Plum jam

We pulled pins at 07.45 on Monday with the aim of getting through Tamworth and mooring on the other side of the town. But on the way as we were passing an out of town shopping centre ,we just had to stop and go and have a look around.....said Carolyn.

A couple of hours later and we were on our way again. They gave good weather but it hammered down most of the morning . Still we didn't mind getting wet . We enjoy it what ever the weather throws at us.

      We passed this hire van....What letter would a naughty minded person paint on this van...
                               You thought it!!! ......not me... I thought a T or a B

                                     Our mooring for the night opposite Tamworth golf course.

 Not long after mooring this old man and his dog stopped talking to us and before long he was showing us all the tricks the dog could do....like balancing a biscuit on his nose then tossing it in the air and catching it in his mouth...good boy


Tuesday morning we pulled pins at 07.15 as we wanted to get up the Atherstone flight of 11 locks as early as possible.

                      Saw this under a motorway bridge....Carolyn reckons its a Banksy.

                                                    What Carolyn needs to pack the fags in.

 Half way up Atherstone locks we came across this plum tree. All the ones at the bottom of the tree had been picked but it was loaded at the top. So it was out with the fishing landing net and we soon had enough to make several pots of jam.

                                                       Look what I've got !!!!

                                     We have also now started to collect wood for the fire.

                                                  Our mooring for Tuesday night.

We also picked some blackberries and apples. So tonight we have lovely crumble for dessert. yum!

Tomorrow we will pull pins a bit later in the morning. They give rain early in the morning and clearing later. But when can you believe what the weather man says.

                                    Happy Days

RCR to the rescue

Later on Saturday we got a call from Pete at River Canal Rescue to say that they had located a new lever assembly. The only problem was it was in Middlewich in Cheshire. The plan was for an RCR man to pick it up and drive it down to Pete . With the time getting on Pete said it would now be tomorrow before he gets back to us. That was no great problem for us.

 At 11.15 on Sunday morning Pete from RCR turned up with the new lever assembly and had it fitted in no time at all.

                                All fitted and it is a lot smoother to use than the old one.

What a great service that was. It did cost us £50 excess on top of our yearly policy of £130, but when you consider the part alone was £238 and what they did to get us going again in such a short time it was money well spent.

                                      Happy Days

oops

We were up at 06.30 on Saturday and ready to pull pins at 07.15. We started the engine untied the mooring lines and put Inca into gear.

                          The single lever that puts the engine into gear and operates the throttle.

                                                       OOPS...... And Inca goes nowhere.

                                                                             W T F 

For some bizarre reason the lever had snapped off leaving us stranded. Luckily we are members of the  River and Canal rescue ( The AA of the waterways ) and after a call at 08.30 we had a visit from Pete and his apprentice Dillon at 10.30.

They removed the whole assembly and took it away to try and find a replacement. In the meantime we are stuck in Hopwas.

We will update on progress.................

                                                    Happy Days 

Back to Hopwas

We pulled pins at 07.15 on Thursday as we wanted to get from Rugeley to Hopwas which is only 15 miles away but on a narrowboat it was going to take us 7 hours.

                                       Statue at the entrance to the former Armitage tunnel.

  Blimey this is narrow. Just enough room for 1 boat. It used to be a tunnel but due to coal mining and subsidence the tunnel was eventually opened out. You have to send a crew member ahead on foot to make sure it is clear as you can not see through to the other end.

                      These kids have good fun with a swing over the canal and a slide into it.

                                                       Always Happy when she is locking

                                                     Carolyn liked this boat name.

                                                                 But I liked this one.

                                                         No....you are not coming aboard.

It took us 7 and a half hours to reach Hopwas and because Carolyn was using the washing machine we filled up with water twice on the way.

We managed to get one of the last available moorings in Hopwas just as you go out of the village about 200 yards past the 2 pubs. 

Our mooring is on a very narrow stretch. There is plenty of room for 1 boat to pass but lets hope 2 don't meet next to us.

Dusk from our side hatch looking at the Lichfield mast. At over 1000 feet high it dominates the skyline.

 

The weather forecast for Friday is heavy rain so we intend to sit tight here then move again on Saturday. We have good TV reception and more than 15 megs of Internet.

 

Happy Days

Tixall wide

It has been a very chilled (lazy) few days. We arrived at Tixall wide on Friday and intended leaving on Monday but we enjoyed it so much we stayed on a bit longer.

                                 Saturday morning and the sun coming up over Tixall wide.

 We had a walk into Great Hayward and saw this road ....It nearly says Abbie (Grand daughter).

                        We then walked over this very old footbridge to Shugborough Hall.

                         But when we saw it was £15 each to get in we quickly turned around.
                                                      

                                                     And went back over the bridge.

 On Saturday a boat moored up behind us flying the flag of Devon. It was Paul and Jill from Plymouth on narrow boat Falcon. It turns out that they had the same dream as us and moved aboard 12 months before us. They even bought Falcon through the same Agents as us. We had a great weekend and really enjoyed their company and we look forward to meeting up with them again .

                                                The sun going down over Tixall.

                                           Its not a bad view on the other side of Inca.

On Tuesday morning we had a visit from Wilson covers to measure for our new rear pram cover on Inca. He just measured for the supporting bars and will go away and bend them to shape and then come back at a later date with the bars. He will fit the bars and then make a pattern of the cover. Then at a later date again he will be back to fit the finished cover.

                                                 Dusk at Tixall on our last night.

We decided to have an early start on Wednesday as we wanted to fill with water and get rid of the rubbish and waste at Haywood junction then get to rugeley by mid day to get some essential supplies. But as you can see it was a bit like pea soup at 07.15.

               Another sunken boat and we were told the guy was living on it when it sank.

                            Speed camera and police boat as you approach Rugeley. (dummy)

We managed to get a mooring in nearly the exact same place we had here last week. So it was not far into the town . I wanted to get a machine to record the TV as we sometimes miss not having sky+. So for a hundred quid we got a recorder from Argos with most of the features of sky+. ...Just need now to understand how it works.

 

With the essential supplies stowed onboard (above picture) it was off for a walk around the town and then another early start tomorrow as we make our way towards the Ashby canal.

                        Happy Days