Sandon to "Great friends"

So frequent flyers to this blog will possibly know of our association with Geoff and Margaret that started way back in 2015   HERE   when four narrow boats went over the ocean together called Crossing the Wash from Boston in Lincolnshire to Wisbech which is possible in Norfolk...  It was a great adventure for all the boaters involved and such an experience makes friends for life (Geoff and Margaret).  

So the other day when Nev from NB Percy  said he'd passed by Geoff we definitely  wanted to catch them up.  Geoff is the sort of boater who is at place A for a day or seven then in a blink of an eye is four counties away when he's on a mission.  

Well we were on his tail. 

We stopped at David's favourite shop, M&S Foodstore at Stone but this time I went in purely for essentials.  Last year David went in and spent £90 on treats and no food....  but the treats were delicious.

He did the water top up while I was in there.  I spent £42 and got lots of meals sorted. 

We worked nicely through the flight at Stone meeting all sorts of lovely folk, a Welsh couple of advanced years in a wee cruiser, the wife told me how many wonderful memories the boat held for them and here they are still boating and on the surface of it still coping, but she said her daughter wants them to give it up as they worry about them.... My advice was to carry on as this life keeps you younger and fitter.

What would you say Reader?

Another chap at the service point was telling me that he had recently had to give up his CART residential mooring in Stone as CART had given the space behind him to a violent drug addict who when asked to keep his noise down had threatened to kill him and set his boat on fire....  

He was pretty upset about his lack of recourse.

The water levels were pretty low as we got to the middle of the flight, passing boaters had spoken of the Harecastle closing and The Cauldon Canal too, with this in mind, as we got to two very close together locks and set against us with a boat approaching, I walked up to check the approaching boats plans then set the lower of the two for them giving them a quicker passage.  I went off to make coffee. Some twenty minutes or so later they came past and thanked me, but also said she had closed the bottom gates of the upper lock to preserve water.  

This somewhat irked me. 

The next place I had wanted to visit was The Plume of Feathers at Barlaston but neither of us could face the thought of food again so quickly, so we went passed but the car park was rammed!   

We'd eaten at the Plume of Feathers with daughter Verity and SIL Mitchell (NZ) a few years ago (David has just told me last year but I simply can't believe it),  what with Covid playing timeline tricks on us all I can't be sure how many years it was but today as we passed a NB with a middle-aged male only crew, casting off after leaving the pub of about 6 or 7 I asked if the food was still good?  He replied that he didn't know as their lunch had been a liquid one....!

We moored up in a sunny spot that was good for the jolly old SP (Solar Panels) and I messaged Geoff to ask how far they had got today. 

No reply.

Later, only a wee bit later a knock and a friendly voice saying that he'd recognise that bald head anywhere (David he meant not me) and Geoff had walked down 100 metres to say Hello. We walked back to have tea and a good catch up with him and Margaret in the comfort of NB Seyella.

Good times, a little of what Boating is all about, meeting friends in unexpected settings and having a good laugh, actually not just boating but Life is about.

We will make apoint of catching up with both of Mr & Mrs Seyella's or "Group Captain" next year, I still sometimes refer to Geoff as, because he was the Leader of our Merry Band of Boaters to The Wash and across it.

Geoff with crew member Amber,  Margaret was inside Seyella as we departed.

Supper was nibbles and a nice glass of, and a Happy Birthday to Margaret tomorrow, she will be an age to be proud of. 

Nearly ready to go.... oh no I'm not quite.

 So cruising started in earnest today, we were moored up just north of Weston, but oh my, the sun was shining, it just seemed too good an opportunity to miss, so we went for it.  David, in enquiring tones asked if I was okay to cruise today, I was as we were only going about thirty minutes northwards to Sandon.  A booking was made and a good thing too as there were only two slots available at The Dog and Doublet.  

We moored up in a sunny gap in the trees suitable for a longer afternoons sun on the solar panels and in the smart clothes I had especially brought for such a purpose.  In the event we sat in the courtyard instead of the dining room and yes we really enjoyed it.

