired captains took things into their own hands and started passing each other and him all at the same time. I know its naughty but I was willing one of the large cruise boats to come round the corner when I took this snap.

Have you noticed that people don’t take snaps any more. That must have ended when things went digital.

Tuesday was nice, we had lunch aboard with friends Dick and Jenny. I say lunch but it was getting dark by the time they left. We had a row of empty bottles (orange juice of course) and more dirty glasses than plates to sort out before bedtime. We had an excellent time.

Back up to Gloster (nowt wrong with that spelling is there?) for the weekend to pick up MiL for her summer cruise. We couldn’t compete with the cruise boat Edward Elgar, she had a sax blowing keyboard-ist singer fella entertaining them all evening. He was very good and it was tempting to join EE’s passengers applauding each number.

I saved someone £60 this week. I was visiting the night-soil deposit when a motorist drove up to Llanthony Lift Bridge and stopped. He was about to start off over the bridge when I beckoned to him to wind down his window.
Where are you going, says I.
Across the bridge, as my Sat-Nav tells me to, says he.
Oh-arrhh, says I, Oi wouldn’t be doing that unless you want to be paying the £60 fine, I continued in my best Gloster accent.

Once the new bridge on St Ann Way came into use they disallowed Llanthony Bridge for the likes of private cars. And apparently the local gov’t makes thousands of pounds out of those of us still following an old version of Tom-Tom.

On Friday we took to the roads and I’m hoping my good turn comes back and saves me a speeding ticket when my exuberance took us a little too smartly through a village north of Shepton Mallet.

It was Barry’s funeral in Corfe Mullen so V and me trundled down to the south coast to catch the service. Terribly sad, he will be missed by a lot of people here and abroad. He had many relatives and friends in Bulgaria. One of life’s good guys, you don’t see many like Barry.

As for us we’re having our last cruise on the Gloster and Sharpness Canal and hoping to catch a couple of sunny days where we can sit around the BBQ. If the wet stuff goes round instead of over then MiL might get a push along the tow path so she can appreciate the countryside with those excellent views of the River Severn.

Comments

Narrowboat Balmaha – Sellars Bridge to Splatt , via Bakers Quay.

Mon, 30 Jul 2012 16:17:05 +0200

Weekending Sunday 29th July 2012

Smashing weather all week, shame it coincided with V going across country to see the little ‘un. Didn’t see the point of having a barby on my own but on the other hand it was perfect weather for floor varnishing.
Three generations apart, Gt. Grandma and Bethan seem to have connected.

OK got the floor sanded and varnished (Ronseal Diamond Hard) and went to Gloster to test it.

A million seagulls have sprogged and taken their offspring to the skies. Not content with bombing the cabin roof and sides they let go their slimy load so that it enters the back door and splatters the newly varnished floor.
Now that we have shiny floors the white stuff comes off with a wipe, just wish it would come off the instrument panel and circuit breaker switches as easily.

Lovely watching the pension cash lump sums going down river to the sea. How this sailing boat got under the bridges on the Severn I have no idea.

Every bridge between Gloster and Sharpness will have to lift or swing for this beauty. She almost had me tempted until I remembered I hadn’t finished with narrowboats or been through the dutch barge phase yet.

Sainsburys, at the Quays, have let me down, they’ve stopped doing jumbo sausage rolls at 2 for a £1. But at 59p I shouldn’t complain. I bought four, had two given me by other boaters, plus a real pasty (thanks Pam) so I shan’t starve.

Popped out of town for a day to get my name off BW’s (sorry – CaRT’s) naughty moorers list and thought I was being offered a free boat wash at Rea Bridge.

As it happens they were pumping canal water over the bridge steelwork to cool it, to stop it expanding in the heat and sticking against the abutments.

Thursday was good, I ate out. Dave and Margaret pulled up on nb.Hope and took pity on me being all on my own. Good food, good company and a good night’s sleep.

But wasn’t it a hot night!
With the roof hatch and portholes replaced by flyscreens and a mozzie zapper glowing blue in the corner I was confident that nothing with wings and needle sharp tongues was going to get me. And sure enough, not a single bite in the morning.

V returned on Friday’s train – hooray, with photos of little ‘un. Don’t they change quickly, it’s only been 7 weeks but already the wrinkles have gone, to be replaced by smiles. I’m talking about the baby, not V.

I’m afraid I broke two rules this week:
1. Watched Olympics opening ceremony.
2. Mentioned the Olympics.

Can I last two more weeks?

There’s plenty to keep me away from the tele’ down here on the Gloster & Sharpness Canal. This project is in good hands and when she cruises she is so quiet.

If anyone has information on this 100 year old ex RN launch then her owner would be glad to hear of it.

Sunday was going to be a day of socialising and good grub but it was cancelled at the last minute, John and Jean from Hampshire pulled out when John decided to half pass a kidney stone.

On the down-side this meant I had to go without a slap-up breakfast. On the up-side it meant I got double portions at lunchtime. Poor old John, don’t suppose the hospital grub is up to much but you probably don’t feel much like eating on those levels of morphine.

Hope you pass it soon mate, otherwise they’ll be drilling in for it.

Here’s another beauty on the G&S Canal.

On a sad note, lost a special friend earlier in the week. Barry was doing so well after his op’ and we thought his heart problems were all in the past but sadly it wasn’t to be.
However, he knew where he was going and I’m looking forward to seeing him one day, on the other side.

Comments

Narrowboat Balmaha – Splatt to Sellars Bridge via Gloucs Dock

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 14:21:08 +0200

Weekending Sunday 22nd July 2012

To the west of Gloucester dock lies Alney Island surrounded by the Severn’s east and west channels. Historically used for grazing, shows and horse racing it has mostly reverted to meadow, wet woodland, marsh and ponds.

Crossed by roads and rail it can be noisy at times but there are quieter corners where nature still holds a grip where the buzzing from bumble bees and the electricity sub-station remind you that this is a 21st Century nature reserve.

Rabbits keep the grassy footpath to bowling green standards and nettles or brambles ensure you don’t trample the thistles and rare weeds.

Telford has been here, as you’d expect, but surprisingly we couldn’t find a single plaque boasting an overnight stay by Charles III or James I.

But it still made the important places book because the island was later made famous by Edward VII who graced it with his presence in 1909 when he popped down to the Royal (agricultural) Show.

So what, I hear you say. Well, there's a disused lock on the island next to Llanthony weir, you know where I mean, it’s the nasty place you visit if you overshoot Gloucester Lock.

Llanthony Lock, as it is called, is in water all 2 inches of it and is the subject of a restoration plan by the Herefordshire & Gloucestershire Canal Trust.

Used between 1871 and 1924 this lock provided an alternative route from the lower Severn to Gloucester docks avoiding the G&S canal with its tolls.

As you can see, apart from the odd tree and a few hundred cubic feet of dirt in the way, there’s a chance we’ll use this lock one day to get onto the River Severn. Can’t wait to get out there and get stuck on the sandbanks.

Incidentally, you don’t need to worry too much about going over the weir if you come down the Severn in flood and miss Gloucester lock, the overhanging tree branches provide an excellent escape route for any Tarzans amongst us.

The sun came out on Friday and we had visitors – Chris and Graham.

Graham (aka Richard Gear) and Chris go back in my books to Pig-Sty Hill youth club in Bristol, but Chris and V go back even further, to Colston’s Girls’ School where V learnt how to play hockey and do crosswords.

Their visit fitted perfectly with the opening of Gloucester’s Food Festival so we toured the exhibits, in particular the tents selling booze and nibbles. Vendors smiling faces and enthusiasm almost made up for the fantastic prices – a good 50% higher than corner shops.

Treated to Mojitos we settled on the grass in the middle of a crowd of chips and strawberry eaters listening to the PA from a nearby tent where two chefs described the “wonderful flavours going on”.

The sun was so warm and the artificial grass so soft that we lingered and caught the start of Keith Thompson’s warm up for Blues Week.

So this is summer (at last) and our first barby for many weeks. Dave and Margaret, cruising out of Saul, pulled in next to Balmaha to share burnt offerings and pass the night.

A sure sign that summer is here and that the river has dropped to normal levels is the appearance of plastic by the bucket load. Sipping Pims and lounging half clad on ten foot thick cushions their carriages plough deep furrows in the canal, sending white crested waves towards the shore.

Some of the bigger beasties must be destined for Sharpness Lock and warmer climes, there being so little room for them to play on west coast inland waters.

If only I had studied harder and worked for a bank.

Comments

Narrowboat Balmaha – Saul to Splatt (G&S)

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 21:36:16 +0200

Weekending Monday 16th July 2012

As the Queen would say “We’ve had a birthday”.

Mine was 2 weeks ago and now it is the turn of V’s sister Claire. Probably best if I don’t mention how many candles she’s burning.

For a treat Ter and Claire stayed at Tythe House (Bed & Breakfast), just two minutes from Splatt Bridge.
On their second day the clouds got brighter and we all cruised down to Sharpness and back.

It’s worth mentioning Ter and Claire’s B&B because if you check the reviews you’ll see plenty of praise for it. The owners Guy and Jane provide excellent rooms, in fact I’d put them higher than many 4 star hotels I’ve stayed in. If you are looking for a smart bed and breakfast and attentive hosts, close to the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal, then I’d recommend Tythe House.
Breakfast is full, flexible and top quality, rooms are immaculate and the service is friendly.

With apologies for lifting the photo (I forgot to take the camera when we called in), this will give you some idea of what to expect.

If pushed to give negatives I can only find one, the floors creak, and that’s my only comment. Would we stay there, yes, unreservedly.

Our cruise to Sharpness from Splatt gave T&C a new perspective on large canals, in terms of depth and width.

Boats dawdle or go flat out, they may take just about any course without upsetting anyone and anglers are hard pressed to find anything to scowl about.

The variety of size and type of craft puts the G&S in the same league as the Trent and Gt.Ouse.
Similarly the water is deep and clean enough to support lilypads and a host of plants that you don’t see on bog standard canals.

Thinking about it I can’t remember when the prop' last fouled on a poly bag or we swung on the mooring ropes as a big boat passed. How spoilt we are.

Low tide at Sharpness just after the new moon could have given us a view of the Severn Bore, but it didn’t, not even a tiny one. It was shy on the day and although we waited and waited we couldn’t make out anything higher than a ripple that the wind whipped up.

You wouldn’t think this was the middle of July would you.

Saul, Patch, Splatt and Sharpness are the limits of our travels this week. The deluge has had us battened down like most others but we’ve enjoyed it; the towpaths are reasonably puddle free and the feathered wildlife doesn’t seem to be bothered by it.
Flies are on the increase as are my skills with the newspaper which is evidenced by blood splashes on the cabin walls. Spiders are multiplying at a similar rate and I’m onto them too, with the exception of the one that lives under the washing machine. My foot has missed him more times than I care to remember.

With the VHF radio we get a fairly accurate picture of who is brave enough to cruise in the rain.

Calls from the cruise boats to bridges asking for an ‘opening’ before the wind blows them in circles, shows their progress along the canal and announcements of which locks on the Severn are closed or on ‘indemnity’ spoils any ideas that boaters had of going further afield.

