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Cycling into Bloggers
Posted on Sunday, 11 December 2011 at 22:55 Comments (1)
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Passing Ansty Today, as we headed northwards filming the Oxford Canal, a familiar looking boat approached and the steerer shouted "Hello Paul". |  |
Getting ready to leave this morning we were passed by bloggers Chas and Anne on Moore2Life as they headed into Banbury. |  |
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We’re heading into Thrupp tomorrow, then onto the Thames on Sunday as we head to Beale Park where we have a stand at the IWA exhibition for the bank holiday weekend. |  |
After an early start we made our way up the Atherstone flight. We know they are slow to fill but they seemed even slower than usual. |  |
We passed Marston Junction, where the lock free Ashby Canal heads off to the left under the bridge. Looking at the remains of the narrow stop lock through the bridge it’s easy to forget this was built as a broad canal. |  |
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I’ve been exchanging emails with Jill and Graham on Matilda Rose as they headed towards Birmingham. |  |
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It was great to meet Jill and Graham and help them work their way into Birmingham and they had hot soup and fresh bread waiting for us when we moored at the top after completing 27 lock miles in 3 hours. We managed to gossip about all sorts as we made our way along. |  |
After lunch we gave Jill and Graham a trip on our boat to enjoy the silence of electric cruising around the Icknield Port Loop. Jill is smiling as she discovers how much easier it is to steer a boat when you can see the front – and that’s not just because it’s a few feet shorter. |  |
Thursday was another Hatton day. This time to help Derek & Dot on Gypsy Rover and Derek & Carrie on Uccello climb the locks. Arriving at Warwick Parkway station at 09:20 it was just a few minutes walk to the waiting cup of coffee on Gypsy Rover. | By 11:30 the rain had stopped and we were heading up the flight. Gypsy Rover leading the way most of the time, with Uccello close behind. |
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I think I’ve more photos of Dot steering other peoples boats than steering Gypsy Rover. |  |
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.. |  |
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. |  |
I'd arranged to help John and Fi on Epiphany climb the locks towards Birmingham and the BCN last week. |  |
Unfortunately Fi wasn't too well and was unable to help but John and I made good progress up the Stourbridge Sixteen and the Delph locks. |  |
It was an early start for me on Thursday to catch the train to Manchester, then the bus to Fairfield to reach lock 65 of the Rochdale Canal.
This was the meeting point for Epiphany and Gypsy Rover who were to descend the Rochdale Nineteen locks into Manchester. BW staff would meet them at lock 65 to unlock the gates and let them through, then help from time to time during the passage before reappearing to unlock lock 83 to let them out at the bottom.
Most of the journey was uneventful, just a little hard work at times. Some of the locks have only one paddle – and have only had one paddle since reopening so they were a little slow to operate.
There was a little rubbish in the canal resulting in the occasional trip down the weed hatch, but no worse than other urban areas. Derek was sceptical when Dot said the boat was becoming impossible to control and there must be something around the propeller.
Derek tried steering and announced that "Dot might be right".
As soon as the boat was in the lock he opened the weed hatch and he was still there when the lock was empty and was towed out by John on Epiphany.
The photo shows the pile of rubbish removed from the propeller when he was only half way through. There was just as much more to come off the propeller.
Eventually closing the weed hatch and looking at the large pile of rubbish he announced that "Dot was right".
So, 15th October 2009 will go down in history as the day Derek announced that Dot was right ;-)
The other problems centred around the excess of water flowing down the canal. The paths along both sides of the canal were flooded in two of the pounds, although the weirs at the bywashes were clear of rubbish – so either the weirs are built too high, or the paths too low.
A few of the locks were difficult to operate when the water was coming in the top faster than the paddles could let it out of the bottom but we eventually managed to open all the gates.
I don’t know what has happened at lock 73 but the end of lock beam nearest the camera has been sawn off, making it rather short and hard work to push it open.
3 boats worked down, and 2 boats worked up so it was a busy day on the Rochdale Canal.
A little detour on the way home today took me to Todmorden station and then to the Rochdale Canal.
Walking upwards I soon caught up with Gypsy Rover and Epiphany who were heading towards Walsden.
The broad locks are a little heavy, with some of the paddle gear rather stiff so they all appreciated another pair of hands.
There’s great views of the Pennine scenery as the canal climbs up through the narrow valley and the Rochdale Canal is the only one to cross the Pennines without a summit tunnel.
That’s why there’s so many locks and, being a broad canal, they are all broad locks making them just that bit harder to work.
After being treated to lunch at Grandma Pollards Fish and Chips shop – and amazing place – I headed home.