For a short time we pretended we were in Italy.

 So the three courses took up most of the afternoon and we retired to WaL for coffee and petit fours other wise known as chocolate.

No supper was required, but lunch was walnut pate, herby crust chicken with creamy leeks and spinach, I hate spinach but this was delicious, cheesecake, lemon ice-cream and blackcurrant sauce.

Proper proper boat will start tomorrow.

Here we are again, happy as can be....

Greetings dear Reader, yes I expect you thought we'd left the country, but no.  

We've been tucked up at home awaiting the birth of another beloved grandchild in this case a girl, mother and baby had a bumpy start after she made a lightning entrance to this world, the midwife managed to catch her, but mother was on the poorly side and an SOS call was made.  So although it was just heavenly to be with her big darling sister for some time it's pretty wonderful to be back on WaL.

We had a wonderful quick journey up from the south coast, one of the best ever.  We were to have travelled up the afternoon before but as I had been up four times the previous night with Darling Big Sister we delayed it to the next morning, we were all packed and ready so decided to leave 05:30-06:00, which we did and what a jolly good thing too as Extinction Rebellion were out in force on "Our" section of the M25 that day shortly after we passed through.

Funnily enough I support ER's aims but not their methods. 

Please welcome Emma to the world.

and her big sister.  This is us having a picnic in the park. Happy happy days.

We left Great Haywood Marina, still unsure until we approached the marina entrance if we would go north or south, in the event I won and we went north!

Here below is us, we were spotted and photographed by Nev Wells from NB Percy as we came out of the marina entrance, you can read it all here   HERE, it was lovely sunshine but I was very soon chilly when the clouds moved in front of the sun, but that's September for you.

Thank you Nev for allowing me to use your photo.

We had decided to have a bash at the Four Counties Ring.  We've not done it before, but some years ago ex-boaters Steve and Denise from then NB Riversides Escapes another Fernwood Boat and a beauty at that, wrote out for us detailed notes for the Ring as they particularly liked it.  Thank you Denise if you still read the blog from your Motorhome.

Well you know what it's like when one half of the boat crew think one thing and the other half think another...?  Well I had quite thought that we would find the first sunny spot and moor up, the boat looked like a bomb had hit it and I wanted a nap after driving.  David on the other hand said 

"WHAT?"  

"Moor up?  We've only just got started" 

So on we went for ages, well an hour, we did moor up just outside Weston.  I had also wanted to go to all the fabulous pubs on this section, the trouble is they are a bit close together and that would mean having a blow out meal each day for three days.....

So we passed by The Saracens Head at Weston, with the firm intention of driving there from Great Haywood on our return.  

 Just north of Weston on a paddock were approximately 200-300 Canadian Geese, ghastly creatures to my mind but I must try to be more like Chris Packham and love them.... but that will take a while.

Supper was quiche, coleslaw with peaches and cream to follow.  

I was in bed at 8pm and lights out at ten past.  Seems Grandma's take longer to get over broken nights than when I was in my 20's, I don't know why. 

Oh boy this sun is a bit much, but hey the boats are all pretty today.

 By the time David got back from the car run the sun had come out properly so we stayed put.  I seem to remember a football match England v Denmark... 

 

We got chatting to the couple on the boat behind, we talked toilets, well we listened and they told us about their toilet.  It's a gas toilet!  

Now I had heard a small amount about gas toilets, but frankly Reader I thought the concept was a April Fool's joke.  I mean would you sit atop a gas burner????

But, it seems I was wrong, firstly all products are incinerated to an ashtray and in the winter the loo seat is warm to the touch!  They insist there is NO SMELL at all,  their boat is a gas free boat apart from the loo so it costs a gas bottle every month to six weeks or theirs does.  

I still reserve judgement though.

We didn't share our recent story.

So we made our way to Braunston with the intension of going down to water up and drop off the rubbish and as we crept past the moored boats "Hey David!" we looked over our shoulders and there were Patsy and Tony form NB Pedal.  

David breasted up against them and we yakked and yakked for a good few hours.

