It was excellent, we had a delightful time.
There was six of us, and we were the only ones there.
Now this doesn't mean that we emptied the restaurant--
it was empty when we got there, and no-one else came in.
So it was a jolly good job we went at all or they would have had no-none in for lunch!
The owner served us, and he had been a Gurkha soldier
in the British Armed forces for many years.
He was proud to have met the Queen, and had a photograph on the wall to prove it.
The food was not dissimilar to Indian food, but milder.
Maybe Gurkha food is to Indian food as Thai is to Chinese.
We stayed on the same mooring at Ansty this evening.
Thursday, 7th October
Now, at last we can 'get on with it'!
We've seen nearly all the people we promised to see from our home area.
So today we set off for Golly--as I call Llangollen.....
Well it's a lot easier to say, and one doesn't run the risk
of losing one's dentures as one says it!
It was a fine day as we set off for Hawkesbury Junction.
This is where I 'did' my first lock last year--the one
which is only about 1' difference in water levels.
This is the end of the Oxford canal and as we took a very sharp right we turned on to the Coventry Canal.
We continued past Marsworth Junction, where The Ashby Canal starts.
Sadly there wasn't enough time to visit it this time.
This is the place where I nearly took the fishermen off their stools last year.
They must have heard I was on my way, as they weren't there today.
We continued round the edge of Nuneaton and moored in a lovely spot
near Mancetter, in the country on our own.
The views from here are far reaching and very rural.
I had always imagined North Warwickshire to be all coal mines and slagheaps,
but it certainly is not, and there is a lot of countryside up here.
The weather was magnificent today, a real Autumn day--
clear blue skies, brilliant sunshine and crisp fresh air.
Friday, 8th October
Trev serviced the engine and changed the oil today before we set off.
The oil has to be changed every two hundred and fifty hours.
We don't have a mileometer on the boat,
we have a indicator which tells us how many hours we've done.
We travelled to Atherstone, through more beautiful countryside.
At Atherstone we had a flight of eleven locks to do.
Trev went ahead and did the locks and I steered.
This is a very pretty flight, and the BW linesman obviously takes great pride in his work.
He might not have been so happy if he had seen the way one boater
was treating his lock gates.
As we were going down, we met a boat coming up, single handing
(boating parlance for being on his own).
Trev went to open the lock gates to let him in, but this fellow just barged at them
in his boat and forced them open with an incredible thud.
(Is this where the word 'barge' comes from?)
Trev said "I was just going to open the gate for you."
No reply. "You'll damage the gates for other people if you do that," siad Trev.
Still no reply, so Trev left him to it, and he got no help from us.
We continued on past Barry Hawkins's boatyard at Glascote, where diesel was 31p per litre.
We'd paid 35p back at Rugby.
And we moored up by Bridge 48, in the country again,
but not as peaceful as there was a busy road and a railway nearby.
However, the noise died down later in the evening and we had a peaceful night.
Trev topped up the batteries--quite an operation as we have seven of them.
We're keeping the fire going all the time now.
Although it gets a bit hot some times, it's lovely in the evenings.
Saturday, 9th October
Another beautiful Autumn day.
Now today is Saturday, and guess what........
Yes we woke to a fishing competition all around us!
At each end of the boat were fishermen.
Oh dear, we would have to run the gamut of their abuse before we could escape.
Or so we thought, but we were wrong.
Trev went to talk to the nearest fisherman,
and asked him which part of the canal we should steer the boat through.
The middle, he was told, and luckily there were only thirteen of them!
So we set off as slowly as we could, trying not to rev the engine and churn up the bottom.
They all smiled at us nicely as we went by and our faith in fishermen was quite restored.
Until Polesworth!
Here we had the misfortune to meet a most obnoxious angler.
We were pulling in very slowly to moor,
so as not to disturb a man who was fishing with his son.
He was actually fishing within about ten yards of the mooring point.
Over he strides, and asks us if we've ever heard of the twenty-five yard rule.
Well, no, we hadn't actually.
He told us that boats shouldn't moor within twenty-five yards of an angler.
He was quite abusive and shouted a lot.
Trev asked him to stop shouting please, and I asked him where we could find this rule.
In a booklet produced by BW fifteen years ago he said.
But he said there was no point in talking to us, boaters never listen!
That was rich, coming from an angler!
Any way, he said, I suppose you're just hiring the boat and don't care.
No, I said, actually we live on the boat and are always most conscientious
about not annoying other canal users.
