Spring 2005

May 11th - Having left our mooring at Barton Turns Marina, south of Burton on Trent on 9th we have now reached Shardlow the eastern end of the Trent & Mersey Canal.  20 miles in 3 days!  We aim to be at the other end of this canal (90 miles) by 25th August but travelling via Gloucester. The sun shines but the breeze is still cool & the young ducklings & moorhens must find the nights cold.  We have seen a number of herons, even a few cormorants, sky larks & kestrels but as yet no kingfishers.  There are quite a few boats moving now but still plenty of space to moor where we wish. 

May 14th - We sit in the Great Northern Basin at Langley Mill having spent the day exploring Eastwood & its DH Lawrence connections.  Well worth the 20 minute walk from the canal.  The trip up the Erewash was hard going, wide locks with vandal covers to contend with every time on our own but we made it, if somewhat exhausted, after two 6 hour days.

May 17th - We did the return to Trent Lock in one long, hot day - nowhere very exciting to moor, which was a shame.  Not the best canal we shall travel but we did and we have the plaque to prove it.  We are now on the River Soar, North of Loughborough and it feels like we are finally heading South.  We have passed the first 50 mile mark in 36 hours so still racing along.   We have shared locks today with a man (and his boat Tenbridge) from High Lane, Stockport.  It's a small world even on the canals.

May 22nd - The end of our second week and we have reached Kilby, which the milepost tells us is 8 miles South of Leicester.  We finally left the River Soar yesterday and can confirm that it again lived up to its reputation as a beautiful river to cruise.  This week has seen a number of firsts - the sight of kingfisher blue as the bird flew just a few inches above the water before sweeping up and away in front of the boat, turning blue to orange; the first cygnets all fluffy & brown (as the song has it but really grey) and importantly our first visitors, John & Val Cobb who live at Syston close by where we moored for 2 nights.  On Friday we travelled back to Loughborough by train and then rode the Great Central Steam Railway to Leicester.  It was a 3 mile walk into the City from the station and altogether that day we probably walked 6 miles, i.e. further than we travel by boat some days.  Our reward was dinner in a local pub with John & Val.  But where are all the boats? We have seen less than a dozen moving since Monday.  

May 25th - Market Harborough has proved to be a mixed bag.  Good moorings not far from the town centre, just a shame it is not possible to moor in the wharf itself, which has been very well restored.  We stocked up on provisions but decided the 25 minute walk to the laundrette was just a little too far.  Maureen found a dentist in one of the Wharf buildings willing to do emergency repairs but whilst she was away Roger slipped between boat & bank & is hobbling around at present.  More embarrassment than real injury!  At last we have seen boats moving but still very quiet particularly as Crick Boat Show is just ahead of us this weekend.  Tonight we sit in hazy sunshine just a step away from Foxton Locks ready to make the climb up in the morning.  

May 29th - The third week completed and somewhere along the way we seem to have finally lost the holiday feeling.  This is permanent home now.  In exchange we have found boats but not before a quiet & fairly quick ascent of Foxton Locks.  From Welford onwards there were many more boats moving and at Crick we found hundreds, but then it was the first day of the annual show.  If Friday was the hottest day yet, 84 deg F inside the boat, then Saturday was the windiest & assistance was required twice to get us "unstuck".  We were glad that evening to find a mooring at Norton Junction but sad to have reached the end of the Leicester Arm.  It has been a beautiful run from Trent Lock, such a shame more boats don't venture along it for it is well worth the trip.  Even Leicester is not bad for a City and we have had no trouble at all.  Tonight having crept through Braunston, but finding a rare lunch mooring almost in the centre, we have moored in open country with wide views to the North and the sun still shines.

June 2nd.  Our travels have brought us to the Cape of Good Hope.  Not the pointy bit at the bottom of Africa but an old canal pub about half a mile North of Warwick town centre.  We arrived here via Calcutt & Leamington Spa on Tuesday before the weather went off.  Wednesday was laundry day so of course it rained and whilst Maureen sat in the laundrette Roger walked the streets of Warwick checking out where we could moor to meet daughter Heather who arrives Friday to help with lots of locks over the weekend.  Of course she knows what's expected of her, just not that there are 41 of them!  Warwick is another town that makes little of its canal but I guess there are lots of other, better visitor attractions so perhaps we can forgive it.  We have spent today walking the streets again but this time seeing more attractive sights including gardens, parks, the outside of the Castle (decided the budget didn't stretch to the entry fee especially as we have been before) and climbing the tower of St Nicholas Church. 160 narrow winding steps but worth the effort for the view at the top.        Tomorrow we steel ourselves for the locks. Wish us well.

