More Ramblings

Since the last witterings, we moved on up the Staffs & Worcester canal to Great Heywood for a few days, whilst there we met up with Eric and Elsie on Bendigedig and caught up on the latest gossip. Moving on from there we put the boat into Great Heywood Marina for a week whilst we went over to Norfolk, to see Lisa and Megan and Ffion our granddaughter's. Martin, Sophie and grandsons Ethan and Ptolomy came over to see us during our visit as well. It was great to see every one.

Once back at Gt Heywood we headed for Etruria junc on the Trent & Mersey and turned onto the Caldon canal, about 8 miles along the canal it splits, one arm going to Leek, the other going to Froghall. We took the Leek arm, but soon found the boat touching the bottom in some places, so we turned at Leek and beat a retreat back to Etruria junc. Whilst on the Caldon the weather was very kind to us, with just one day of rain.

At present we are moored at Stone on the T & M heading back to Gt Heywood junc

Moving On

Two weekends ago, when I last did the blog we were just short of Worcester Basin, we moved down to the basin and on the Saturday we had a visit from Richard, Sian and kids Sophie and Ellis. They were on their way home from a Game Fair, it was really good to see you all and thanks for coming over.

Sunday lunch time and my sister Sheila and Baz my brother in law turned up for our trip to Stourport on Severn. After locking down on to the River Severn, we headed up stream for 12 miles and through 3 manned locks, (so nice not to have to do anything for once). The trip was made all the more enjoyable by the weather, it was a wonderful day, hot and windless, apart from the headwind we created as we moved through the water. We eventually moved up in to Stourport basin and found a mooring for the night. The following day Baz jumped on to a bus and went back to Worcester to fetch the car and they left us in the afternoon, after a great 2 days.

At present we are on the Staffs and Worcester canal making our way to Great Heywood.

This is catch up

Try as I might I can't get my pictures to upload. So we will have to do the blog without for the time being.



When I left off last time we were on our way down the Coventry, we arrived at Sutton Stop for the left turn onto the North Oxford, but having spoken to some of the locals we decided to carry on down into Coventry basin which just happens to be in the middle of the City centre, so 'E' had a great day at the shops, it really is a very nice place to stop for a couple of days.



Having left Coventry we worked our way back to Sutton Stop and turned right onto the North Oxford and travelled down to Braunston where we saw nb Blue Diamond but no one was at home. We turned right onto the Grand Union canal heading for the first of the big lock flights, Lapworth 20, then next day we did Hatton along with Cape flights 23. On this flight we paired up with a very nice couple on their boat 'nb Tarka' which was a great help.



Following on from there we made our way to Kingwood Junction and turned left on to the Stratford canal and 12 miles and 30 locks later we were in Stratford Upon Avon Basin for a well earned rest. It's really lovely their, but the tourists can be a bit over the top, looking through the windows and taking pictures. Whilst there Lisa, Chris and the girls came for a couple of days. Lovely to see them,and the weather was so good for their visit.



On leaving there we retraced our steps to Kings Norton Junc and turned left on to the Worcester and Birmingham canal and then to the biggest flight of locks in the country Tardebigge 30 locks, we went down quite quickly 5 hrs 7 mins, thanks to a BW man who opened the last 10 top gates for us which kept us going.

Tonight we are 2 mls from Diglis Basin in Worcester, where we will lock down on to the River Severn and cruise up to Stourport on Severn.

To date we have covered 290 miles and 294 locks, however the locks to miles ratio will go down from now on.

Down the Coventry

Over the course of this week we have moved on down the Trent & Mersey canal onto the Coventry, during our first evening halt near Streethay we were treated to a display of touch and go flying by an auto gyro and a microlight. Microlight's are common enough but auto gyro's are very few and far between and this guy could handle it really well

We have finally ended up at Hartshill, just outside Nuneaton for the weekend. The weather this week has been mostly sunny, a couple of cool days including yesterday, but today is very hot, inside the boat it is still 28deg and it's half five, not that we are complaining.

Tomorrow we move on down towards the Oxford canal

Sunday 13 June

We moved on from the Shroppi last week and turned on to the Staffs & Worcester, shortly after we passed nb Cartref whom we hadn't seen since last year on the Macc, after an afternoon in Stafford we arrived at Tixall Wide near Great Haywood on Friday afternoon.

Saturday was a really hot day and we got a few jobs done, Sunday, not so warm and now it's raining quite heavily. Next week we will be moving on down the Trent & Mersey to the Coventry canal.

No pics this week my dongle signal is very weak.

Off at last

Just after draining.


Pressure washed, awaiting the scraper

After first coat of Bitumastic

Waiting for BW to fill the dock

It's seems to have been a long winter. We left our Llangollen winter moorings as usual on the 1st April, but had to hang around for 5 weeks waiting to go into the dry dock at Ellesmere which we booked 14 month ago and the first 2 weeks in May were the earliest available. Bendigedig went in for the first week and I gave Eric a hand, then we swapped over and Eric gave me a hand, it certainly helped the week go faster.

'SHUSH' looked great for the first few days, then we arrived at Grindley Brook staircase locks plus 3 more after them, the rules are no fenders when using these locks and with the very strong by wash at the bottom of each it's almost impossible not to scratch some of the paint on the sides as you go down, hey ho it looked good for a while.

We arrived at the end of the Llangollen on Wednesday and turned onto the Shropshire Union canal heading for Autherley Junction , the end of the SU where we will turn on to the Staffs and Worcs canal. Our summer cruise is not set in stone this year we are looking at Oxford and Stratford on Avon at the moment but things could change.

Back at last, after 5 weeks of broken dongle

This lucky fella has 30 young heifer's to keep happy!!!!

A warm wind less day on the Weston Arm of the Montgomery canal

One of Colin the lockies immaculate locks on the Monty

Just about to start crossing the Pontcysyllte Aquaduct behind Bendigedig

Halfway across the Ponty

Trevor basin, on a very busy day, we stopped to fill up with fuel before turning up under the bridge for Llangollen

Finally I have my dongle back from '3', first it was a suspect sim card, then it was scrambled software in the dongle. "we can't give a new dongle, we have to send it back to the manufacturers sir"!!!. so the whole job took nearly 4 weeks, partly due to my moving about.

We are in Llangollen now, arrived on the 30th Oct, there are eight of us this winter, staying till end of March. During this summers cruise to Leeds and back we have covered 608 miles, 440 locks and used 1123.23 litres of fuel.

Over the last four weeks we have been down the Mongomery, around Ellesmere, were we met up with Bendigedig, and finally up to Llan. Thats all for this year folks, unless something dramatic happens we shall be back on line in April