But when river levels are high there’s nothing stopping you taking to the roads. Dick and Jennie came to our rescue on Thursday and whisked us away to Stroud for a beautiful meal in lovely surroundings, a town house with exposed oak beams, stone walls and stories of life as it might have been hundreds of years ago.

The number of sunny days this week can be counted on one finger so that day was spent exploring the engine room. With 8,700 hours on the engine counter it was due for an oil change and one is beginning to wonder how many hours are left on it.

By way of contrast we bumped into nb.Kathleen May, another Sandhills boat. She is at least three years older than Balmaha but has only clocked up 3,000 hours.

Now in the hands of Stuart and Carol she is very well cared for, her pristine woodwork and distinctive marquetry telling us it was the same guys who crafted ours.

We swapped boat stories and canal experiences and hope to see more of them when they take to the water full time. Poor Carol is only two weeks into a broken shoulder so cruising isn’t as much fun as it could be.

With a fraction of the planned summer jobs done inside the boat we now need a long dry summer-autumn to prepare for the winter. We shall soon be thinking about new batteries and bottom-blacking, but as things stand we won’t be needing barbeque charcoal, we’ve hardly used our first 5kg bag of the year.

All being well we’ll have another month or so in this area before heading north away from what has been a memorable waterway. Together with the journey to the southwest the Gloucester & Sharpness goes into our list of favourites. We haven’t exhausted what she offers and with her proximity to so many friends and family we are sure to visit again.

Comments

Narrowboat Balmaha – Gloucester to Saul

Sun, 08 Jul 2012 15:01:34 +0200

Weekending Sunday 8th July 2012

After all the excitement of family meetings we’re off to the country, away from Gloucester docks before the gulls turn our boat completely white.

But first we called on Derek and Sheila on nb.Clarence for coffee and to muse over next year’s plans.
As sometimes happens, while the girls talk about social arrangements like where to spend Christmas the boys talk about salt water crossings between canals.

Talking of which, there’s a boat on the G&S with a notice in the window “Interested in doing the Severn? – Tfn: nnnnnnn”. What a good idea, why don’t we do more of that.

But for now it was back down to Saul to meet up with John and Beth, friends from the 70’s.
You can only do so much nattering in the boat so we took a chance with the weather and walked to the Severn, along the old Stroudwater Canal to Framilode. Sticky underfoot in places where the sun hasn’t reached but a pleasant walk, bordering on the humid.

Conversation topics included aches and pains, things we did in the 70s and what the kids have got up to since we last shared news. Who cares if the body is packing up as long as the memory is still working.

Saw some familiar faces during the week – like us, Terry and Pam (Roosters’ Rest) cruise up and down the cut making the most of the summer before it turns hot and dry.

I’ve noticed a pattern to the mooring wardens’ activities on this stretch of canal. Boat checks just after 8am followed by Gotcha Squad the following morning.
It’s a bit unnerving seeing the Virago descend from nowhere, whop a notice on a boat and zoom off again.

There’s no time to make a dash for it, they appear out of the morning mist before the sun has dried the cobwebs. The mooring warden’s job is done, today is the day of reckoning.

It wasn’t us, I hasten to say, the guy in front got it this time.

Funny old weather isn’t it. Can’t get up any enthusiasm to start a project and whatever we do involves going outside with a 90% chance of getting wet. This weather I would happily change our cruiser stern for a trad, at least I could get on and finish an overdue oil change.

V and I have competitions to see who can find an accurate weather forecasting website for mobile phones.
I favour Yourweather because they are so clever that they can grade the rain by light, moderate or heavy. It’s becoming uncannily accurate (almost 50% of the time!).

I don’t know if you’re like me but there’s one sound on the canal that fills me with dread – the sound of strimmers. Long grass after rain and strimmers mean one thing, a day washing the side of the boat. Well not any more, all that is in the past, they’ve got clever and found a way to strim without stress – use a board.

It’s the first time I’ve seen it, one man holds a sheet of ply between the strimmer and the boat and the grass stays where it belongs – off the boat paintwork.

Full marks to this team. Now all we have to do is make sure they do it when we aren’t watching.

We’re used to the cockerel crowing at Saul but there were some strange bird noises on the offside this morning.

I counted seven of them but there may be more. Might have been the flooded fields that brought them out onto the pathway. Some people think they’re fowl but they’d make a change from sausages and burgers.

Comments

Narrowboat Balmaha – Splatt Bridge to Gloucester

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 19:54:31 +0200

Weekending Monday 2nd July 2012

It’s Monday evening and another week has gone. I know what where but it’s probably down to socialising (again).

I’ve turned 60 for the fifth time and thanks to my lovely V I don’t feel the slightest bit older. Apart from a morning kip to go with the afternoon one I am just as active as I was at 59. The brain is as sharp as ever, in fact it’s improved since my primary school report, I’m now aware of my surroundings. Distractions still get the better of me but that could be the sign of being ready for a new career couldn’t it.

For any clever dickies studying the picture who think I’m only ten because of the candles, we’re on a budget. Besides, my asthma could return if I really had to blow out a candle for every year.

We’re still not out of cygnet season and here’s a piccy I’ve been trying to get since we arrived on the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal – “carry mummy, carry”.

Low point of the week was reversing into the Gloucester dock pontoon moorings during a gale. We lost paint and sand from the gunwales and the number of stripes below the gunwales would put a zebra to shame. I had two afternoon kips that day.

Jan came all the way from Bristol to see us on Sunday. V and Jan go back a long way, so far back that our earliest photo of them together has them wearing mini-skirts that would put hot pants to shame, I make that the 1860s at least.
We had a lovely time with Jan, the food was good, usually is when we get visitors, and the time flew past.

And today, Monday, we had bruv’ Colin and Christine with nephew Phil and Juliana. Pity it was damp but we did get a very short cruise in before the rain caught us. It was more of a burst than a cruise but it gives you the feel of the tiller and gives you a sense of what could happen (to a fibreglass cruiser) when it’s pushed instead of pulled.

Lots and lots of talking. Chris reckoned the men put the girls to shame with the verbal, which is a compliment because girls can keep several conversations going at the same time.

There’s several hours’ worth left to be said so another visit is in order.

Oh, just seen Clarence passing so we’ll be catching up on Derek and Sheila’s news tomorrow.

The entertainment secretary says we’ve a social fixed during the week and then I get a week off to varnish the floors and portholes before the next visitors.

And that is going to have to be that, we’re already into next week’s blog.
Age hasn’t dulled the memory because I have always forgotten things quickly, it’s my way of keeping the best grey cells to last.

Comments

Narrowboat Balmaha – Gloucester to Splatt Bridge

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 14:02:05 +0200

Weekending Sunday 24th June 2012

Ever seen a cormorant swallow an eel?
I watched one surface after a dive and wrestle a two foot eel before sending it head-first down its throat.
But that wasn’t the end of the matter, the eel turned before it reached the stomach and made its way back up the tunnel. You could see a huge bulge in the cormorant’s neck as the eel turned and headed back the way it had come and on reaching the beak the cormorant shook it back down only to have the process repeated several times.

I’ve seen children do the same thing with black elvers a few inches long. Plucking a handful of them from the river bank they throw them into their mouths, then make each other laugh by letting the elvers wriggle half way out between their lips before sucking them back again and swallowing them.
Those were the days you could send your children out all day with a cheese sandwich wrapped in a handkerchief knowing they could look after themselves and forage for food if they got hungry.

Hasn’t the grass grown? We used to be able to watch the Severn from our window but now we have to climb up onto the roof to see if the tide is coming in.

It doesn’t grow half as fast on the other side of the canal, the permanent moorings side. Over there the grass is only ankle height, over here it is elbow height, people lose their dogs in it. We must get a lot more rain over this side. We also sneeze a lot over here, the hayfever season has kicked in with a vengeance.

I fetched V from Kass and Joe’s on Tuesday and the fridge has been restocked with proper food. My single man diet didn’t do me any harm so I don’t know what all the fuss is about. Green veg and fresh fruit, what’s that all about?
V is now suffering (baby) withdrawal symptoms and I can see it won’t be long before the knitting comes out again or someone is booking a train across country.

We’re currently sitting out the storms at Splatt Bridge.
Splatt is a lovely name isn’t it. Goes well with my summer job – squashing spiders. We’ve had them in the bed and they don’t half bite.
How Splatt Bridge got its name I’ve no idea. Did a boat get squashed as the bridge closed? Was it named after the first bridge operator Mr Splatt? Did the little Splatts go to school in Frampton, I wonder?

The sun shone a couple of days this week, in fact we managed to get in a barbeque one evening before it rained. During the day we walked across the field to the river and marvelled at the muddy water hurtling past on its way back to the sea from Gloucester.
Just to prove cameras do lie, the water was filthy brown when I took this one.

The closer you get to Stonebench the more signposts you see, telling you to park tidily and to be mindful of the residents. I can’t be trusted to behave so we didn’t walk any further than Lower Rea. I guess it’s something to do with visitors trying to catch a glimpse of the Severn bore.

You get used to the chug-chug of boats and the splish-splash of canoes but when I heard a hissing sound my head turned. Nothing more than a gentle hiss accompanied this steam launch as she sped down the canal. She was so quiet you could hear the occupants whispering to each other. My next boat will have ……..

At the end of the week we caught up with a couple we haven’t seen for years. We first met Dick and Jennie during a sparky course at Brunel Tech in Bristol in the early seventies. Our ways parted as careers changed and we last saw them near the Wicklow Hills in Ireland.
Recalling the past over a meal in a pub, somewhere in Gloucestershire, brought back many happy memories and filled in the gaps on who moved where and did what between then and now.
We’re hoping to see many more rellies and friends before we leave the area, who knows when we’ll be back to this neck of the woods. Despite the damp weather, since we came to the West, we are torn between a thoroughly relaxed Gloucestershire and the peace and tranquillity of the Fens.

The VHF is getting used more these days, you can find out which boats are going where, which bridges are out of action due to wind and get a half decent weather forecast from Swansea and Milford Haven Coastguard. You can also learn a lot by listening to the plastics exchanging information on ship-to-ship channels, and that can be priceless.

Comments

Narrowboat Balmaha – Weekending 16th June 2012

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 17:51:41 +0200

Gloucester & Sharpness Canal

All’s well on the baby front. Bethan isn’t a screamer, the milk bar opened on time, the nappies and knitted cardigans fitted and Mothercare is doing a roaring trade.

Photos and videos arrive at the boat each day and when I'm not goo-gooing over them I’m supposed to be remembering who I was going to tell about our new grandchild.

When it's my turn to visit I shall be looking forward to playing against Joe on the Scalextric and model railway.

Boat-wise I’ve been holding the fort while V is away running errands, washing, ironing and cooking (nothing new there, just a change of scenery).

While V enjoys herself I chug up and down the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal stopping at different places depending on how the fancy takes me.
If I don’t get a green light at a particular bridge, which shall remain nameless, then I turn round and go back the way I came, making as much noise and fuss as I can to make my point. It’s likely nobody sees me so I am probably wasting my time.