We had first met them on the Kennet and Avon canal back in 2013 when we were lock buddies on the dreaded Caen Flight.

The lovely Tony and Patsy.

WaL slipped away at about 8:30pm save disturbing all the moored boaters in the morning when a very early start was on the cards to avoid the heat.  

We moored on the North Oxford canal miles from anyone and the next morning very early we set off for Hilmorton.

On we went to Hawkesbury Junction and The Greyhound pub, (I had steak and stilton pie and the pastry was beautifully crisp underneath).  

We had moored up button to button, as we always do on popular moorings and here there were not many spaces, I had thought the wee boat in front of us was unoccupied but no the owner returned with two carrier bags of shopping.  

I spoke to him apologising if he felt cramped but he was fine.  We chatted about how Covid had impacted him and other grandparents who hadn't seen their families for months and months, his own grandchildren are in Wales and he didn't fancy the train journey yet.

His boat NB Bosley was a wee thing 27'9".  He said his daughters are unsure that he should continue this boating liveaboard life but he said it keeps him young.  Then he very sweetly said how pleased he was that we had moored up behind him, wasn't that nice?

Crack of dawn, to avoid the heat, we crept away as silently as we could so as not to disturb the nice gentleman.

Much later in the day we did the Athlestone Flight.  Now it was a Wednesday, and on a Wednesday there is a group of volunteers who are a Great Gang of Guys.  They have been together years having fun away from all wives and wifely supervision.  

I had a right laugh with one chap, but I said that on a different trip the three volunteers stayed at the top lock, which although I don't feel that the volunteers should just be doing the lock wheeling all day, it was a bit disappointing he simple said make sure you come though on a Wednesday!!  So that is my advice to you all.

Walking down to the next lock in the town two ladies said how much they liked my skirt.  Nice to hear I must say but this was the second time that day.  David says the third time as he had complimented me too.  Now this skirt is years old.  I had told David that I was going to buy myself two new summer boating skirts as these two I have date almost back to the millennium.... almost but now I have delayed their humane cull for another year.

Reader this is the earliest photo I can find of said skirt, 2015, I am still wearing the top and cardi too, I feel I should buy more clothes.

We moored up near Willingdon to avoid the worst of the heat.  I sat in the shade of the boat trying to hide from the sun, it was scorching, in the end I went inside WaL.

Two amazing boats and their paint jobs in the region of Rugby, firstly  this one, NB Scribendi   HERE   its a library boat specialising in poetry, out of shot was a film crew there too.

and the other one;

I don't think this one was a "Special" boat like the one above but I thought them both really stunningly gorgeous.  I wonder if Adam would call them "A bold choice of colour"?

I didn't catch the name of this one but inside it was most colourful too.  I complimented the owner.

The next day proved trying for David.  He started off with a 20 mile plus bike ride to put the car back into our marina then cycle back to Whittington, then hours helming the boat in the hot sun, with drinks and a good hat.

  

We were aiming for Great Haywood, but the heat and sun proved too much and with the sight of a straight bit of armco north of Rugby we suddenly stopped and David just wilted and had a good sleep inside the boat as it was just too darn hot.  

It's such a waste of good weather, we've all waited in the cold for so long then all of a sudden it feels like we are on the equator.

The next morning and again early to get to the marina early and get going home on the road.  At Colwich lock which is often a bottleneck there was a big queue mostly due to a paddle being out of action.  But we were told that the day before when the paddle broke there were queues of two hours at one point.  Can you imagine how David would have coped?

Below is Holly.  If you haven't heard of Holly, have a peep        HERE  This lovely young couple have done this attractive Day Launch up as a cafe and have a Vlog instead of a blog.  I had recognised them yesterday in Rugeley centre in their canoe and exchanged a few words with them.  

They actually live on NB Zero behind the cafe boat.

The sun proved too much here and we stopped.  Cannock Chase begins to come into view.

So finally back to our Marina.  We prepped the boat for our departure and then later we headed home.  Not sure when we will be back, there's David's birthday to be celebrated, a new grandchild to be soon welcomed, so it will be a while till we are back but lets hope for an Indian Summer so we can come out and have more fun. 

