20 July
Woke up this morning to my birthday! another year gone by! Yesterday we set off down the Trent and Mersey to Fradley junction where we joined the Coventry Canal and headed south stopping to top with water at Fazeley junction where the Birminghan and Fazeley canal heads off to Brum which we covered 2 years ago, we then climbed the 2 locks at Glascote where the Reliant factory used to stand guard with it's resinous smells and cute 3 wheelers standing outside now swept away by the march of progress! Above the 2 locks stands Glascote basin which used to be derelict in the early 90's and I enquired about taking it over and running it but the lease from British Waterways was too short and expensive and they wouldn't guarantee that they would renew the lease once it had been rejuvinated so I left it, glad to see it's now a thriving boatyard again. We motored on to stop for the night at Polesworth and another BBQ before ale tasting at local pub. This morn we set off early to beat the heat and despite the day being still young sweated up the 12 Atherstone locks before calling it a day and mooring above the town bridge, after a bite of lunch we made our way into town to check out shops and more importantly a good pub in which to enjoy a birthday meal and a few drinks this evening!
22 July
We found a pub/hotel which looked good so togged ourselves up in our finery and went to slake our thirst/hunger, the drink was fine but the meal left alot to be desired, so much so we managed to get our money back from the manager. In the morning we set off and moored at lunchtime at Nuneaton, and after walking into town and back set off once again to moor for the night at Hawkesbury junction where the Coventry and North Oxford canals meet, the canals run parallel here with a tight turn overlooked by the Greyhound pub, this used to be an important place back in the working canal days as the boaters would wait here to get their orders for loading coal from the collieries here to take to the power stations and mills to the south, the pub would have been bustling and boaters making the sharp turn would have been under the watchful eye of their fellow boaters and judged on their skill (or lack thereof). The junction was known as Sutton's Stop after the lock keeper here and the stop lock where boats were guaged for tolls. We took our rubbish to the bins which as luck would have it were located by the pub, thirsty work dumping rubbish!! This morning we topped up with water then made the turn onto the N Oxford canal and headed south to moor at Newbold near Rugby, we had just moored (thankfully) when we saw Timothy West aka Captain Crash approaching and watched as he narrowly avoided a collision with a shiny boat coming through the bridgehole behind us, the owner said as he past us ' he might think it's a contact sport, but I don't', tomorrow we will move nearer Rugby and I shall return to Rugeley to collect the van ready for our return home at the end of next week.
23 July
Moved nearer Rugby this morn and I set off back to Rugeley on the train, on the way back the gears went on the van leaving me stranded on a busy roundabout, finally managed to select 5th and with lots of clutch smoke managed to get it into a car park by the boat, whilst waiting for RAC I had a look and found a loose bolt on the linkage on top of the gearbox, as is always the way it was a bugger to get to and the kind man in orange spent 2 hours trying to tighten it, managed it at last but gears aren't as easy to select as they were, oh well at least it's now drivable!
24 July
Still in Rugby looking round the town today, tomorrow we will head of to Braunston.
25 July
Left Rugby this morning and went down to Hilmorton locks 3 miles on, whilst getting water here we decided to stay for the rest of the day as it was a good mooring and don't need to be at Braunston til tomorrow.
26 July
Spent yesterday chilling and watching the chaos at Hillmorton locks, very busy here, the lock keeper told us there had been 79 boats through. Luckily there was a waterside cafe from which to watch! Today we awoke to rain and set off for Braunston 4 miles further on, we climbed the 3 locks then saw a steady stream of boats heading toward us, luckily we had cleared the locks and had a clear run, we arrived at Braunston and moored opposite the Boathouse pub where we shall meet Shelley's friend Olive and Nigel tonite.
27 July
Had a great night with Olive and Nigel, even managed to moor on pub moorings overnight so didn't have far to travel! This morning we moved the boat round to 14 day moorings then went into Daventry for a wander round then back to the boat for lunch then packed up the van and headed home, we shall be in Frome for a bit so blog will be down for a while, I'm sure Shelley will be updating those with Facebook, see you all soon.
