« Moving Hosts

Hatton again »

Sitting at home during the winter months I sometimes watch the progress of other Bloggers, then appear with a windlass to help them through the longer flights of locks..

I left a comment on Caxton’s blog to offer my help with the Aston and Farmers Bridge locks when they said they were coming to Birmingham. But they cheated and sneaked round the edge without doing Birmingham properly to head south on the Grand Union Canal.

Then they blogged to say they were "knackered of Knowle" having done just the first five broad locks.

They also blogged that they would be doing Hatton on Friday so I hopped onto a train on Friday and walked up the flight, expecting to meet them near the top as they came down.

There was no sign of them at the top, so I had a coffee in the cafe, then left a comment on their blog, the only way I had to contact them, to ask where they were. Lesley phoned a few minutes later to say they had given up near Bridge 63.

Later I walked past their boat and, as they weren’t on board, I lifted the corner of the rear cover to leave a copy of our Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) DVD on the seat so they can see what they missed.

I had a great day out with lots of exercise and I don’t mind them changing their plans - they didn’t know I was coming - but that makes them "very kkkkknackered of Hatton" with no extra help.

« Cheshire Ring

Helpless Caxton »

We are moving our main website,www.waterwayroutes.co.uk between hosting companies. This should be a seamless transfer with no down time - but we all know what the real world is like.

We have already moved the alternative address www.waterwaywalks.co.uk to the new hosts so please use that if you have problems.

They both access the same content and the page structure is exactly the same so you can edit the address bar in your browser to change "routes" to "walks" if you get desperate.

Otherwise, please be patient and try again later.

« Ice Breaker

Moving Hosts »

Another great pair of canal DVDs are released from Waterway Routes covering the Cheshire Ring.

We travel clockwise from Hardings Wood Junction, first passing under the Poole Aqueduct as we descend the locks of Heartbreak Hill to reach Middlewich Junction.

We meet our first broad lock as we leave Middlewich before our long, lock-free section to Manchester, interrupted only by the stop lock at Dutton. We divert to visit Runcorn and again to cross the Barton Swing Aqueduct to visit Leigh.

The Rochdale Nine Locks start our climb, which continues with the eighteen of the Ashton Canal and the sixteen of the Marple Flight to reach the upper Peak Forest Canal where we continue to Whaley Bridge and Bugsworth Basins to take in the splendid views.

Our return is along the Macclesfield Canal, descending the Bosley Locks

These are 1 hour DVDs retailing at £12.95 for the Popular version (rather like a television programme) and £7.95 for the Bowcam version (a speeded up forward facing camera for a little fun).

There’s also a Combined version at £19.90, with both Popular and Bowcam in one box saving £1 on the separate prices (and at least 75p postage).


They are in stock now, just waiting for you to order them, or any others. from our great range of canal DVDs.

« Let sleeping geese lie

Cheshire Ring »

With the snow and ice melting almost everywhere these scenes will soon be a thing of the past.

With many of the canals completely frozen, and some of them several inches thick there haven’t been many places with boats moving anywhere.

The centre of Birmingham has been no different, with just one exception. One of the trip boats has been making daily excursions from its base on the Oozells Street Loop to Gas Street Basin and back. But why?

George, the Floating Coffee Shop, is run by Sherborne Wharf and it need to be supplied with water from time to time, and to visit Sherborne Wharf occasionally for diesel and pump out.

The only way to be sure of access is to break the ice daily with a return journey by the trip boat. If they missed any day it would soon freeze too thick to get through when you needed to. The trip boats are being lifted out for blacking in the next few days so ice damage to them isn’t a worry.

« Snow on the canals

Ice Breaker »

With the canal frozen, what can the Canada Geese do?

With most of the canal through Birmingham (and much of the country) frozen over there’s not much you can do if you’re a Canada Goose.

Around here it’s 2 inches (5 cm) thick and there are a few silly humans who have tried walking on it but the Canada Geese just slide around like we do and don’t seem to enjoy it.

So, this morning the geese were unusually quiet, with their heads tucked under their wings and just sitting on the ice.

They must have a good layer of insulation in their feathers. I don’t think I’d like to sleep like that for very long.

There are a few thin bits where the ice has been kept thin by one of the Sherborne Wharf trip boats moving each day to ensure they can still reach George, the floating coffee shop, with supplies.

« Canal Voyagers Hotel Boats 2010 Map

Let sleeping geese lie »

With snow all around the country we just have to follow everyone’s examples and post our own pictures of the snow, just in case you haven’t seen enough. After all, our readers from New Zealand and Australia won’t be having weather like this at the moment.

The frozen Rochdale Canal in Manchester, and the BCN in Birmingham and at Sherborne Wharf. There’s more pictures in the photo gallery for January 2010.