Boat watching never tires me, there’s always something interesting going by. Sail boats stimulate the imagination and make you want to ask where they’ve been and what they’ve seen of far-away places?

Then there are huge monsters that make you wish you could climb the gangway and tour the insides, listen to the engine and wiggle the wheel.
Just compare sizes with the narrowboat moored in front. Does he ever see the sunshine I wonder.

Next week we should be back to normal, V in the umpire’s chair and me swabbing the decks.
I’ve also got to explain what I’ve been doing for two weeks. Now where did I put that jobs list?

Comments

Post Jubilee

Sat, 09 Jun 2012 22:06:04 +0200

Saturday 9th June 2012

It’s a girl (!!) Bethan May arrived 6.38am this morning making V and me a very happy grandmother.

Well done Kass and Joe, try to catch up on sleep tonight (no chance!) and remember Kass, this is pay-back time for keeping us up every night for a year, or was it two?

7lb 5 oz is the starting weight which I’ve marked on the boat chart.
I’ll be keeping a record of her weight so that I can adjust the boat’s ballast when she visits.

Comments

Jubilee Fortnight

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 17:34:06 +0200

It's a boy !! and his name is Gladys !!

No, not really, we're still waiting for the timer to ding and the oven to produce a bun.

There's no baby to see at this moment in time but it is overdue so it should be any week now.

Poor old Kass (No.1 daughter) is fed up, desperate to do her first nappy change and V is with her and Joe in the waiting room as we speak.

As for boy or girl, no one knows, we'll just have to wait and see if it's pink or blue.

Here are the poor expectants.

More later.

Comments

Narrowboat Balmaha – Saul Junction to Gloucs Docks

Mon, 28 May 2012 17:23:24 +0200

Week ending 27th May 2012.

Take a rusty steel garage door, open and shut it a few hundred times, that’s what the seagulls sound like in Gloucester.
For a couple of days I thought it was people coming and going at an industrial unit on t’other side of the canal. I’m wiser now, it’s those pesky birds, possibly the new generation of gulls screaming to be fed.

Sunday was a veggie day, we sat around vegetating with Ter and Claire who slept-over on Saturday night. We resisted opening most of the mail they brought but V couldn’t resist looking at her tea delivery. Mike Barrie on Anastasia put her onto a supplier of interesting teas (Canton Tea Company) and she’s fast becoming addicted to the ‘difference’, creamier white tea than shop stuff and Jasmine is a delight to watch as well as drink as the leaves uncurl.

Monday we topped up at ACP fuels of Frampton which is probably the best place to buy diesel around here. A friendly service at 85p/litre (self declare), it beats the competition by 0.9p. You can’t be too careful, every penny counts doesn’t it.

With the back end down in the water again we set off south waving our magic wand at the all the bridges down to Sharpness. You just turn up and the bridges open without you having to lift a finger. I shall pay the boat licence without complaint next year now that I’ve seen how hard these guys work on the manual bridges.

I know the bridge keepers have cameras and can time bridge openings to the second but I’ve worked out that they derive some amusement from watching you put on the brakes as you draw level with the traffic lights. As soon as you move that throttle lever to go into reverse they flick the red light to green.
But I have developed a system, I fake the gear change movement and I now get my green light without slowing down.

Reaching the so called end of the navigation I felt cheated that we couldn’t cruise all the way to the sea lock. I had the same feeling when we reached Goole the other year, I wished they were more accommodating to boats when there is so little going on in the inland shipping scene.

There’s a high bridge and a low bridge and the low one is just a touch too low to let us pass without a ‘man’ to do the honours.

In that last half mile or so to Nav’s end we spotted Terry and Pam on Roosters’ Rest, very nicely moored overlooking the River Severn. A lovely spot with fabulous views across the Severn to west Gloucestershire under almost continuous sunshine from dawn to dusk.

It was a perfect day for setting up the meat burner on the towpath and we ended up inside with Terry and Pam for a noggin or two.

High tide was around 9.30 and we marvelled at its speed around the old dock wall. I may have to rethink nipping out onto the river for a jolly at high water.
Can’t get to the real sea lock so here’s a picky of the old one at low tide.

Tuesday was brilliant for a short walk to explore. Couldn’t get as close to the ships as I’d have liked but perhaps that was all for the best seeing as how the Maria was loading grain and the hayfever season is upon us.

Near the Dockers Club we found a monument to the Vindicatrix, the training ship for boys entering the Merchant Navy. Between 1943 and 1966 it is estimated that 70,000 boys were trained at the camp and on the ship which together were known as the National Sea Training School.

Does anyone remember how cold and damp it was a fortnight ago? Neither do we, funny how the memory works isn’t it.
V had a clear out of the cupboard space below the wardrobe and it wasn’t good news. There’s evidence of damp on the ply walls, and what’s worse, on her summer shoes.

“Look at this, I’ll need new shoes…..”

First time she’s used an excuse.

She wore them on our next walk and the whole of Sharpness agreed they were in a bad shape, especially when she pointed at them and pulled bits off to make things worse.

Bumped into a guy and asked him about his pride and joy - this ex RN Pinnace.
She’s about 100 years old, originally in steam and linked to owners in France and Belgium but nothing is known of her first 30 years.
He’s hoping someone will be able to shed light on her early years or indeed her time on the continent. He thinks that she is the only survivor of her kind.

Talking of boats and ships we stopped off at the Purton Hulks on our way north on Wednesday.

Some of the Purton Hulks were barges built during WW2 (1941-ish) using ferro-cement because steel was in short supply. They were typically 84 feet long by 22 feet wide, grossing 332 tons and most were scuppered on the foreshore by the time they were 20 years old.

Having just read a book that touches on the subject of ferro-cement vessels I think I can understand why they had such a short life.

R.W Chandler (“Sparks at Sea”) writes about his first ferro-concrete coaster, the Lady Wolmer.
At 1883 tons she took her maiden voyage in 1941 from Newport to Barry, S.Wales to load coal for Devonport dockyard.

“Going through the dock gates in Barry, we hit the wall. A steel ship would not have noticed it but the Lady Wolmer gave a horrible crumbling sound”.

The dock pilot was somewhat surprised, being unaware that “he was handling the first of a long line of concrete coasters”.
Examination revealed a hole where a large section of concrete had crumbled away, leaving steel reinforcing rods open to the elements. Progress around the coast was slow because they were continually being held up for repairs to the concrete after touching dock walls.

Now I know why the hulks on the Severn had huge timber strakes protecting the bow.

But these aren’t the hulks we used to visit when we were kids, I remember wooden hulks possibly trows, not concrete barges. Were these further down the Severn?

There’s so much to see and learn along this canal, it’s hard to know where to stop.
The Severn Rail Bridge has to be mentioned because of its sad history.
I’ll leave that to you to research but just to say it’s disappearing fast, in fact this last remaining bridge arch will be gone by tomorrow.

Thursday to Sunday saw us motor up to Gloucester to get a well earned rest on the wall at Sainsburys (right next to another blogger nb.Oakfield as it happens).

When my ship comes in I’ll be looking for one of these monsters.
She’ll have room inside for everything including my full size snooker table.

Gloucester makes an ideal meeting place. Tim and Marion and Tim’s sister Celia called in on their way through which was great. We made a start on catching up on ten year’s news. This was the umpteenth attempt at getting us all in the picture and I forgot to smile. Nothing to do with my false teeth.

We also met up with Derek and Sheila taking nb.Clarence for a night up the town. I’m looking forward to hearing about their guest’s experiences of narrowboating in Europe.

We did the boat museum one morning, which was interesting, but I wasn’t overwhelmed by the exhibits. However, they do run a brilliant video showing lighters running from Avonmouth to the Sharpness and Gloucester Canal.

Here’s a piece of useless information. Did you know that the first narrow working boats in this part of the world were called long-boats and not narrow boats?
So perhaps one shouldn’t give quizzical looks to towpath walkers when they ask about living in a long boat.

Comments

Narrowboat Balmaha – Gloucester Docks to Saul Junction

Sat, 19 May 2012 16:04:47 +0200

Monday 14th to Saturday 19th May 2012.

It feels like we’ve come home. We used to live about 30 miles from here and the accent is very easy on the ears, probably too easy because we keep catching ourselves reverting to old west country expressions like bisn’t, asn’t, coosn’t, disn’t, if you know what I mean.

Gloucester used to be a motorbike ride for me on an evening when I did find I casn’t get me ‘ead round studying. A blast up the A38 and back was great for clearing the cobwebs.

The docks are all very friendly, plenty of mooring space at the moment even if it’s all restricted to 48 hours. Victoria Marina lives in a side dock and is a tad expensive at £9.50 plus lecky on a meter.
Never mind, we’re off to see the canal and do a spot of exploring.

But who’s this turning on to the pontoons? It’s Roosters’ Rest with Terry and Pam.

We’ve known this lovely couple for a while, having bumped into them in the days when they were involved with shared ownership boats. Now they have their own narrowboat and have set off to explore the system without the restrictions of a fortnight here and a week there.

Lovely boat, spacious and light, and very comfortable. We ate aboard Roosters’ Rest Monday night, excellent, the food just didn’t stop coming.

Tuesday
Keen to see what the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal had to offer we made for the Llanthony Bascule Bridge followed by the fancy tilting white one near the Sainsburys moorings.

You don’t have to wind or press anything to get bridges swung or raised, you just wait. Locals tell us it is considered rude to pass the traffic lights when they are red even if you think you can get through the bridge hole without knocking off your chimney.

Here’s something I fancy having a go in. She’s the same orangy-red as the old familiar chemical tankers but less inclined to go bang when struck by another ship.

G & W.E Downing’s malthouse is one of the few remaining old industrial buildings by the canal at Gloucester. It’s a reminder that waterfront businesses brought in raw materials by boat, in this case barley, and shipped out finished goods, like malt, to the west coast ports of Britain. Seems a shame to let the old buildings rot and fall down when they have such interesting links to the past.

Our destination for the weekend is Saul Junction. All the road bridges opened by themselves with hardly a moment’s pause, lights flicked from red to green and back again and hands waved in acknowledgement. All very civilised.

Wednesday brought a new boat with an old face. Dave sailed Narraboth up to our mooring to show us his and Margaret’s recent acquisition. In the middle of a name change and alteration plans to suit their comforts, she is in the hands of a wood and paint specialist (that probably doesn’t do you justice Dave) who only needs a little time.

They later took us by car to the Severn at high tide and out for a smashing meal where we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Thanks guys, very much appreciated.

But D & M aren’t the only ones down on the G&S canal, Derek and Sheila are in these parts on Clarence along with Dick and Jenny. And we aren’t the only Sandhills boat either because Kathleen May is here, she’s number seven on the build list.

Thursday we went exploring along the old Stroudwater Canal. Completely obscured in places we could still see parts of her in water at the final approach to the Severn where she backs onto a pub and cottages in the village of Framilode.

Someone has planted lawns and gardens over the final 100 feet but this is the view that would greet you as you passed the final lock onto the Severn.