15 Aug
Well, we are back from our trip home, we got back yesterday evening after our friend Dave's suprise 60th birthday party. The boat was still where we left it, always a bonus! and this morning topped up with water and headed off down the South Oxford canal, passing the turn for the Grand Union canal where we turned off back at the beginning of May so have completed a big loop, soon after we started up the Napton locks, it was the Cropredy festival this weekend and a lot of boats were coming down, some had waited three and a half hours at the top, good job we were going the other way! The canal here winds around the hillside covering 11 miles to cover 3 miles as the crow flies, we finally moored out in the wilds for a BBQ and had a great veiw over the countryside.
18 Aug
One thing we've noticed on this trip is how bad phone coverage is, 2 days now we've been out of touch, hence no blog, luckily we have now reached Banbury which, if nothing else, at least has a descent phone signal! We enjoyed our BBQ and sat out to watch a great sunset over the Warwickshire countryside, the next morning we set off to moor at Fenny Compton, arriving at lunchtime we decided to check out the ploughmans lunch at the Wharf Inn there, having fed and watered we set off once again toward Cropredy mooring out in the wilds above the Claydon flight of locks and enjoying the sun, although we were moored on a straight, wide section we still managed to get rammed by a hireboat! In the morning we made our way to the top of the locks only to find ourselves behind a hireboat with one man and his 9 or 10 yr old son onboard, the man just sat on the boat and let his son do all the locking (as best he could as the paddles were so stiff both Shelley and I struggled) 'it'll build his muscles up' was the chaps only reply when we pointed out there were now 4 boats waiting as the poor lad was struggling, we helped best we could but were a bit peeved that the man only got off the boat if he really had to and we ended up doing each lock twice! We finally made Cropredy, where the weekend before had seen the Cropredy festival and had been crowded by boats, luckily most had now departed and we found a space above the lock and set off in search of an ice cream. Later, before supper, we walked through the village and found ourselves at the Brasenose Inn with a large sunny garden which was calling out to be sat in so felt obliged to buy a small beverage to enjoy whilst sitting in the sun although most of the beers and ciders had been drunk over the weekend and were waiting for replenishment, luckily they had 1 cider on and a lime and soda for the misses! We stayed in Cropredy overnite and left this morning for Banbury, we arrived about lunchtime and found a mooring despite being very busy, luckily we did as the remaining moorings soon filled up, we spent the afternoon in the town and tomorrow I shall return to Braunston to recover the van.
22 Aug
We spent a few days in Banbury shopping and taking it easy, we were to move on Saturday but the forcast said very windy so stayed put til Sunday, I collected the van and parked up in Banbury and Friday eve we visited the social club next to the canal that said canal users welcome as they had a couple of guitarists playing and found a pub with music on the Saturday, Sunday we set off and headed south before mooring for the night at Upper Heyford, back in the 60's/70's this was not the place to moor as it is at the end of Heyford airbase used by the American airforce with take offs and landings day and night. this morning we carried on through Lower Heyford and on to Kidlington, we had queues at every lock due to the amount of boats out and about. we are moored about 5 miles north of Oxford, our destination for tomorrow.
24 Aug
We made Oxford yesterday morning and were suprised to find plenty of room, we decided to only spend 1 day here as the weather is supposed to change on Thursday and we didn't fancy travelling on the Thames then, we wandered the city in the sun enjoying a bagel and ice cream for lunch, in the evening we found a pub with music, this morning we set off through our last narrow lock of ths trip and onto the Thames to make Abingdon for the rest of the day, we stopped above Abingdon lock for water and to pump the toilet tank, during which time 4 narrowboats passed us, when we finally got going we found the last 4 mooring spots taken by the boats that had passed us, we continued down through the bridge and there were 3 boats occupying 5 spaces so I turned and came back asking on of the boat owners if they would mind moving up but before they did another boat owner, seeing our plight, moved their boat instead, we just fitted with less than a foot to spare, at least we are now moored as we have Dave and Ange visiting on Friday, tomorrow it's supposed to rain so at least we have the town to explore.