Does anyone know if the Four Counties Ring is going to have closures this autumn?

Bye for now Reader.    

  

A pleasant haul to Napton.

We all had a lovely few days bowling along together making our way northwards up the South Oxford canal.  Frequent Flyers to this blog might remember that Amanda has a love of locking, an unusual love of doing locks so it seemed only sensible and KIND to get through the Napton Flight before we allowed them to leave.

You can see from the photo below that the weather was definitely changeable but I am not sure that we had much rain, just the threat of it, a bit at nights maybe.

Amanda taking her pleasure at Pigeon Lock

This is her special new coat too, so nice that the two of them have matching outfits. 

This is Dashwood lock where David C earned his lunch.  The trouble with allowing him to work the locks is that he gasses like mad and holds the show up.

So this is Dashwood Lock, this is the lock that had caused problems when the gate beam fell off.  This beam was either fitted in 2003 or 2008, I was told but can't remember now but I wonder what is the average time a beam serves?

You can see that they have now fitted a temporary arm to the, there's a sign attached saying to handle with care, it had a fair bit of movement when we pushed it as carefully and as gently as we could and I urge others to do the same!

Dashwood lock and the temporary arm.

Use this with the care you'd give a newborn baby.

Aynho Lock, the diamond shaped lock, filled mostly by water from the river Cherwell.

If you look carefully at the photo below you can see that WaL's nose is pointing to the canal, but the river Cherwell here feeds directly into the canal and into Aynho Lock.  It times of high rainfall this short section of the canal can go onto red boards.  The next lock is only just out of sight around the corner but it can be closed.  Not today thought but as I walked to the next tlock water was pouring over the lock gates. 

River Cherwell comes into the lock but also passes immediately to the left under the bridge.

Ooooo the tide took him!!!

There's the next lock.

Just look at the bendy lock landing here!

 

We made good progress, well its easy with two dedicated crew let alone three.  Someone always available to make the tea and over the course of the next few days we made it up the Claydon Flight where we met the lovely Frankie, she is the CART lady who attends, with others,  the Claydon Flight each morning near enough to ensure the water is flowing down and the pounds are full.

Frankie.

Les Deux Filles, well we're getting on a bit to be called filles, we met at college 43 years ago.

Amanda filming (or trying to) while doing a lock for her Instagram page. 

Amanda rescued this toad from being crushed by WaL in the lock and David L relocated it.

We easily did the Napton flight one sunny day, there were lots of boats using the flight so it was a easy one with boats in and out of empty locks.

On we went to the pub which is now a private house, but its on a main road where David could retrieve our car and drive The Boat Sharers to be reunited with their own car somewhere in another county.

As always we had had a fine time with the fine company, and we thank them for all their help.

  

Hanging around like a bad smell.

Now where was I?

Oh yes a nasty smell at the back of WaL everso close to my pillow...  

This had been evident for a few days now.  It could only be one thing..... yes, the thing which boaters speak of no end when in the company of other boaters.  The toilet or rather the poo tank.

We knew we were a bit on the full side but we had been full too in the past before but not experienced this aroma....Its been hot, is that the reason?  

David talked it over with David Lewis (Boat Sharer and the man I love) and David L donned his overalls and began the great poo investigation.  Not for the feint hearted, ironically my husband David, isn't remotely squeamish about poo, he has said on many occasions that he'd worked all his life up to his knees in poo (dairy cows, slightly different, smells better too).

Yes there he is dan the 'ole.

This is where our bikes live normally and my wellies.

Its a big cupboard for a narrow boat but not so big for a tall man.

"I have good and bad news" he says from down in the depths, I wanted the bad news first.

"The bad news is there's no good news"  I think I heard a chuckle then.

"There's foul water sloshing around".... Now that is a nasty word to hear, sloshing let alone foul.

So what had happened was the breather on the tank had become blocked, this had caused the tank to become pressurised.