And we had never seen or heard of the twenty-five yard rule
and it certainly wasn't mentioned in the terms of our licence.
"Well," he said. "I'm giving this lad tuition and you've stirred up all the silt."
I pointed out that we'd stopped well short of them and hadn't disturbed the silt,
but we were getting nowhere fast and decided to call it a day and move on.
"Please note we're moving on politely," I said as we disappeared through the bridge!
We passed the ruins of Alvecote Priory, and into Staffordshire,
and on to Fazeley Junction.
Since just south of Banbury on the Oxford Canal,
we'd been covering canals we'd done before,
but at Fazeley, we were on new territory.
We travelled to just past Hopwas and moored for the night.
On the way we'd picked up quite a bit of wood, which Trev sawed ready for the fire.
FRADLEY JUNCTION
Sunday, 10th October
An uneventful day, you'll be disappOinted to hear!
Well. we can't keep picking fights with fishermen, we'll get a bad name!
We went past Huddlesford Junction, where the Wyrley and Essington Canal
used to branch off for Birmingham, but sadly now no more,
except for a short arm used by the Lichfield Boating Club.
Then we came to Fradley Junction, a very pretty spot.
Here we turned left on to The Trent & Mersey Canal.
As we went through Woodend Lock, there was a big box of windfall apples
with a sign telling us to help ourselves.
So we did, and I later made us an apple pie.
We moored up near Handsacre, all on our own.
How I love these quiet rural moorings all on our own.
Monday, 11th October
We went on to Great Haywood today, where the Trent & Mersey meets the Staffs & Worcs Canal.
APPROACHING GREAT HAYWOOD
We've been to Great Haywood before, but we arrived via the Staffs & Worcs.
We passed Shugborough Hall, which we visited last time we were here.
We turned left on to the Staffs & Worcs and travelled about a mile to moor up in Tixall Wide.
This is an unusually wide area for a canal. When the canal was built, the owners of Tixall House
requested that the canal be made wider here in order that their view would not be compromised. The house is now long gone, but this lovely spot remians.
There are lots of birds to see, and it's great to have such a big area to turn the boat in.
TIXALL WIDE IN THE POURING RAIN
Friends of ours, Joy & David on "Jessop" were moored here,
and we spent the evening together, swopping adventures.
Tuesday, 12th October
October 12th is Mop Day in Warwick!
When I was a child the annual fair in Warwick was held
on the first Saturday after the 12th of October.
Well, it still is.
It's called The Mop Fair, because in the old days it was a hiring fair
and people looking for work would go with the tools of their trade in their hand
to show what kind of work they did, in the hope of being hired to work.
Well, that's the story I was told, and I believe it!
The Mop Fair is held in Stratford-on-Avon on the 12th, and then moves on to Warwick.
How exciting that all was to a child in the forties!
Our house was on Stratford Road in Warwick, and all day long, on the 13th,
the lorries would rumble past the house, with all the different rides
and stalls and sideshows packed on to them.
The lorries were huge and often towed two or three trailers
including the beautiful old showmen's wagons, where the families lived.
The women and children would be in the wagons looking out, and the windows,
beautifully etched, some bow windows, sparkled in the sun.
These wagons were huge affairs, at least twenty feet long, I suppose,
high off the ground, and must have been twelve or fifteen feet high.
I would stand in our front garden, behind the hedge, watching them all pass by.
My mother insisted I stay behind the hedge, so I didn't get kidnapped!
Heigh ho--the golden days of childhood.
We saved our pocket money up for weeks to go to the Mop.
And we always went in the evening, when it was dark
and that was pretty special too,
because I don't remember going out in the dark much when we were children.
But I digress.....
Today we had a very special visitor.
Alice, who is the most senior person to have visited our boat,
came with her son, Pete.
I was at school with Pete's wife, Lesley, and she and Pete
emigrated to Canada many years ago.
Every year Pete comes to see his mum and for the last two years
he's been to see us on the boat.
Alice came to see us last year when we were moored in Braunston,
but this year, she travelled up to Great Haywood to see us,
and we all went for a short cruise.
Alice hadn't been for a cruise on a narrowboat before,
so we were delighted to be able to give her a new experience.
At ninety-five, there can't be too many things you haven't done!
Though Alice is quite an adventurer-she's just come back from six weeks in France!
PETE & ALICE
We stayed a second night on Tixall Wide.
Tomorrow we shall set off for Penkridge,
and will meet up with Trev's cousin and her husband.
We know people everywhere!
Home Page
Llangollen Trip, Main Page
Previous Page
Next Page