28 Aug
Well it's Sunday and our friends have gone home, we had a good day sitting and chatting in the sun on Friday followed by the obligatory bbq enjoying the un British like bank holiday weather, the river was busy with boats (and crews) of all shapes and sizes .Saturday we strolled into the town for a coffe and had no sooner sat down than the typical bank holiday weather began heralded by thunder with everyone heading for shelter from the deluge, we were lucky to get a seat under the canopy from which to enjoy the spectical and coffee, the evening saw us in the pub on the bridge enjoying a steak on a stone and a rather fine red wine, but all good things must come to an end and this morn bid our visitors adieu after breakfast, we'll catch up with them again when we get back to the Kennet and Avon.
30 Aug
We finally left Abingdon and cruised down stream in the sun, as we arrived at Wallingford the 2 boats infront of us could see the moorings were full but failed to notice a boat trying to leave, I thought it prudent to slow down and let him pull away thus securing the vacated space which was a foot longer than we needed, cracking! We had lunch then wandered into town although being bank holiday monday there wasn't much open, so a coffee followed by an ice cream sufficed, that evening we walked round the site of the castle followed by a much needed beer by the water, this morning we set off for Reading, we past the site of the Reading festival with it's hundreds of abandoned tents and piles of rubbish, we managed to find a mooring by Reading bridge at Cavershan park under a new footbridge then I bid farewell to Shell and walked to the station and off to Banbury to collect the van to park up at Burghfield ready for us to return home friday to attend a wedding reception on saturday before returning to continue our trip.
31 Aug
Well today we re entered the Kennet and Avon canal, our journey nearly over, we cruised up to The Cunning Man pub at Burghfield to moor for the weekend and caught the bus back to town, tomorrow we will head back in the van home for the weekend then back on sunday to resume our trip.
6 Sept
We had a good weekend back home ending with one of our friends son's wedding reception which we very much enjoyed, we arrived back at the boat on Sunday afternoon and enjoyed a roast lunch and a glass of red in the pub followed by the rest of the bottle in the garden! Monday morning saw my friend Dave pop over to say hi and we went into Reading in the car, this morning we set off and cruised up the Kennet, through 12 locks and 9 swing and lift bridges before stopping for the evening at Thatcham, tomorrow we will head for Newbury.
20 Sept
Blimey, where have we been, seems like ages since I last blogged, well we made Newbury and moored alongside Victoria park in the sunshine, we spent 2 days here stocking up and giving the charity shops a good seeing to then off to moor at Kintbury, we moored by Dave and Ange's boat and were invited for supper which normally would not have been a problem but unbeknownst to Dave we had been invited down to the Ashbury Manor hotel in Devon that weekend by Ange as a suprise, part of Dave's continuing 60th birthday celebrations, so we had to make sure we didn't spoil the suprise and had to make up excuses as Dave wanted us to go, any road up, we managed to keep a lid on it and after visiting Shelley's mum on the Saturday made our way to Okehampton on Sunday for 4 days eating, drinking, using the spa and making stuff! We arrived early and met up with Dave's daughters and partners who were there for the suprise, we all waited in the dining room and Ange brought Dave in, his face was a picture when he saw us all there especially as he rarely gets to see his girls. We had a great 4 days then returned home via Frome as it was Shelley's mum's birthday so we took he out for a meal, we returned to the boat on Thursday eve, Friday morn saw Shelley catching the train up to London to see a show with her friend Olive returning Saturday afternoon, Sunday we invited Dave and Ange round for lunch (& a drink or 2), after lugging all the empties to the bins on Monday morn we set off to moor in Hungerford just as the rains came down so decided to stay put for the rest of the day, this morning we carried on to arrive at the Crofton pumping station just after lunch, we shall stay here overnight and continue our climb to the summit tomorrow, then at last we shall start the long down hill leg home.