First thing was to clear the breather, this was rock solid and a wooden stick didn't touch it.  Luckily, a lawn mowing contractor nearby had a thick and hearty piece of wire to donate.  A bit of ramming and thumping got it.

Whilst we were on the service pontoon pumping out, ramming and thumping, the nice man at Thrupp said he'd had a similar issue but with a bee.  I think a sort of wild bee that makes a home out of mud, and this mud in his breather vent had turned to concrete, so Reader you are warned.

 

Rock solid gunk

Head of the bit that had failed.

All the thread had corroded 

So David L cleared the breather and did some other stuff.  It was a Sunday when all this was going on, after pumping out and fixing up a temporary repair and we remaining three promised on our honours not to use the loo until Monday morning, we went to the pub like all good boaters, when the pair of them hot footed up to Banbury and my David was taken somewhere he had never been before, no not a Lap Dancing Club but to a Plumbing Centre where the jolly lovely men rigged up a replacement cobbling two bits together and this below is the result. 

 

Clean and sparkly with working thread and everything.

David L reckoned it was only a matter of time before it was a much much worse problem.

Clean, sparkly and working.

So then that "Sloshing" we used a £20 hand pump for the majority of it and for the rest.....

Yes nappies.  A bag of nappies from Lidl costing £5 were shoved dan the 'ole and soaked pretty much all the rest.  This was a bit of a comical sight as Amanda, David and Lisa were leaning hard over to get the last dregs of slosh over to David L holding the nappy.  

Bingo.

So I read nine years ago in a magazine that no matter what toilet a boater choses, pump out or a "Bucket and chuck it" it will fail.  We are really hoping that we have had our turn and no more.

Reader;  The smell has gone too.

Eternally and utterly sputterly  grateful to David L or Darling as I call him.

 

A week at Thrupp

A week in one place will sound like hell on earth to many boaters of my acquaintance Reader, but not for us when here.  There are masses of places to visit within a hours drive from here.  We didn't have a car one time but easily hired one from Oxford airport just a short drive from here, of course that was pre-Covid before the world shifted on it's axis.

A short drive away in the village of Wendlebury where they held their Garden Festival with about ten gardens open to the public in aid of the village church which was delightful with a huge range of garden styles, one of them with a swimming pool they had had installed during lockdown, it looked like a hot tub but had a big jet in it so you could "Swim".  Nice cream teas served in the village hall too.  We were the furthest travelled that day to view having come from Sussex to amazed faces.  

From Thrupp there are a myriad of footpaths, we took one through a field of flowers and watched the Red Kites   HERE    for the benefit of my Reader in Brazil, these are now prolific hawks but we were down to a handful of pairs in Wales in the 1070's.  I still love to watch them when we are on the boat as we don't have them in Sussex, YET.

On a previous visit here there were dozens of Red Kites as the farmer gathered in his hay crop.

Church interior at Hampton Poyle, this church dates back virtually a thousand years, yes a thousand!

Best part of a walk on a hot day, The Bell at Hampton Poyle.  Good menu, we'll come here next time for a treat.

One of the best English Gardens is Hidcote near Chipping Camden and another cracker is Kiftsgate Court which almost adjoins Hidcote and at the turn of the C19th-C20th the two wealthy gardening nuts became the greatest chums.

Hidcote    HERE

Kiftsgate Court    HERE

Tintinhull     HERE.

We spent the best part of the day doing both as we would always do when even remotely passing Gloucestershire.  We left the key under the mat of WaL like you do when you are expecting guests.  
Guess who?

Eating pretty gorgeous ice-creams from Annie's Tearooms.

Kiftsgate Court, The Water Garden, what a place in which to ponder. 

A swing seat with a view to die for.

Look carefully and you might spot the swing seat in the wee pavilion.

The other man in my life, beloved David #2

 Yes when we returned from our jaunt The Boat Sharers, Amanda and Darling David Lewis had arrived, unpacked, washed up and were investigating the source of a nasty smell on WaL.....

Supper was poached salmon, new pots and salad treats from M&S our new favourite food store.