Framilode’s St. Peter’s church invited us to look around and we were so glad we did.

She’s beautiful inside, very well decorated including the roof.
It’s the kind of village church that begs a guided tour with an explanation of history and symbolism.

Friday was mostly been spent messing about with wires and trying not to make too many sparks on Dave’s boat.

I’ve been thinking this was a great place to hang around until I noticed the local boats have a thick grass skirt below the waterline. It gets worse, the metal piling between boat and bank is plastered with mussels, just the sort of thing you don’t want nesting in the bow thruster tube.

Saturday Claire and Ter are on their way down to see us, hence the early Blog.

Next week we hope to continue our social calendar, to include Derek and Sheila and Bristol family and friends.

Comments

Narrowboat Balmaha – Upton on Severn to Gloucester Docks

Wed, 16 May 2012 18:30:53 +0200

Monday 7th to Sunday 13th May 2012

[At last]

Monday - Upton on Severn
The rain on the hills takes a couple of days to drain off into the Severn, so they said.
Although Diglis and Gloucester locks are no longer restricted due to high water we still have to negotiate Upper Lode lock which lies between the two and is currently closed for the sake of 4 inches of water.
4 inches shouldn’t take long to go should it? Well it all depends on how the Spring high tides at Gloucester effect the flow.

Tuesday – the river at Upton has dropped a foot so we’re popping down to Upper Lode, feeling confident we’ll soon be on our way.

Was it an omen I wonder, when a departing hire boat whacked us on the bow after messing up its 180 degree turn in the river. Normally I’d smile and let it go but they’ve ripped the cratch canvas and repairs are beyond my capabilities so we’re chasing the hire company. I’m told that the hirer’s insurers will pay for repairs once an engineer has been down to inspect the damage.

En-route to Upper Lode we passed nb.Elizabeth, the one with the interesting restoration history, the one that appears on tele’ in the IWA Festival at Market Harbro’.

But it was bad news at Upper Lode, 4 inches of water isn’t going away, in fact it’s rising again because the River Avon, just upstream, is dumping her excess and now we can’t even see the weir at UL.

UL has a ‘banjo’ lock, there’s a round pond at one end, something to do with big boats, little boats and unloading, years ago.

Because of the tide effect the river is at the same level both sides of the lock. I did all I could to get us through including talking to the supervisor but to no avail. We have wait.

Interesting to see the hotel boat Edward Elgar pass through. How did they manage to open UL lock? Something to do with money, or should we call it commerce.

Worcester sounded better than Upper Lode lock so we popped back upstream and turned into Diglis Basin (Birmingham and Worcester Canal).

Moorings on the river outside Worcester are a mix of chargeable space by the racecourse and what looks like an old dock with a floating pontoon that has no access to the land. There’s no ladder within reach of the pontoon so you’re stuck in this huge concrete hole with sides too high to climb. It’s marked outside as visitor moorings.

But there are new floating pontoons outside on the river, separate from the lock mooring and perfect for those taking a break on the river. As yet there are no signs saying who they are for and for how long. We could have stopped there but V chose to get off the river and climb two locks to the boat basin where 48 hour moorings are plentiful, well they are plentiful when it’s cold and wet.

Wednesday and Thursday brought rain, just what we didn’t need, so we used the time to visit the cathedral and saw the 800 year old King John and further down the road we saw the 6,000 year old creatures of the carboniferous period in the museum above the library.

Do you think cyclists should take a reading test before being allowed to ride a bike?

There are still signs of commercial traffic on the Severn, aggregate is still shipped by boat.
However, we saw virtually nothing in the way of plastic. A lock keeper told us that only narrowboats come out to play when the Severn is running high – plastics are scared of hitting trees, planks and pallets.

Friday was bright and breezy, so we chugged off down the Severn again, back to Upton which has a lovely atmosphere and a tiny museum in what remains of the church (the Pepperpot) by the bridge. The guy behind the desk made us chuckle when, after a warm welcome, he told us to browse the ‘exhibit’ and ask questions to which he would make things up if he didn’t have the answers.

Lizzies supplied our lunch, the bookshop produced two of my favourite books and both hardware shops an item each from my list of necessities.

Upper Lode lockie must have recognised my voice when I phoned him at midday because I got a sigh followed by a groan when I asked what chances we had of getting his gates open.

Another twelve inches, he said. No need to expand on that, we haven’t a hope. I thanked him in my well practised depressed voice.

I didn’t like to call the lockie on Saturday, the water was still very high and I sensed he was already suffering a bad case of reflux.

Sunday – Two inches to go, Lockie said. By the time you get here it should have gone down enough, he added. Emphasis on ‘should’.

We did the fastest cruise ever from Upton to Upper Lode and were met on arrival by a green light. A few minutes later there were smiles all round and we shot out of the lock towards Gloucester before anyone could change their mind.

Everything went according to plan. The three hour cruise took less than two hours and there were no incidents worth reporting.

As the lock opened into Gloucester docks we walked right into a full blown Dragon Boat Race.

Paddles thrashing, drums beating and crowds cheering greeted our entrance to the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal. While V took the applause I swept into the middle water and reversed nicely onto a finger pontoon. Well I thought it was nice until the wind caught the bow and it was down to the fella next door taking our rope that we didn’t suffer the embarrassment of mooring over two pontoons instead of one.

Best of all the sun came out and we could explore somewhere new.

Leaving the docks with its heaving crowds and queues for Danter funfair rides we wandered away from the docks and found ourselves once again in a cathedral.

Big on stained glass and cloisters this was the stage for Hogwarts in Harry Potter.
As you’d expect there are plenty of recumbent royalty but this guy, Robert son of the Duke of Normandy, has his legs crossed which begs the question how did he die? He was a prisoner of his younger brother Henry I and died in Cardiff Castle but what’s with the leg?

Comments

Narrowboat Balmaha – Upton on Severn to Gloucester Docks

Mon, 14 May 2012 15:01:34 +0200

Monday 7th to Monday 14th May 2012.

We have arrived at Gloucester.

The Blog is in progress but shan't finish it today.

Where does all the time go?

Comments

Narrowboat Balmaha – Wolverley to Upton on Severn

Mon, 07 May 2012 17:32:38 +0200

Monday 30th April to Sunday 6th May 2012.

This week produced our first cuckoo of the year and a flock of swallows. Obviously they don’t mind the rain.

The week started cool and dismal and turned into heavy and prolonged rain which made river travel at the weekend look extremely unlikely.

We broke away from Wolverley during the first dry spell and made for Kidderminster with its well placed grocery store next to the canal. I wasn’t enthralled with the surroundings until I discovered Maplins on the other side of the supermarket car park, when suddenly everything changed, it’s now a brilliant place to stop, at least during opening hours.

When V got back with the orange bags stuffed with goodies I shot off on my own to the men’s shop where I was greeted by my own personal shop assistant.
I was shown everything I needed and more and I showed great restraint by not buying one of everything.
Maybe this is a new level of Maplins’ customer service, or maybe it’s the death throes of yet another man-shop. As I left the building another bloke went in and all assistants’ eyes turned to him hoping that he was the big spender they all desperately needed.

Perhaps we’ve been spoilt all these years. The likes of Radio Shack, Radio Spares, Farnell and Maplins weren’t available in the fifties and early sixties but we managed by saving components cut from old wireless sets.

Remember back street shops that tested valves? The smell of warm bakelite, those dusty cathode ray tubes and the shelves of triodes and pentodes. Soldering irons were a foot long and needed heating on the gas ring. A bar of solder and a pot of flux were all you needed together with nature’s wire strippers, your front teeth.

Back to canals - while I took pictures of the building with the clock, V got help with opening Kidderminster Lock bottom gates.

An ex middle-aged couple stopped by to say that they hadn’t been here for over 40 years, since they came through in a hire-boat. Not a lot has changed at water level but the roads and buildings are something else.

I have to say the whole journey down the Staffs & Worcs has been a delight, the countryside along the canal might only be a few hundred feet thick in places but it feels remote from civilisation, there being very few glimpses of the backs of industrial units along the way.

We found a lovely spot south of Kidders to spend a night. Moored between two fallen trees, we had all the firewood we needed.

But the dreaded strimmers were heading our way and those tell-tale clouds of wet grass warned us that we were in for a plastering. V went out with the shears and cut the grass next to the boat to give them no excuse and we kept a vigil until 4pm when the reflective jackets turned and headed home.

But they didn’t return the next day so we got back to communing with nature.

A day was enough, the odours from the sewage works helped make up our minds to finish the journey to Stourport, a mere 30 minutes away.
York Road moorings were practically deserted when we arrived so we took a spot by the cherry tree. Big mistake, our green boat turned pink at the first hint of a breeze. We shuffled off a boat length and cleared the petals before they turned brown and glued themselves to the roof.

Mike and Jo surprised us with a visit on their way back to Sara-Kate after Kirsten and Tim’s wedding. It was good to catch up on all the news and see the photographs of the Kew Gardens venue.

The following day we checked out the town with its shops, cafes, library, river front and boat facilities, always keeping one eye on the river level indicators as the flood waters swept past on their way to Gloucester.

I asked a big-boat skipper what he thought the water speed might be and after hesitating replied it’s 5mph, or maybe 10. That didn’t help much.

Eventually, a chat with the lock keeper gave us hope for a weekend sailing. The clouds in the hills upstream were dispersing, river levels had dropped five feet and he couldn’t see why the red light shouldn’t go out on Sunday.

There was one thing we had to do before leaving and that was to call Max, the owner of Vindi Boy. Vindi boy is a Sandhills boat like ours. Launched in 2000 she was the second off the stocks from the newly formed company. Ours was the fifteenth.

The sailors amongst us might recognise the Vindi name and its connections with T.S.Vindicatrix, the merchant navy training ship based at Gloucester, before she was scrapped.

The guide books tell us that Stourport is Birmingham’s Southend on Sea. Her funfair is one of Danter’s creations, made even more famous by Channel 5’s recent series of programmes.
By chance we met Henry Danter as we strolled the river front and he struck up a conversation. He told us he was waiting for a horse, which threw me (no pun intended) until I realised he meant a wooden one for his fairground ride.

His deep gravely voice was unmistakable, his tanned face could only have come from spending most of his life outdoors. I asked him if he was pleased by the way the TV had portrayed him and he answered saying he hadn’t found the cameras at all intrusive and welcomed the new publicity it had brought them.

Our riverside walk ended at Blossom’s Tea Rooms next to York Street lock. Well worth a visit for its fresh ground coffee, warm scones and a pile of canal magazines. I’m afraid our half an hour visit turned into an hour as we couldn’t leave without reading the article on ‘Yarwood’ in May’s edition of Canal Boat magazine.

It was Heritage Weekend at the Tontine stables. Bill Hughes greeted visitors and described Stourport’s boating history. A mine of information, Bill held our attention with tales of how the town grew around the needs of Severn Trows until the canals arrived bringing their horse drawn boats.

He told us he worked on the boats when he left school in 1949 and, although he joined his father Jesse on his canal boat, it was obvious that this form of transport was in decline.