We’re still catching up on the blogging from our trip on the Caldon Canal and the bloggers we met on the journey.
We’d been to the end of the Leek Arm and moored while Christine and Susan went shopping and I went filming.
When we say we’d been to the end we really meant it, and we were using our bow thruster to steer as we backed out.
With the narrow channel and the wind blowing sideways I was suddenly surprised by a head appearing from Windsong and Roger shouting "we read your blog".
We usually have to reverse back when caught like that, but this time we went forwards to say a few words to Roger, and to Pip who had appeared by then.
They are more up to date with their writing and have already blogged about our encounter on their site.
Windsong » |
It was a trip on the train this morning to reach Northampton for a short walk down to the River Nene where No Problem was just arriving.
After spending summer on the rivers they were returning to the canal system for the winter and I was to help them work the 17 locks of the Rothersthorpe flight on the Northampton Branch of the Grand Union Canal.
There was just time for a little (or was it a lot of) shopping before leaving Northampton.
The first few locks near the town had anti vandal devices fitted. I’ve seen many variations before but these are the first I’ve seen fitted with a Yale key rather than a handcuff key. I assume it makes them harder for the vandals to get around.
With Sue and Vic taking turns steering and working the locks and with help from Anne (from Moore2Life) and from me, we managed the flight in reasonable time.
I left them at Gayton Junction, shortly after the top lock to walk to Milton Malsor for a bus to Northampton and to return home by train. Sue had already written her blog by the time I had returned home.
On our recent trip to the Caldon Canal we passed several bloggers and we’re a little behind in posting about them. Here’s one that took us by surprise. It’s Northern Pride.
I was on the roof filming the bottle kilns alongside us and only looked at the passing boat when I’d taken the shot.
I was just in time to take a still picture of them disappearing into the distance.
Fortunately our Bowcam was running so I was also able to extract a still from that, although not such good quality.
We just had time to shout hello as we passed. Hopefully we’ll have a longer chat next time we pass.
They were much prompter blogging about us. Their picture shows me on the roof of our boat, with a tripod so I could see over the wall at the side of the canal for a better shot.
Were shuffling around a little in our cruising as we fill gaps in our filming when we have been rained off during our last cruise.
Today we passed Whittington and there was Jannock, with no visible crew, so I couldn’t call out to them as last time.
At least I got a picture of the boat this time, perhaps I’ll manage to capture both the boat and the crew next time.
Moored at Fazeley Junction I was looking out of the window and spotted a boat we had seen before. It was Keith and Mandy on Takin’ our Time, with son and friend (whose names I’ve forgotten already – oh dear). Just time for them to pull in behind us for a quick exchange of news.
We’re moored at Fazeley Junction, hoping to reach Atherstone and beyond tomorrow to complete another missing chunk of filming. Then we’ll be returning to Fazeley Junction to see who else we spot.
We’ve had a lovely relaxing day today, moored at Fradley Junction.
We’ve chatted to lots of people on the towpath, given out lots of our leaflets, and sold a few of our DVDs.
The sun tried to shine a little, but at least it was a warm dry day, for once. It’s hard to keep remembering that it’s August now and these are the school holiday weeks when everyone expects sunshine.
The junction can be entertaining with boaters queuing for the locks on the Trent and Mersey Canal, with others heading on and off the Coventry Canal.
Quietly passing were Chris and Debbie on Ubique, almost unseen, but a quick grab for the camera made sure they didn’t get away.
We’re moored at Fradley Junction, hoping to return towards Fazeley Junction tomorrow if there’s a little sunshine for our filming to fill gaps in our earlier washed out cruise.
We’re out filming again, trying to dodge the rain and find the sun on the filming days, and move the boat between locations on rainy days.
We’ve met several other bloggers on our travels, starting with Jannock at Tixall Lock.
I didn’t have time to grab a camera as they passed, but just time to ask if they were the Blogging Jannocks, which brought a smile to their face and a yes in reply.
The following day a lady mooring a boat looked up as we cruised past and said "It’s Paul, isn’t it" and I replied "Yes" while looking completely blank. "Caxton" she said as I vaguely recognised that as a boat with bloggers.
Just time to grab the camera and catch Lesley & Joe on the towpath. I do hope we see them again soon to say hello properly – and I’ll make sure I have my brain in gear then. Bonus marks to Lesley, who not only recognised our boat but remembered my name too.
While just sitting down to dinner tonight I spotted Resnrah going past the window. More bloggers I cried as I spotted it was Harnser going backwards to take up the space behind us.
