Happy New Year and many Happy Days
Sunday, 1 January 2017
Saturday, 31 December 2016
Narrow locks
After meeting up with Keith and Ann ( NB Oakfield ) and then having a good old catch up we pulled pins the following morning at 09.10 and made the short cruise towards Hillmorton locks. After several months of double locks it made a change to get back to the single ones. Hillmorton locks are the most used locks in all of the country ,but luckily not so well used at this time of year so we made good time down the flight of three locks. Although they are single locks there are two locks side by side which helps to speed locking up and down when it’s busy in high season.
Locking down was made a lot easier when Ann helped us to lock down the flight.
At the bottom of the locks who should we meet up with but our friend Chris on Nb Bosley . We first met Chris over three and a half years ago at the top of Hillmorton and have met up several times since then . After a chat and a catch up we said our goodbyes and will no doubt meet up again when we head up North in the Spring.
How lucky where we? .Passing Rugby Golf course and we heard the crack of a wood hitting a golf ball . The next thing we heard was a shout of Four as this golf ball went whizzing past our heads. It missed us by only a couple of feet and landed on the towpath in front of us. We are now going to buy a lottery ticket and hopefully we will be lucky again.
Arriving at Brownsover and we were surprised to find that the moorings on the park side were empty and there were only two boats on the towpath side. This will do us for a few days and allow us to chill out and do a bit of shopping in the retail parks which are below the moorings Not to mention it’s a good place for our number one Daughter Chloe to drop off our number one Granddaughter Curly who is coming up from Devon for a week..
Happy Days
Thursday, 29 December 2016
Oh! Deer
We pulled pins from Braunston at 10.35 and after a stop on the services next to Midland swindlers Chandlers we headed off out in to the country. It’s a stretch of canal we always enjoy cruising and are always rewarded by seeing all sorts of birds and animals along the way. We always get a funny look from this silly old Goat whenever we pass.
It’s not very often that we ever see any deer during our travels although there are thousands in the countryside . I think these might be Roe deer although I could be wrong.
We are miles from the Sea but there are hundreds of these small Gulls in the fields around Braunston.
Passing all these Ewes and it looks like the Ram has done his job as there’s a blue ink mark on all of them to show that he has been vey efficient at his job …If I was ever to be reincarnated I would like to be a Ram !. For some reason Carolyn is in the background laughing ..
Not long out of Braunston and who should we come across but our friends Keith and Ann on NB Oakfield. With an invitation to stop and have a catch up with a cuppa and a glass of wine or three how could we refuse. We have not seen Keith and Ann for nearly 12 months so it was good to meet up and be invited onto their delightfully fitted out boat . At least it wont be as long till we meet again , see you both soon !
Tomorrow we will have an early start and make our way towards Hillmorton and then down the flight of three locks and then cruise in to Rugby. Then if we can pick up a mooring at Brownsover we will spend a couple of days for me to chill and Carolyn to hit the shops…
Happy Days
Tuesday, 27 December 2016
The missing post
For some Bizarre reason I forgot to put up this post to the blog. I am usually a few days behind with the blog and sometimes have one or two blogs written and ready to post. Probably due to Christmas and copious amounts of the Red stuff I
TO NORTON JUNCTION ………..
After a visit from Ryan on his coalboat Southern Cross we pulled pins at 09.10 and started our cruise towards The Buckby flight of locks.
Passing the Bedazzled man and it was good to see him in his Father Christmas outfit . Please can we have no comments like I had before, that he looks just like me !!
I always try to get this picture on the long straight before Buckby locks . It shows us in the middle doing 2 or 3 mph then on the right we have the M1 with cars doing 70 plus mph and then on the left The high speed train doing 125 mph.I Could do with a aeroplane going over head at 500 mph just to make it a perfect picture.
Passing the wine boat at the bottom of Buckby. They like us are from Devon and we always stop for a chat when we pass each other .
Going up the flight and for some reason there’s a giant inflatable Snowman in the garden centre.
This flight of locks have been closed for several weeks to have repairs carried out on them . You may remember a post I did 12 months ago where I put up a picture of a sheet of steel covering up a big hole in the side of a lock. Well this is the repaired lock now. What was very surprising is that as we emptied the lock water poured through the joints of this so called repair. Looking at the brickwork above the repair it seems to me that it’s a bit of a bodge/temporary permanent job.
We were lucky to share our passage up the flight with NB Ekusna . They were taking the boat to ABNB boat sales . I must admit the boat looked to be in very good condition and talking to the owner it has a very high class fit out and no money has been spared in maintaining this boat to a very high standard. Click on the link to view the boat http://www.abnb.co.uk/boat_pages/3058web/3058abnb.php?BoatID=3058
We didn’t expect to see any Wyvern hire boats out. But it seems that the owner of Wyvern James and a couple of crew members were taking this pair back to Leighton Buzzard after being in for repair. We managed to pick up a good mooring above the top lock at Norton Junction and will spend the night here before moving on in the morning to Braunston where we have arranged to meet up with our friends Gary and Della on NB Muleless ..
Happy Days
Sunday, 25 December 2016
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas to all our blog followers ,best wishes from Gary and Carolyn
Happy Days
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