Though he was sad to see the end of his career in commercial boating Bill found work filling in part of the old docks in the nineteen sixties. But how things change, the old dock was to be excavated again for a new waterside housing development and his knowledge of what was buried there became extremely useful to the construction company.

Sunday brought sunshine and our ticket for the Severn.
Up with the lark we joined a couple of boats heading for the locks and a pleasant cruise on swollen waters towards Worcester.
We shared locks with nb.Roma until they turned off onto the Worcs & Birmingham Canal and then had the place to ourselves for the remainder of the journey to Upton-on-Severn. A six inch drop across Diglis Lock told us the tides on the Severn were high.
Actually we didn’t have the place all to ourselves, a small forest kept us company for much of the journey together with the odd 50 gallon drum and what could only be described as a floating timber merchant's stock of floor joists, plywood panels and pallets.

Upton’s folk festival was in full swing under the jingling, clacking sounds of a dozen sets of Morris dancers. Beer was taken onto the street and we were entertained at every turn by fancy dress, piano accordions and the drummers of Burundi.

V wasn’t amused when I suggested she buy one of the very attractive multicoloured skirts from the stalls in the church yard, not even a coat made from a butcher’s shop flyscreen found acceptance. Still, the sun was out and the atmosphere was what you’d expect on a Bank Holiday weekend.

Back at the boat we met a resident who’d been there since the floods started. He was pleased to see the waters going down and looking forward to being away from Upton with its memories of finding a body in the water. Quite how it took 3+ weeks to get here from Worcester is a mystery.

As for us, we’re waiting for Upper Lode and Gloucester locks to open before setting off. There’s tons to do when we get to the Sharpness canal, lots to see like boaters Terry and Pam and Dave and Margaret, plus meeting friends and family.
Slimbridge Wild Fowl Trust could be in our diary and more importantly the Windbound at Purton. Someone tell me its still there, please.

Comments

Narrowboat Balmaha – Wolverley to Upton upon Severn

Sun, 06 May 2012 19:02:02 +0200

Monday 30th April to Sunday 6th May 2012.

Sorry, we are having fun at Upton on Severn at a folk festival, in the street, in the sun, yes in the sun!

More later......

Comments

Narrowboat Balmaha – Gothersley to Wolverley

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 18:21:26 +0200

Monday 23rd to Sunday 29th April 2012.

This week we mostly pottered along and, being in no particular hurry, we left the Staffs & Worcs canal to pay a visit to the Stourbridge Canal and its ‘Arm’.

The four Stourton locks worked well enough going uphill but gave us no end of trouble coming down. A log tried to race us into the lock and we got jammed half in and half out. Lots of prodding with the pole, bouncing on the gunwale and revving the engine got us clear eventually but the next lock down wasn’t happy with us going through and we made several attempts at sealing the top gate until ‘water-out’ exceeded ‘water-in’.

Impressions of the Arm? Not brilliant. We found the boat basin uninviting, the shops disappointing and just how you swing a 72 footer with that trip boat moored opposite the hole I have no idea.

I asked a workman under the Customs House if we could stop for water (I meant to say Elsan) and he was pretty insistent that we didn’t stop there because he was working near the tap under the Customs House so we followed his advice and pushed off to the tap outside the basin.

It’s not only the boat basin that made us feel uncomfortable. I’m not a great fan of mooring near waste ground surrounded by broken galvanised fence panels. It did me no good seeing a fly tipper deliver two consignments to a hole in the fence where he threw down a gas boiler, electric iron, fence panels and bundles of polythene sheet.

On his second visit he had to pass me at the water point so I struck up a conversation hoping to bring up the unsavoury topic of fly tipping only to finish up discussing the merits of old Glow-Worm combi boilers and him offering me the control board electronics if I didn’t mind stripping it out myself.

He told me he was having the brass and copper before leaving the rest on the waste ground and, by the way, did I have a screwdriver he could borrow? Cheeky monkey!

Back down on the S&W we met Mrs ‘nb.Georgina’ and caught up with their news since last we shared an iceberg at Foxton (winter 2010-2011). Like us they are due for bottom blacking, those rust spots spreading upwards and outwards from the bottom plate.
Oh why can’t someone invent a galvanising process for narrowboats.

Done a couple of tunnels this week, short ones, but still quite interesting. The one that passes under houses tempted me to sound the horn and knock on the tunnel roof to wake the residents above.

The sandstone in these parts is a lovely shade of red, good for all sorts of things including housing. We never made it to the rock caves at Kinver but we found the one at Debdale Lock and gave it the once over. It has the appearance of a bus stop but it could have been a navvies’ rain shelter, there’s certainly enough rain over here to make it worthwhile.

Some of the bends are a bit tight with sandstone cliffs rising vertically out of the canal bed. Reminded me of that last mile or so before Llangollen.

But it’s the quietness of the canal that surprised me, few roads, no railway at all and little in the way of houses overlooking the canal. I said no railway but I may be wrong having spotted a train signal on someone’s front lawn.

We came across a boat mooring that I would place at the top of my wish list. Currently occupied by Graham Booth’s nb.Rome (of canal writer fame) it is tucked away in its own little sandstone cutting. Very nice.

And finally we called it a day at Wolverley near Kidderminster before the real rain set in.
It’s been spits and spots up to now but it’s got so bad that we aren’t sure now which side of the boat has the shallowest water.

Boat traffic has dropped off during the week, possibly due to rising water levels on the Severn downstream from here. Hire boats doing the ‘Ring’ are getting turned back and complaining about seeing the same scenery twice in one holiday.
One entertained us by taking the bend too tight and stranding in the shallows while another ran out of canal and tried to mount the towpath. Oh the joys of narrowboat watching.

And this made me smile too. If you shrink lock gates they make excellent garden gates.

Next week we might be on the River Severn. Water levels permitting we’ll point towards Gloucester but no one is holding their breath in the meantime. News is filtering through that rain in the hills has yet to reach us.

We won’t be the only ones on a dodgy river as poor old Roger and Babs on nb.Megan are stuck, like others, on the River Nene. In good company, they share a mooring with nb.No Probs, a boat we met last year heading for the Fens (Hi guys).

Has anyone ever seen a ringed blue tit? I mean the common blue tit with a ring on its leg. We get them on our porthole birdfeeder.
Does it mean they’re married?
I married a bird once. Cost me not one ring but two. Truth be told she probably paid for the first one, I was broke at the time as I was on a student’s grant during the Wilson era.
If I remember right we (she) bought it at a jewellers shop at the top of Christmas Steps in Bristol a long, long, long time ago.

Comments

Narrowboat Balmaha – Brewood to Gothersley

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:07:24 +0200

Monday 16th to Sunday 22nd April 2012.

I’m not saying we rush our cruising or compete for bridge holes but this week we’ve enjoyed a rather sedate wandering to the end of the Shroppie and onto the Staffs and Worcs Canal.

Temperatures have been down to February levels with frost some mornings which meant the coal bunker has been hit hard. A fresh bag of Excel coal ovals from nb.Roach came in handy but, as often happens when we take on coal, day temperatures rise and one can’t decide whether or not to keep the fire in during the day or even what clothes to wear.
Rain and hailstones have kept me indoors but V still ventures out for a look-see at every new mooring.

Tuesday was the highlight of the week for me. Not only was there a bus ride to look forward to but I was about to get reacquainted with an old Shropshire town.

Bridgnorth has always had a special place in my heart, even though I’ve never been there before. I first got to know the name through a girly pen-pal at the age of 11 and finished up in my early teens discovering foreign countries through the Bridgnorth Stamp (Approvals) Company.

I have no idea if the stamp supplier still exists but I saw many potential pen-pals in town and might have found the very one I used to write to but for V’s tight grasp of my hand through the streets.

We’ll do the outside tourist bits while it’s dry, said V, then the museums while it’s raining.
The Cliff railway was our first stop. Opened in 1892 it first used water to move the cars up and down the sandstone cliff. The Castle Hill Railway was converted to electrickery in 1944.

A lady was overheard exclaiming the fee used to be thruppence (could she be my ex pen-pal I wonder) but it’s gone up to one pound two shillings for a return ticket and no, you can’t have a single.

There are tea rooms at the top so we just had to take tea. And a scone, of course.

Down at the bottom we explored the old buildings, the quay and the River Severn but couldn’t find a way to get at the red sandstone caves that we could plainly see from the road.

Here, in the lower town there’s sadly very little left of the Bridgnorth quay, even the bridge has changed over the years, and yes, I might have guessed, Thomas Telford had something to do with it. Several houses, a church, a portcullised gatehouse and gaol have all gone.

Very few half timbered buildings exist down here, most went up in smoke in 1646 during the uncivil war. This one was built in 1580 for Richard Forster who owned a barge on the Severn but Rev Percy, chaplain to George 3rd, is obviously more important and has given his name to it.

Back in the higher town we called in at the castle and marvelled at its survival. Not much left of it thanks to Parliament.

I reckon Charles 1st and Telford were mates, they’re always turning up at the same places. Charles reckoned that the views from the castle were the best in all his kingdom, but obviously Telford thought he could improve on it by widening the bridge down below and ruining the views from the top by placing his fancy building with the green dome right next to the castle.

They claim that the castle leans further than the tower of Pizza. See what you think.

Lunch wouldn’t have been the same without a return visit to the tea rooms. Service was excellent and the lady with the hint of a Brisbane accent let on that she was interested in living the canal life.
I hope we didn’t paint an over-rosy picture of life aboard a narrowboat, especially if she’s considering taking to the water full time. It’s not all roses (and castles).

I thought the café’s coffee grinder was in need of a new set of bearings until I realised the rumbling noise coincided with the rail cars going past our table. A look through the observation window on the stairs revealed the winding mechanism in the room behind the café. Fascinating, if only we could sit in there with our scones and coffee.

It’s difficult to get away from traffic clutter when following the old building trail in Bridgnorth. I’m not advocating pedestrianisation but more care could be taken over parking and the positioning of lighting and signage.

With more time I would have liked to have discovered how the town hall came about with its timber frame on top of a monster brick arch. To get anything like a good photo one has to stand in the road and hold up the traffic.

As the clouds approached we made for the museums. Unfortunately the Nor h te Museum was closed. Pity, I would have liked to have found out what a Nor-h-te was.

The Costa Coffee shop was housed in an interesting building. Do you see what I mean about more care needed when allocating car parking spaces.

Last but not least we made for the Severn Valley Railway and discovered a wonderfully restored station with engines in various states of readiness.

There’s a plaque on the wall in the ticket office announcing the RAF’s presence between 1939 and 1963. Graham (G8LUV) was one of them, I discovered later.

This guy looks familiar. While a photo shoot was in progress I took a crafty one when no one was looking. That’s not all his luggage, by the way, they’re part of the station property. Ex RAF bags I shouldn’t be surprised.

For the rest of the week we’ve wandered on down the Staffs & Worcs through Bratch locks, which were manned, to a place called Gothersley.

One lock was a haven for moss and algae, I counted at least four types of slime, not counting the white stuff that clung to the lock gates.