A brief chat with Brian and Diana this evening and a plan to share Hatton Locks tomorrow. Hopefully I can grab a picture with them and the boat during the day.
We’re moored at Kingswood Junction, hoping to reach the Saltisford Arm tomorrow.
After helping Sue and Vic climb the Wolverhampton 21 locks on Monday I left them to enjoy a day at the Black Country Living Museum and Dudley Tunnel on Tuesday.
On Wednesday I joined them again for their trip into Birmingham. Like many other people, Sue and Vic had been nervous about tackling the Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) because of the awful state the canals used to be in and the reputation they had for problems.
After helping proof watch our BCN DVDs, Sue and Vic realised the Birmingham Canals aren’t as bad as they used to be and decided to see them first hand. It was great to accompany them on their way through and show how nice they are.
Like any big city there’s always a risk of vandalism, although probably less in Birmingham than in some other places.
At Smethwick Top Lock there’s a toll house in the typical octagonal BCN style.
On previous visits it had a matching roof but this time it was missing. Vandals had broken in and had fires inside and removed the roof.
The third picture, from Granny Buttons in 2007 shows how it should look, with a story about how it wasn’t being vandalised.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it was restored to its former glory before too long with a roof where balls could get stuck behind the chimney again.
We continued south today, climbing the three paired locks at Hillmorton. The locks were numbered from 2 to 7 which surprised me at first, until I remembered the stop lock at Hawkesbury Junction which must be number 1.
Then onwards again to reach Braunston Turn where we meet the Grand Union Canal from London to join the combined stretch to Napton Junction. Are we travelling South on the Oxford Canal or North on the Grand Union Canal?
There were lots of boats on the combined stretch and I was inside checking the maps to see how far we were going to get today when I glanced out of the front.
Passing us already was Derwent6, crewed by bloggers Del and Al. Not remembers their names on the spur of the moment I stuck my head quickly out of the front of the boat and shouted "Hello, fellow bloggers". Del looked very surprised for a moment but quickly checked the name of our boat and greeted us too.
He grabbed his camera and took a shot of us disappearing in the distance. I did likewise, and was able to retrieve one from our Bowcam showing them approaching.
I hope we get to exchange more than a few words next time we meet.
We’re moored at Napton Junction, hoping to get down most of the broad locks on the Grand Union tomorrow, then up Hatton on Saturday. Any visitors to help with the broad locks will be most welcome to share the work.
After a day in London (doing some other work) I spent last night on our boat in Birmingham as a convenient staging post for today’s expedition.
An early start ensured I could catch Sue & Vic (and Lucy & Meg) on No Problem before they sneaked off shopping, walking or whatever.
It worked. After a brisk walk from Sileby station I found them they were exactly where I expected them to be.
We spent all morning chatting about all sorts of canal related topics from battery monitors to continuous moorers.
I was also introduced to Geoff (and Meg) from Seyella who had been sharing locks with No Problem recently and was moored just in front of them. Hopefully I’ll also meet Mags next time.
Somehow, Geoff knew about our DVDs already, which makes him a really good boater and blogger.
I was walking down Farmers Bridge locks on Monday afternoon, windlass in hand, and caught up with a familiar boat. Don scores a hat trick as he appears in three consecutive blog postings.
He and Joy were escaping from Birmingham – Matt having returned to London, leaving them to the delights of Farmers Bridge Locks on their own.
I helped with a few gates and paddles as I passed on my way down the flight.
This story really begins back on 18th April when I helped Sue & Vic down the Rothersthorpe flight of locks. I just appeared, windlass in hand, along the towpath. In the comments Adam (from Narrowboat Debdale) asked if this service would extend to him when he was passing through Farmers Bridge Locks.
Well that’s a challenge to be addressed. A careful watch was kept on Adam’s Blog and Sunday’s post indicated that he’d be climbing Farmers Bridge locks on Monday.
So, off I go to London, to cram in a morning’s work, then onto a train to Birmingham. A quick dash to pick up a windlass from our boat – I’m sure Adam would have lent me one but it would have spoiled the effect to not have one in hand when I arrived.
Then off I go down Farmers Bridge helping Don & Joy a little on the way. A few locks later I spotted a boat coming up with boater on the towpath. "Are you Paul?" he asked, quicker than I could ask if he was Adam.
Adam quickly introduced me to Adrian and Adrian’s Mum and up we went, passing Don & Joy in one of the short pounds.
A chance to chat as we worked the locks, before mooring on the Main Line.
It’s almost 12 months since our boat appeared in the October 2007 issue of Canal Boat magazine and we were first spotted by Adam.