June 7th.  Greetings from Birmingham.  We made Hatton locks, all 21 on our own in less than 3 1/2 hours and then went on to climb 19 of the Lapworth Locks although we took another 2 days to do those.  Sadly we had to suffer rain showers as we climbed but the extra crew worked well.  On Sunday we had another day off and visited Baddesley Clinton which is a National Trust owned, moated house close by Lapworth.  More interesting on the outside than in but worth the car ride and an excellent guide.  Sadly Heather left us on Monday but today we have motored along some 13 miles.  However we seem to have been travelling through a perpetual forest with little in the way of views.  Hopefully the lower Stratford Canal will be more open.  We have heard good things from fellow boaters about Stratford upon Avon but tonight we are moored alongside the National Indoor Arena in a part of the City that has been very well re-developed using the canal and its towpath both as an attraction and as a means of getting away from the roads above.  There are lots of pubs, bars, etc. so well worth a visit.  Hopefully not too noisy for us tonight.  We plan to spend a full day here and then head into the B.C.N. on Thursday for our first meander.  We shall see what we find.

June 11th.   I think we have earned our BCN spurs if not the full regalia this week.  We spent a very pleasant day in the City Centre on Wednesday. Few cities offer the opportunity to walk for over a mile from canal to the shopping centre - The Bull Ring - without encountering traffic.  To cap the day off we took a ride on the Big Wheel.  A little nerve racking but by the fourth spin we were getting to enjoy it.  A great view from the top when we dared to look.  Thursday morning we slipped our mooring outside the Indoor Arena, squeezed through Oozell's Loop to turn back North on to the BCN Main Line.   Almost immediately we turned left into Icknield Loop.  A scene of industrial decline greeted us but at the bottom of the "U" we found several brightly painted old working boats & a pretty-ish British waterways Yard below the green embankment of Edgbaston Reservoir.  Then we nosed carefully across the Main Line into Soho Loop.  Again not promising but before the end we were sailing passed a large park and Winson Green Prison. Now back onto the Main Line we cruised through Smethwick to reach Pudding Green Junction and the Walsall Canal.  Pudding Green is not how it sounds and the Walsall didn't look at all encouraging.  Deciding to skip the Ridgacre Arm, not least because the signpost said to "Black Lake" & the water colour matched it, we descended the 8 locks at Ryder Green.  Not bad but not pretty.   Having struggled to get out of lock 8 we arrived at Ocker Hill where we had been led to believe there was secure moorings.  Oh no there isn't & even the residential moorers didn't look welcoming.  So we would go on to Walsall only 6 or so miles.  At least 5 proved to be unremitting grey.  If it wasn't weed filled it was rubbish & then it was both.  Passing supermarket trolleys & even two settees 3 hours later we moored in front of Walsall Art Gallery.  Nice pontoon mooring and we had no problems overnight but on our own we felt a bit like goldfish on display.  The plan had been to go up Walsall Locks to the next junction then retrace our route back to Ocker Hill.  Did I say NO MOORINGS there.  So we aborted that part of the plan - on hold for next year - and returned from Walsall to Ocker Hill with grey skies adding nothing to the surroundings.  Turning on to the Tame Valley Canal which is almost straight as a die for 3 miles but reasonably clean we crossed through the  M5/M6 motorways junction and just there saw the first moving boat in over 24 hours.  We moored for the night at Perry Bar across from a second boat and even used the BW shower facilities.  Very pleasant.  Today we have descended the 13 Perry Barr locks, sailed under Spaghetti Junction where there is also a four way canal junction and took the Aston Arm climbing 11 locks to then turn South on to The Digbeth Arm.  Tonight we sit in the middle of Aston Science Park.  Not exciting but secure.   June 15th.  How uplifting to the heart it is, dear reader, to see again the fields of green and cattle and to hear the sound of birds.  For now we reside again in rural Warwickshire, the grey commerce of Birmingham lost behind us.  Less prosaically we have escaped the industry, both current and decaying, of Birmingham and returned to more beautiful countryside.  Travelling down the Grand Union to Kingswood Junction we have completed the first of our loops.  I must make mention of Knowle which proved to be an attractive village, a useful shopping excursion and a good place for lunch.  This time at the Junction we turned onto the southern half of the Stratford Canal which has so far proved much more pleasant than its northern brother (sister?).  Although the locks, 14 today, come occasionally rather than all at once as at Lapworth, it has a much more open aspect.  Tonight we have reached Wootton Wawen with the oldest Saxon church in Warwickshire.  From here it continues downhill into Stratford & the River Avon where we will greet our next visitors.  June 19th.  Greetings from Stratford on Avon from us and the other million (?) visitors who have been here this very hot weekend.  It has also been a weekend of visitors for us with an arranged evening visit from locals Margaret & Richard Shearing, an overnight booking for High Peakers Barbara & Jim Thornley and unexpected guests in Karen Buckingham & Chris Carroll, ex-work colleagues of Maureen who were staying overnight in Stratford & spotted us by chance soon after we had moored in the Basin by the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.  Stratford is a popular & therefore busy place but for all that an attractive town which doesn't take its Shakespeare connection to the point of overkill.  This morning we dropped through the last lock onto the River Avon & are now moored right opposite the Theatre balcony so our starboard windows are filled with the popular picture that you see everywhere depicting Stratford.  Having had an interesting guide to Mary Arden's house (Shakespeare's mother's home) on Thursday we partake of Midsummer Night's Dream across the River on Monday night.  Timing only a two days out.  Before then it's laundrette time again.  On Tuesday it's off down river and then it will be Summer so this is the last entry in Spring 2005.