You can’t help but smile when you notice that every tree stump has been decorated. Why? I couldn’t tell you but it might deter the odd chainsaw happy boater over the winter period.

We chose well for the weekend stop at Gothersley round house. There are woods on one side, full of squirrels as the local 12 bore shooters have discovered, and the brick remains of an old iron works next to the tow path.
The iron works were pulled down by BW to dissuade undesirables and a couple of wooden beams have been added to attract picnickers. The messy remains of a bonfire inside the structure doesn’t convince me that the former have gone or that the latter have taken their place.

Comments

Narrowboat Balmaha – Gnosall to Brewood

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 15:03:44 +0200

Tuesday 10th to Sunday 15th April 2012.

Tuesday - caught the pensioner’s bus to Stafford this morning for a look around.
Being the first working day of the new tax year there were queues at the banks and building societies, everyone adding to their ISA or swapping them between accounts to make the most of new interest rates. Queues went out the door.

Having met Mike and Jo (Sarah-Kate) in the square we took coffee in the Shire Hall before popping in to the Assize Court downstairs. Talk about stiff penalties, everything was stiff, even the jury.

Cardboard effigies gave the place a spooky atmosphere, one felt distinctly uneasy. It reminded me of attendance at Bristol County Court for a minor misdemeanour when I was a lad, nothing you’d find interesting.
Prior to my case an old and confused pensioner was fined heavily for taking a small jar of Marmite from the Co-op. It didn’t bode well for my case and I wasn’t surprised to get a fine that I could well have done without, having to survive on an apprentice’s wage of £2.10s a week.

Across the road and down a bit from Shire Hall is the High House, an excellent treasure of old and very old things including a book defining robbery.

Affaulting with intent to rob.
1. If any perfon fhall with any offenfive weapon affault, or by menaces, or in any forcible or violent manner, demand any money or goods, with a felonious intent to rob him, he fhall be guilty of felony, and be tranfported for 7 years.
2. If any perfon be indicted, or appealed, for killing any perfon attempting to rob, he fhall be acquitted.

So there!!

Here’s yet another place that Charles 1st stayed. 370 years ago he was the guest of Richard Sneyd in the High House. Rupert (no not that one), his nephew the Prince, was here too, taking pot shots at St. Mary’s weather vane. Not a lot of people know that.

Mike found something interesting in the bedroom, at least I think that’s what’s going on here.

There’s so much more to see in Stafford but it’ll have to wait for another day. It was hot crossed buns on Sarah-Kate and heads on pillows in readiness for the ‘off’ tomorrow.

Wednesday we said our goodbyes to Mike and Jo as Sarah-Kate set sail for southern climes.
We followed or rather dawdled, with the intention of losing a day at Wheaton Aston.

Diesel here was 78.9p/ltr (self declare) which is still the best price that I’m aware of. Coal/coke isn’t so good (over £11) so we made do with scraps of wood we’d picked up during the winter.

Friday we set off in the company of nb.Jandai (yes that’s Janet and Dai), first to the crowded water point and then up through the lock to Brewood.

And that’s about it for us. We’ve done the town (village?) of Brewood and very nice it is too with its well kept old buildings and personalised number plates. Bell ringing here is of top quality, having heard some awful practise sessions around the country.
A shift to the longer term moorings for the weekend saw us out of the cutting and into open fields which is great for sunshine and the tele.

We must be the last to spot this year’s new brood of ducklings. On Saturday there were 11 of them but by Sunday they were down to 7. Is there a hungry Mr. Pike in these waters I wonder?

Apparently the Titanic has sunk (again).
I was listening to the amateur bands Sunday morning and a chap in Ireland, using a special event callsign connected with the Titanic anniversary, was talking to a continental fella.

The other guy asked if the callsign was “something to do with that ship that had a problem”
to which the guy in Ireland replied “There was nothing wrong with it when it left here”

Comments

Narrowboat Balmaha – Market Drayton to Gnosall

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 16:34:43 +0200

Monday 2nd to Monday 9th April 2012.

A series of social events leave us lost for time and words, so in summary:-

People – Kass, Joe and Wriggles (IT), Mike and Jo (nb.Sarah-Kate), Bob and June (nb.Autumn Myst), Graham and Carolann (nb.Autumn Years), Pete and Sula (nb.Petula).

Places – (Shropshire Union Canal) Market Drayton, Norbury, Gnosall, Norbury, Gnosall.

As most of my school teachers used to say “3/10 must try harder”

[IT = In Tummy]

Comments

Narrowboat Balmaha – Audlem to Market Drayton

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 12:02:38 +0200

Monday 26th March to Sunday April 1st 2012.

Sunday night, back at the boat we tasted the chocolate cake that Jaq had packed for us when we left them.
And what a cake!! Amazing taste and texture, now I know why Les’ last words were “Don’t ask for more,” he’s obviously got his name written all over it.

We set off on Monday to climb Audlem locks and hadn’t got far before we met Les and Jaq coming down. Above the engine noise I shouted out to Les that the chocolate cake was wonderful, very much appreciated, but he either didn’t hear or he’d already put the rest of it back in the safe.
If you see them then I recommend begging a slice of that choccy cake.

We had our first BBQ of 2012 but we started early and were back below deck by 7pm, it was too cold for sitting out watching the sun go down.

Tuesday
V couldn’t resist buying eggs and sausages from the farm stall at the top of Adderley locks. Amazing eggs – just like I remembered them when we were kids, fresh from under the hens. Don’t half taste different and they seem to fill the pan instead of sitting on one side looking all forlorn.

Not far from the top lock we found a lovely bit of piling out of earshot of roads and houses. We’d just tied up when a passing boater told us we were on his favourite canal bank, that made me feel even better.
Must be Spring, tiny green leaves are just starting to show on the thorn bushes, birds are performing acrobatics on the towpath, drakes are roaming in packs without their mates and the crows are ferrying twigs between nests.

Wednesday
As too much of a good thing can do you harm we moved down to Market Drayton’s 5 day moorings to adapt to the smells and noises of town.

Our wire bird feeder that sticks to the porthole with plastic suckers is drawing the birds, within hours they’re on it tugging at the peanuts. I can stand at the window and as long as I don’t move they carry on scoffing, not minding the boat’s occupants one bit.

We’re on one of those rare moorings where the water is practically level with the towpath so the gunwale battle damage gets exposed. I couldn’t put it off any longer so got stuck in with the scratchy paper and red oxide.
Why oh why can’t they make green oxide, it would make things so much easier.

The sun surprised us three times this week and we squeezed in two more BBQs before the clouds returned.
Another surprise was seeing Sarah-Kate slide onto the moorings next to us on Friday.
Released from the stoppage south of us where a tree fell across the canal they pulled out of the flotilla of boats relieved to be back on the move.

Lovely to see Mike and Jo on the water again and to share news and plans over a meal on Balmaha.

Saturday is another muck spreading day. Yesterday it was the turn of the field behind the towpath hedge to get a dosing, which smelt bad until the wind changed, but now the farmer has gone to the offside field and is giving it double rations, runny followed by solids. Phew!!

Fortunately our nosh invitation to Sarah-Kate wasn’t ruined, the wind outside dropped to nothing so the smells indoors were all good ones. Lovely evening, we wined and dined until bedtime. Thanks Jo for all your hard work.

Surprisingly we only found one fly in Balmaha when we returned and that fell to my first shot with the fly-gun. Mike has given me a longer piece of string so I can reach all parts of the saloon without having to get up to retrieve the plastic bullet.

What we could do with is the fly equivalent of the church dog whipper.
He was the guy who occupied a reserved church pew and dealt with disruptive dogs during services.
The thought of someone sitting near the saloon doorway dealing with flies sounds quite attractive.

So it’s not been a bad week for us, some light cruising, a little boat maintenance and a couple of hours bronzying.

Sunday
And it has been good news on the Bamboo Wood Treatment front too.
This new joint filler cream completely seals wood cracks, splits and gaps up to an inch wide in hardwood and slightly larger gaps in softwood, such as pine.

The Chinese website states that the cream is genetically modified bamboo stem-cells and it works by stimulating the old wood’s growth, they call it “wood healing”.
Bamboo just happens to be the easiest for extracting stem cells and once modified it works on most wood types causing them to grow again.
Gone are the days of sloppy wood joints, just rub some Bamboo treatment on the edges and overnight the gaps shrink to an invisible joint. Imagine how much faster boat builders could work if they didn’t have to be so accurate with their cabinet fitting.

But the best use I’ve seen so far is on lock gates. Wooden gates where boat scrapes have worn away the mating edges have repaired overnight, all that’s needed is for the lock to be left empty or gaps to be sealed with ash to reduce the water flow while ‘healing’ sets in.

Available on-line from the first of April, I am hoping my order will arrive in time for Easter.

All we need now is something to ‘heal’ bricks and the days of lock stoppages are over.

Comments

Narrowboat Balmaha – Burland (Llangollen) to Audlem (Shroppie)

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 19:34:10 +0200

Monday 19th to Sunday 25th March 2012.

And we’re off. That is, we’re off the Llangollen Canal. There’s space for you if you hurry and just like wasps the billions of hireboats are flexing their tillers and threatening to jam up the honey pots like Trevor, Ellesmere and Llangollen.

For us it was a left turn at Hurlestone Junction and a quiet couple of days at Calveley.

We caught the pensioners express to Chester (09:30am) and enjoyed a sunny day in the old Roman city, walking the walls and admiring the timber framed houses.

The town wall is quite interesting, I’d recommend going the opposite way to the arrows, it’s easier for passing the guided tours.
The best bit was the view over the River Dee at low tide. I pondered how a narrow boat could get down there now that the locks are signed ‘No Entry’. It isn’t for the likes of you, I heard the voice in my head say, but there is one down there, I could see it, a Louis and Joshua built boat, number 87.
So what’s that all about?
Better still how do I get to sit on the mud like this boat?

We know Chester is Roman because they’re still living there. Sadly my Latin was too rusty to strike up a conversation with the soldiers and anyway my mind went blank, all I could think of was amphora and cappucinno.

It took me three goes to get the spelling of cappucinno, which reminds me of a sign at the side of the road:-

FOR SALE
Coal
Logs
~~Kindeling Kindleing~~
Sticks

Chester was worth a second day but onward we must go.

By Wednesday we were at Hack Green on the Shropshire Union Canal, better known as the site of the Secret Nuclear Bunker. Like the Llangollen Canal we had meant to stop here on previous cruises but somehow it never fitted our diary.

With a copy of the Official Secrets Act in one hand and a secret camera in my pocket we walked the 200yds from the canal only to find another half a mile between the secret entrance and the secret building.

Once inside, tired and nearly 14 pounds lighter (£6.80 each) we wandered the corridors alone.
There are two floors open to the public and one suspects another dozen hidden from view. The lights go on automatically and audio recordings start as you enter the rooms.

No windows and no heating, it was on the chilly side and certainly too cold for a bikini so I can’t imagine why there was a Bikini Alert.