Now Adam writes the boat reviews for Canal Boat magazine and I offered him a turn on our boat to see just how quiet our electric power is. A quick figure of eight around the the Icknield Port and Oozells Street Loops before Adam headed off back to Debdale and I headed off back to Bristol.
Last night it started raining, gently at first with heavy rain forecast so I thought it was time to try the advanced Balmaha boat washing technique (see end of post). I soaped the roof with very artistic swirls, then the sun came out and dried it all up instead of the rain washing it off. The instructions for making it rain seemed to be missing from the post.
Tonight it was raining lightly again with more heavy showers forecast so guess what. A repeat performance. I guess I’m not up to the advanced Balmaha technique after all. Perhaps they will give me a practical demonstration when I eventually meet them.
Tomorrow I think I’ll have a go at the No Problem boat washing technique (see August 13th Post) with a hosepipe and see if I can get the hang of that.
Today we spent 6 hours climbing the Wolverhampton 21 which should have only taken 4 hours. There was a party of 6 or 7 boats going up ahead of us, not very quickly, and a single handed boater sandwiched in the middle of them.
Now moored near the top of the flight, aiming for Sherborne Wharf tomorrow to watch the Dragon Boat racing.
Vic and Sue on No Problem, were heading down the Rothersthorpe flight of locks on the Northampton Arm of the Grand Union last Friday. Pacing themselves for the seventeen or so locks to take them to the River Nene.
They’d hardly started when Vic came under the bridge to be faced by someone aiming a camera at him. Vic watched Lucy hurtling down the towpath to greet me and he knew it wouldn’t be such hard work after all.
Part way down the flight I discovered this old lady sitting on the old lock beam at the side of the canal.
There was just time to admire their new headlight – with a big bulb Sue won’t mind the tunnels as it won’t go dark inside.
Following down the flight was Chas and Ann on Moore2Life and there was time to help them with a few locks too.
I was running a training course for my other job today. Unusually for me I took the car. When the course finished I could make a minor detour to drop in on Vic and Sue on No Problem.
Sue has a map link from her site so anyone can check where they are – or at least she usually does.
Today the link didn’t work so I had to guess where they were moored but I didn’t have to hunt for long before I found them.
Lucy greeted me with the whimpers and fuss she reserves for a long lost friend. Meg watched for a moment, perhaps wondering why Lucy was making such a fuss of a stranger, then joined in anyway.
It was lovely to meet Meg for the first time and I was surprised how well trained she was already.
It was great to see Vic again too and he soon had the kettle and a mug of tea in hand. But as for Sue – she was down in Portsmouth – the second time she’s been missing when I visited – tut tut.
Hadar was re-launched early in July – you can read the full story of Hadar in their blog.
Yesterday, Sue from No Problem, reminded us to keep a look out for Hadar as we passed through Stone, and it’s a good job she did.
I was casually looking around and spotted the shiny new nose with the name “Hadar” peeping out at the end of a row of boats at the side of the canal,
Slowly my brain made the connection with Sue’s comment yesterday and I grabbed the camera. Too late to shout hello, but at least there’s a photo of a fellow blogger’s boat.
We’re heading round the Four Counties Ring, going anticlockwise from Autherley Junction. We’ve been heading east along the Staffs and Worcester and would normally turn left at Great Heywood Junction.
But we turned right. Not a navigation error, but deliberate because we knew who was to the south of the junction.
There was No Problem, with a space for use to moor just behind them. The eagerly awaited rendezvous with Sue, Vic and Lucy.
Sue and Vic knew we were coming but Lucy didn’t. At first we were just another passing boat then, suddenly, 
we were recognised and she was charging along the towpath to give us the enormous welcome she reserves for her friends.
Time for a good gossip and a tour of each others boats and, of course, time to get the cameras out. The curve of the canal made it difficult to photo both from the towpath but when the sun came out Andrew soon took the hint and set off with his telephoto lens to the bridge to get both boats fully into shot.
And it didn’t take Lucy long to get everyone trained into throwing sticks for her to fetch. When Christine opened the side doors to see what was going on she was soon
presented with a stick and joined in.
Now Christine has fed all six of us well and Sue, Christine and Susan are off Geocaching before it goes too dark.
Tomorrow we are expecting Kevin Blick and David Oakes from Canal Boat Magazine. We’ve not featured in a magazine before so we’re not sure what it involves. We’ll be able to tell you more after tomorrow.
The forecast is good so we hope there will be some good opportunities for photos somewhere near here. Perhaps the junction or Tixall Wide will be a good spot for some photos.
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