Held hostage

 

Still at Browmover near Rugby and we are being held hostage in Inca . For some reason this swan will not let us leave the boat at the front he just stands his ground and hisses at us. So what we have to do is have one of us distract at the front while the other legs it out the back.

With friends Rich and Sharon moored just a few miles away from us we had an offer we just couldn’t refuse. Rich offered to come and pick us up in his car and go for an afternoon tipple on their award winning boat NB Oakapple. It’s one of the few boats that we know of that has a beautiful diesel range. Every time we go aboard Carolyn always comments about us having one fitted in Inca . (In her dreams). Yet again a great afternoon with great hosts…

We are still surprised that after several days we were the only ones moored on the Parkside at Brownover . I know it is supposed to have a bit of a reputation as a bad area ,but we have moored here loads of times and never experienced any problems ourselves.

With Curly arriving for a week or so we are soon off down to stock up at the local Tesco. It took us twice as long as usual to do a shop ,I think that men just go in to a shop get what they want and are out again asap. But Girls just have to look at everything even if they have no intention of buying it.

I think these are brilliant and they are on a pedestrian underpass in Brownsover. It’s also good to see that the local Scroats have not painted all over it as they have under some of the canal bridges in this area.

The first idiot boat of the day ice breaks it’s way past our mooring . Hopefully he just took off his blacking and not ours.

Walking on water !  ..What a clever Duck.

With the ice nearly gone we heard the noise of a lovely thumping old engine coming around the corner . As soon as we saw all that smoke from the exhaust we just knew it was friends Rich and Sharon on NB Oakapple. (All cutting wit of course !!!)

Tomorrow we will move to Hillmorton and meet up with Rich and Sharon on NB Oakapple and Keith and Ann on Nb Oakfield and we will all cruise together in to Braunston to meet up with Gary and Della on NB Muleless.

                                                                                                               Happy Days

A few more boat names

 

                                                                                                      We have plenty of this.

                                                                                          Haven’t got one of these.

                                                                                                 We do plenty of this.

                                                                            They were a good group back in the 80s. Good old Carol !

                                                                                                                 So have we.

                                                                                                          Avent got a what .

                                                                                                               That’s good.

A character from Narnia, which is a bit bizarre as we are from Totnes and some believe that the town is twinned with Narnia. You probably need to visit to see for yourself.

                                                                         It’s always good to take five and have a cuppa.

Again, one I just had to Google    Eridanus is a constellation in the southern hemisphere. It is represented as a river. It was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and it remains one of the 88 modern constellations.

                                                                 Strange name, not sure what it means. Unless the L should have been an N .

                                                                                                                Happy Days

Happy New Year

 

 

                                                                                    Happy New Year and many Happy Days

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

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