Exhibits pretty much cover the Cold War as far as preparations for running the country after we’ve been blown to pieces by the Russians.
If every missile pointing at all the RAF bases had been launched then only coal miners coming up from their shift would be available to be administered by the secret bunker bods.

You have to laugh at some of the exhibits, someone has been a bit too creative with their make-up.

And quite where a lifeboat emergency transmitter fits in with the operation escapes me.

If you got sick underground, and who wouldn’t, then you would have to pay a visit to this individual. You can tell this is the 60s by the Beatles haircut.

From Hack Green we pootled on up to Audlem and pitched our home a lock below the ‘Shroppie Fly’ to avoid the swarm of villagers foraging amongst the waterways tree surgeons. One or two boaters had managed to negotiate something for the fire but cars with trailers were hitting the canal bank hard and even before the chainsaws had cooled the ground was bare.

There’s nowhere to hide at Audlem and nb.Anastasia was our first find of the day. Mike was making the most of the day doing engine room things having come down the lock flight in the morning. Haven’t seen Mike for a while and it was good to catch up on news. News sharing extended well after dark as we wined and dined aboard Anastasia. Delicious and nutritious Mike, I was almost tempted to go veggie, and it was only the bacon and eggs this morning that stopped me.

A walk up the road for a look at the shops turned up Les and Jaq in the High Street. Their home, nb.Valerie, is moored at the other end of town so we were bound to meet at some stage.

Poor Les, as Jaq explored the shops he stood on the pavement scratching his head over problems with his Blogspot blog. Afraid I could only sympathise because we operate differently here at Blog.co. (P.S. We called on Les and Jaq later and found them in the middle of implementing Sue's suggestions and so, fortified by a cuppa, we encouraged him through the procedure until he started successfully uploading piccies once again. Result - no computer in the canal!)

After a cuppa in the cycling café, as I like to call it, we popped into St James the Great to look at the stained glass and purple stonework that is characteristic of churches in this part of the country.

Which brings us to Sunday and another excellent day for weather.

Mike popped in to say he was on his travels again and to show his new acquisitions, two fabulous framed photos by (and her name escapes me). You’ll have to stop him and ask to see them.

Our next rendezvous is with parents-to-be Kass and Joe, hopefully bringing a kilo of oxalic acid. No, it’s not an alternative to drugs like coffee and tea, it’s going to solve all my problems with porthole stains.

I am also hoping to get my hands on some of that new bamboo wood treatment, it’s the stuff that seals gaps by making the wood grow again after it has shrunk. I see BW’s tests with sealing leaky lock gates has had a good write-up and reckon if it works for them it should do everything I need it to do.
Bamboo is the latest in wonder cures and after proving itself as an odour-eating material for clothing it is now finding its way into wood reconditioning treatments. More about that next week.

Comments

Narrowboat Balmaha – Ellesmere to Burland.

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 16:23:30 +0100

Monday 12th to Sunday 18th March 2012.

From Ellesmere on the Llangollen we chugged down to the end of the Prees branch to Whixall Marina for all kinds of fuel. Gas was £21.90, the best we’ve seen for a long time, coal (Excel) was £8.70 which is less than we paid last winter and diesel was 87.3p, which is very reasonable these days.
When you get deals like that you really don’t mind taking a detour with a couple of manual lift bridges. And I have to say the service was tip-top (you don’t hear that any more do you).

Monday ended with a mosses walk for V. That’s nothing to do with mosquitoes but a walk around the moss fields to see peat, that’s not Pete either.

I wrote in my diary for Monday that I drank one glass of white wine. That’s a reminder for me in years to come that alcohol consumption goes down as well as up. In fact it has reduced to level one, that’s one up from zilch, nada, nothing. Yes, those who know me might wonder what’s going on but all I can say is that I’ve been off the stuff since Kass joined the pudding club. Can Dads have a phantom pregnancy?

Tuesday brought us to Whitchurch and a walk into town. We quite liked the place, it has most things a visitor wants and there’s plenty of history if you have the time to look for it.

The church, St. Alkmund’s, is unusual with its coloured stone and huge pillars. Bit of a sad history though, it keeps falling down or important bits fall off and costs the locals a few £.s.d to put right.
A couple of John Talbots gave their names and some body parts to the church which I suppose makes a change from St Peter’s fingers.

Wednesday was fun with someone else getting into trouble for a change. A boat in front got stuck in Grindley Brook’s staircase locks and as the water receded he wedged tight between the walls. That’s why we have rubber pipe instead of rope side-fenders.

There was more fun between the following locks when anglers set up on the lock bollards. I stopped right in front of one and pulled the boat by centre line so that he had to duck under the rope. He seemed not to mind though.

Thursday
Wrenbury was a work up for V. We caught up a single-hander and V did her ‘help the poor boaters’ bit by finishing off locks and taking over the lift bridges.

She doesn’t mind, in fact I think she enjoys being in charge of two boats.

Wrenbury was a pleasant walk across the fields and after doing the Post Office stores we called in at the church. You can never have too many churches can you. Actually it’s nice to see them still open and accessible to the public, many have become des-res or tyre or carpet depots.

Friday brought us almost full circle, to our last stop before the end of the Llangollen.
It’s been an interesting ride, lots to see and do, one-way tunnels and aqueducts, enough lift bridges to last a year and really friendly locals. Might not have understood them all but they have all smiled so they're in our good-guys list.

Thought we’d have a quiet weekend to unwind before tackling the Shroppie but it wasn’t to be. A text came in asking “Where are you?”
Not a number I recognised so my reply was vague.
An hour or two later we had visitors in the shape of Dave and Margaret from the bottom left hand corner of England. Passing through and full of news of their new boat we couldn’t let them go without feeding them and finding out how life was now they had taken to the water.

Saturday
Sitting still outside Swanley Marina is an art. Some boats are so keen to get away that they don’t see us and they do a pretty good job of cleaning the paintwork above the gunwales with their bow waves.

Rugby was brilliant too, the games on the tele that is. Well done to the red jerseys.

Outside in the real world there are things to excite too, like this little fella trying to climb out of the canal so he/she can reach his/her mates in the pond.

Not sure if it’s a frog or a toad but I can tell you it is green, although it nearly turned red when a boat came along from the marina.

Glad to report that our battery swap experiment has been successful. The start battery works really well as a domestic battery, in fact it behaves like a brand new battery after 6 years thrashing on the boat. And the domestic battery that had developed a hopelessly small capacity performs well as a high current power source for turning over the engine. Wish I’d known about this yonks ago, we may have extended the lives of our old batteries another six months or so.

Comments

Narrowboat Balmaha – Queens Head (Montgomery Canal) to Ellesmere.

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 17:53:23 +0100

Monday 5th to Sunday 11th March 2012.

An empty pound below us at Aston Locks gave us an opportunity to visit the nearby town of Oswestry on Monday.

It was a 20 minute bus journey with the entertainment that comes from overhearing other passenger’s phone conversations. Have you noticed how everyone goes quiet when someone starts talking on their phone. Are we being polite or are we being nosey? I know which one I am.

Oswestry is an OK sort of place with a variety of shops, banks and cafes to make it worth a visit.

The Guildhall catches the eye and gives the curious visitor something to ponder with its mix of styles. Now the home of Oswestry Council and a theatre, it is referred to as a community facility.

Llwyd Mansion, a timber framed building, sits on the corner teasing the English with its spelling. There’s a plaque on the wall with the date 1604 so you’d think everyone would know by now how to say it or at least how to spell it.
However, it’s not that simple, Llwyd becomes Llywd if you look at the Oswestry.gov website as well as others such as Oswestry.com and Freefoto.com. So which is it, is it Llwyd or Llywd?

On return to the boat at Queens Head I presented V with roses and a bottle of red from the boat’s wine cellar, this was just in case the flowers didn’t last until Friday, our 38th wedding anniversary.

As it happens they are still with us on Sunday, wish I could say the same for the wine.

We quit QH with its traffic noise on Tuesday and cruised to the end at Maesbury Marsh.
Maesbury Marsh is well known for The Cornovii, a Celtic people of the Iron Age era. We didn’t knowingly meet any while we were there but you never know who is walking the towpath at night do you.

The 48 hour moorings outside the canal café (Canal Central) looked inviting. I can’t put a finger on what time we stopped because we pendulum’d a few times before coming to rest.
The closest we could get to the side was 2 feet, such is the lack of dredging in these parts, possibly due to the local love of ‘rare’ water reeds or concern over dragonfly larvae that struggle to survive in anything over 18 inches of water. Shallow bottoms remind me of the K&A when it was classified as a Remainder Waterway.

Our nearest building, the Canal Central, was open for business. A shop/tearoom with holiday accommodation above served us tea (with leaves) and fresh scones.

Before leaving we bought local farm bacon (Treflach Farm) which was fabulous for breakfast, the kind of bacon that doesn’t shrink in the pan. I understand others haven‘t had the same service as us but we couldn’t fault it on our day.
Their Cefn Goleu Organic Eggs come from three legged Cefns and their Daioni Organic Milk from 5 legged Daionis. We didn’t see any on the day we visited but we have seen plenty of the water reeds that they must love.
And before you ask I can tell you that the tea pot arrived in a pretty handmade tea cosy. My gran would have loved it here, though at 116 years old she might have complained about the entrance door that refuses to close properly.

While I did essential boaty things V walked to the end of the Monty Canal, as far as it’s possible to go at this point in time. There are plans to open another section this year with the aim of joining up with other stretches of Monty further along towards Welshpool.

Tuesday night was spent in the restaurant of the Navigation Inn. This was a night out to celebrate our 38th. Couldn’t fault the food or the service. We recommend it.

Wednesday began our return to the rat race (the Llangollen). The weather looked fine first thing so we motored up to Weston Arm close to Frankton Locks, the entrance to the Montgomery Canal. On the way we encountered the famous attacking geese, guarding the Shropshire Fly Boat ‘Saturn’ rather than the lock where we’ve heard other boaters have encountered their vicious beaks.

My feelings about the Montgomery Canal aren’t as generous as V’s. It’s quiet and rural (if you don’t count the helicopters that practise dive bombing the canal) and easy cruising at the top end. But it soon gets weedy (canal reeds) and shallow, too shallow to even think about stopping on the side for the night.
Official moorings are plentiful at both ends of the canal, particularly as there are restrictions on how many boats are allowed down at any time and a 14 day maximum stay. Restoration has been brilliant but it looks as though the environmentalists have outnumbered boaters at canal planning and maintenance meetings.

The services at Weston Arm are brilliant, the cleanest I’ve seen for years, actually that’s a lie, those at Maesbury Marsh are just as spotless.
We shared the moorings overnight with Graham and Jill (on nb.Armadillo). Wouldn’t be at all surprised to see them again in the months ahead as I think we’re both heading in the same direction.

Friday was our day back onto the Llango’
The lock keeper at Frankton Locks was very friendly and helpful, what a difference it makes to your day.
I’d love to have a peep inside the locky’s little house at the top, it’s an old building that someone has taken the trouble to paint in the old style.

But what is that just inside the door? Cameras are wonderful things aren’t they and with 12x zoom I may have spotted an old enamel chamber pot that needs emptying.

Back at Ellesmere I realised this was an ideal opportunity to see the Quack.
My leg bump has started bothering me with a pain going up my thigh.

V’s phone call to the Health Centre was met with an invitation to call in at any time to register as a temporary patient to see a nurse. Within an hour I was seeing a doctor who told me I had phlebitis, which is nothing to worry about as long as a blood clot doesn’t form (or break away and go to the lungs, heart or brain).
It looks as though my little incident in Market Drayton where I slipped on the ice and dangled a leg between boat and bank started an infection which went into the veins. For the life of me I can’t remember washing the wound when I changed clothes, it was freezing cold at the time and I hadn’t finished my outside jobs so it probably skipped my mind.

“Have some anti-inflammatory pills” he said “and come back immediately if your leg swells up”.

V had that “I told you” look on her face as we walked to the chemists for a packet of Naproxen.

One day later and it’s already working. But have you seen the list of side effects of Naproxen? Horrendous, In future I’ll take my chances with a blood clot

And let this be a warning to those of us who are too casual with canal related injuries. Wash it, sterilise it and apply leeches to suspicious looking bumps.

And that’s about it for excitement this week. Just one more thing, our starter battery is playing up. There’s plenty of volts but not enough current to turn the engine. Solution – swap with a domestic battery and all is fine again. Both batteries work well in their new roles.

I had reservations about using a so called deep cycle battery as a starter battery until I read an article on Sterling Power’s website. I recommend a look at this if there are doubts about how ‘marine batteries’ are made [ http://www.sterling-power.com/support-faq-2.htm ]

Comments

Narrowboat Balmaha – Ellesmere to Queens Head (Montgomery Canal)

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 17:19:20 +0100

Monday 27th February to Sunday 4th March 2012.

Last thing on Sunday we took a ramble over the hill, through the woods to Ellesmere mere. We managed to place our coffee order 30 minutes after closing time at the café overlooking the lake, sorry, mere. This is a very popular place at weekends and trade was so good today that they couldn’t bring themselves to close on time, which suited us.

Early Monday morning we shoved the pointy end upstream and motored a good day’s worth to the outskirts of Trevor.

Chirk’s aqueduct was fun, I liked the notices telling us not to walk on the side with no handrail, as if.

The two tunnels were tight, only wide enough for a boat and a matchstick each side. It’s a balancing act keeping the bow away from the towpath on the right and the chimney away from the tunnel roof on the left. Glad it’s not the silly season, don’t know if I could stand the excitement of meeting another boat head on.

Tuesday we leapt out of bed early to tackle the Ponty. Too late, we were overtaken by two hire boats. Don’t those guys sleep?

Didn’t need to worry, they both stopped at the lift bridge to take piccies of the aqueduct.
Zoom, we were past and on our way across the boat bridge before they could say Jack Robinson.

Two hours and a couple of groundings later we were creeping into Llangollen through the ‘narrows’ with V up ahead phoning through the all-clear from the blind side of bends.

It was tempting to tie the tiller straight and jump off for a walk when we reached the concrete channel. I wonder if anyone has tried that.

Nbs Poppy and Bendigedig were snoozing at their winter moorings, with no sign of their owners and then it was all over, we’d reached the terminus, Llangollen boat basin with several empty mooring pontoons.

But who is that waving from the picnic tables? It’s Elsie, Eric and Ben from Bendigedig.
It must be years since we last met on the Coventry and so with the sun shining and much to talk about we sat out for elevenses. They haven’t changed a bit, a tad younger perhaps and obviously very fit with all this mountain climbing.

It’s only a two mile walk to the Falls, V said, so the afternoon saw us plod up to Telford’s Horseshoe Falls where the Llangollen canal starts.

It is here that the river Dee sweeps off to my left leaving a pond of water that is channelled towards the control station at the head of the canal.

A bit further up the hill lies Llantysilio Church with its snowdrop covered graveyard.

The door was open so we popped inside to look around and learn something of the history.
Beautiful stained glass windows give the place plenty of colour but its location on the hillside amongst trees turned the inside quite gloomy.

Outside there are grave stones to stir the emotions. One reads:-
William Henry Windsor
Pentrefelin Farm, Llangollen
Who departed this life June 1st 1883
Aged 23 years

“Farewell kind wife and child I bid adieu
What once was in my power I did for you
Weep not for me but pity take
And love my child for my sake”.

Beautiful but terribly sad.

Many graves are inscribed in Welsh, I didn’t have a clue what they said. Eric might have been able to tell me had he been here.

On the way down the hillside I couldn’t resist calling in the Motor Museum. This is another place to make you cry. Brasswork, badges, books and bumpers take you back fifty years. Remember going round the petrol stations when you were a kid begging for Castrol, National Benzole, Shellmex and Fina keyrings? This is the place to visit for memorabilia and if you have money to spare there’s plenty on sale, any reasonable offer accepted the old fella said.

Do you remember trying to squeeze two adults in the front of an Austin Seven?

On Wednesday we pottered down town to see what gives. A hardware shop, a Co-op and a Post Office (what’s one of those?) can be found. Actually we saw two Post offices – luxury.

The entrance to town, across the stone bridge, is very impressive. The Dee runs wide at this point, tumbling over rocks and producing a constant hiss that gives relief to those of us with tinnitus.

A restored railway station on the one side tempts the reluctant shopper while the cafés and sausage roll shops provide an even greater pull to the town.
Llangolleners are so fortunate having all this on their doorstep.

Back at the boat I feigned ‘bad leg’ so V took to the hills again, on her own this time, to discover Castell Dinas Bran (that’s a castle to you and me).

It’s not finished yet but you get the idea.

The views from the castle are amazing, she said. You can see the aqueduct (two hours away) and Bournemouth pier too if I’m not mistaken.

And if you like coloured rocks there’s plenty of those to see up there.

If only I was built for climbing. Not even sure I could do pot-holing any more, my knees and elbows are covered in soft pink skin and I like them that way.

Thursday
The moorings up here are certainly peaceful (in winter), barely a handful of boats coming and going each day, some we’d recognised from further down the Llango’, like bloggers Armadillo and Fizzical Attraction.

As for us, all is done and our first challenge of the year completed. We’ve attempted the Llango’ a few times over the years but there was always something stopping us. We are pleased to report it was well worth the early start (February) and it has lived up to its reputation for beauty and variety.
Now we can sit back and go with the flow. Narrows, aqueducts and tunnels for the next two hours are followed by an easy cruise to our destination, the Montgomery Canal.

Booked through at noon on Friday we have time to walk the first locks and read up on the history and restoration.

We are not alone, Nb.Fizzical Attraction (Roger and Yvonne - Crown Narrowboats) are going down at the same time and we know that a couple on a Canaltime hire boat are somewhere on the Monty so we shall see other faces in the days ahead.

We met the hirers at Queens Head and could tell by their smiles that they have been positively affected by their first cruise. Nothing in the brochures had quite prepared them for this degree of rest and relaxation, their minds clear that the future means owning their own boat.

Flies damned flies and spiders webs.
Despite the weather’s ups and downs the trend is warmer and wetter which means gnats, house flies and spiders are de-hibernating and making their presence felt in the boat.
One of my Christmas pressies from V was a fly gun, a round flat plastic swatter that shoots from a spring loaded handle, great fun and very effective.
With a length of string attached to retrieve the ‘swatter’ it looks a bit like a taser. I can see me buying a few more of these (URL: http://www.amazingflygun.com/ but cheaper on Amazon).

Comments

Narrowboat Balmaha – Burland to Ellesmere

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 19:36:36 +0100

Saturday 18th to Sunday 26th February 2012.

I’m afraid we have to report that we cheated. Not content to work our way slowly along the Llangollen Canal by boat we jumped in a car and motored up to the aqueduct on Saturday 18th.

T&C were staying a couple of days and offered the ride and we couldn’t resist. Though cold, it was a lovely day out, with few walkers and even fewer boats on the move.

It was fun walking the slippery towpath on the Pontcysyllte aqueduct, especially when we met walkers and cyclists coming the other way. One nudge and it would have been a cold swim back to the carpark.

Of all the pictures we’ve seen of the aqueduct and its surroundings we’ve never seen the view to the east. Now we know why, it’s a sewage treatment works.

It wouldn’t have been the same without seeing a boat making the journey across the valley and after dawdling at Trevor boat basin and sampling the café’s hot chocolate we were rewarded by meeting a hireboat bumping its way across.

It's been a week of excitement, apart from the Ponty’.
We’ve pancaked on Seyella, caked on Balmaha and wined on Rock ‘n’ Roll with Geoff and Maggs, Chas and Ann and Carol and George.

Here’s the initial wetting stage of proceedings.

And here’s one of the many delicious pancakes taking to the air (extracted from a video).

And finally here’s us wining and nibbling on Rock ‘n’ Roll with Carol and George.

A lovely evening in smashing company and it was good to catch up with news after last seeing Carol and George on the Thames.

See you further down the line.

We haven’t rushed our journey this week, we can afford to stop on wet days and we try to keep the weekend free for checking out the countryside. V checks out the towns and nature reserves while I check out the towpath and hedge next to the boat.
After Burland we stopped at Wrenbury, Grindley Brook, Whitchurch Arm and finally Ellesmere. It should be an easy two day cruise from here to the end followed by a slow drift with the current back downstream peeping up the ‘Arms’ as we go.

You know they say don’t go fast on the canals, well let this be a lesson to you.

Apart from the locks there is plenty to exercise V’s muscles. The majority of lift bridges are manual and you do get the occasional back breaker that takes an age to lift.

V’s fairly confident she’s over the dog bite and my encounter with the gap between the boat and piling at Market Drayton has turned into a curious lump on the leg that’s growing where no lump ought to be.

Almost had to spend money this week. It was either camera repairs or shell-out on a new one when horrid specks started appearing in the same place on every photo.

But good old internet saved the day. DIY on a Lumix TZ8 is fairly straight forward so after a quick strip-down and sensor wipe with a fine brush all specks disappeared and we’re up and running again. Phew.
They say this is a common problem when zooming in a dusty atmosphere (like in your pocket). As the lens zooms out the air rushes inside through the cracks, taking dust with it. Any whiskers around the barrel get sucked inside and settle behind the lens or on the sensor chip.

Llangollen Impressions so far?
Wouldn’t want to do this canal in summer or bank holidays, there are far too many hire boats for my liking. How the locals manage to get around during the busy season is beyond me. I’m so, so, so glad we’re here now and not in a month’s time.

The scenery varies from flat open landscape to deep valley cutting. Meres, or flashes as they get called in other places, are amazing as you spot them way down in the valley below.
Mostly we are well away from houses where tow paths vary from snooker table flat to unworn grass. All the usual birds hang around the canals with the exception of the coot and the moorhen, I wonder why.

We’ve seen less than half a dozen anglers this week, which is nice, and very few boats on the move, also very nice.

The accents are changing as we travel further west and so far everyone has been really friendly. I can see why many boaters head this way for the winter.

Comments