Lapworth

We're now moored at Lapworth but the internet reception isn't good and we're having to take turns for the connection as it's not strong enough to use on wifi.

We came down Knowle Locks on Wednesday. They're wide locks and have to be the hardest paddles I have EVER  done.

This type of paddle gear is usually easy to operate although you do have to do lots and lots of turns to raise the gates, but the these are extremely stiff to work, which I think is simply due to lack of maintenence.

The pounds between the locks are very wide.  Knowle locks used to be single width but in the 1930's depression they were converted to wide locks.  This served 2 purposes, increasing the boat capacity so 2 boats could use the lock at a time and providing much needed employment.

You can still see the old disused single locks beside the newer double ones.

We moored for the night at the Black Boy pub and went in for a pint.  The beer wasn't very good though, far too cold, so we didn't stay long.  The food looked good although we didn't stay to try it. The menu was basic English pub grub with a few specials and the portions were HUGE.

We had torrential rain and hail on Wednesday night and it got so cold that I had to dig the chimey out of storage and light the fire!  The bad weather's carried on ever since and my poor plants on the roof are starting to suffer.

We carried on to Lapworth on Thursday and are staying here for the weekend.  There's not a lot here to be honest, just a small village shop, a wine merchant / post office and a hairdressers. The Navigation pub opposite our mooring was closed for refurbishment but re-opened at 6pm last night so we'll pop in later this evening and have a look.

The towpath here is very overgrown. Last year a friend gave us a battery powered strimmer which we've never used and were just about to dispose of, so we thought we'd charge it up and give it a try.  It's brilliant and we've decided to keep it and maybe use it more often.

In the meantime I've been busy hooking again.  I made these 2 jumpers for my baby granddaughter and I'm just off to the post office now to send them to her.

I hope you all have a good weekend, where-ever you are.  Hopefully we'll get better internet reception when we move again on Monday, see you then.......................

Cherry Brandy

On my last visit to Birmingham Market I bought a load of cherries. At only £1 per lb they were a real bargain, but there's only so many cherries a person can eat so I used the last pound to make some cherry brandy for later in the year.

Wash, dry and de-stone a pound of ripe cherries and put in a Kilner jar.

Cover with 200g of sugar and shake well.

Cover and put in a cool, dark  cupboard for 3 days, shaking every day until the juice comes out of the cherries and dissolves the sugar.

Add a 750ml. bottle of brandy. It doesn't have to be the good stuff, I used Tesco Everyday Brandy.
Put back in the dark cupboard and leave for at least 3 months before drinking.  You can then eat the fruit if you wish.

We've had quite a long day's cruise today, by our standards anyway.

After leaving Cuckoo Wharf we turned right at Salford Junction onto the Grand Union Canal and went up the 5 Garrison Locks.  These were all set against us and are definitely in need of a bit of TLC,  some oil and grease wouldn't go amiss either.  After lunch we carried on up the 6 Camp Hill Locks and finally left the industrialisation behind and found some countryside again. Amazingly, there's more litter and rubbish in the canal here than we encountered on any of our trips round Birmingham and the BCN and Roger has been down the weed hatch twice today, which is unheard of on our boat.

We're now moored in the village of Catherine de Barnes.  When we arrived there were 3 boats already on the visitor moorings, all leaving half a boat length between themselves so we reversed back to the bridge and squeezed in on the end. 

We've got a satellite signal for the F1 tonight and the dinner's in the oven, time to put my feet up.

Shrewley

We had a very bad time with Charlie last night. He barked solidly for 4 hours until he fell asleep at 00.45 with us following him within minutes. The tablets the vet gave us seem to be kicking in and he’s been quite calm all day, just sitting in his usual position on the roof watching the world go by. I just hope he stays calm this evening, it would be nice to be able to watch TV live instead of having to record programmes to watch at a later date.

It’s been another lovely sunny day with just a few showers this morning but they didn’t affect us as we didn’t set off until after lunch.

No locks today, just Shrewley Tunnel. Visitor moorings are marked in the guide book, just by the south portal, so we stopped and walked into the village. It’s a nice sleepy village with a shop/post office which has a deli counter selling a good range of pies & samosas.  There’s also a large pub The Durham Ox but it was closed when we got there.

An unusual place to store your bike

Shrewley Tunnel passes underneath the village and although it’s wide enough for 2 boats to pass it doesn’t have a towpath so the horses had to go over the top and through the village, passing back down to the canal through their own horse tunnel. The tunnel itself is very tall inside but is also very wet. In places it’s like passing under a shower and there are several jets of water coming out of the side walls to soak you as well.

timing's a bit out, it only takes 6-7 mins.

South portal

inside the horse tunnel, further down it's cobbled

North portal with the horse tunnel from the village

We’re now moored up in the wilderness before Rowington.  We chose a nice secluded spot in case Charlie has another evening of barking but within half an hour we were surrounded by other boats.

Hatton Locks

Last night when we arrived above Cape Locks we were told there weren’t any more moorings further along the canal, so we squeezed into the last spot under a tree, something we never normally do. Someone was having a laugh at our expense and next time we won’t be so trusting.  It got quite windy and rained quite heavily late evening and we kept hearing things dropping out of the tree onto the roof. When I went out first thing this morning the roof and sides of the boat were covered with pigeon poo and the things we’d heard dropping on the roof turned out to be about a hundred cherry stones! As it had been a very warm and sunny start to the day the poo had set like concrete and took almost an hour to wash off.
Google came into it’s own again today as we needed a vet for Charlie and it turned out that there was a vet hospital only about 200 yards away up on the main road and they managed to get us an appointment. When we got back from the vets we moved up the canal just 2 bridges, about 500 yards, and found plenty of good pilings to moor up to, outside the cemetery. After lunch we took Chico and walked into Warwick for a look around. I would have liked to visit the castle but they don’t allow dogs in the grounds and I thought the town itself was very disappointing.

St Mary's Church

Tourist Information Office

We set off again around 2.00 and paired up with a lovely couple on a boat called Honey. Again we’d been given duff information as the guy who told us about the moorings last night also told us there were really good moorings just 5 locks up the Hatton Flight. There wasn’t, so we ended up going up all 21 locks which are known as the ‘stairway to heaven’. These 21 locks are spread out over 2 miles and raise the canal up almost 150 feet. The lock beams are really heavy and I’m so glad we found someone to share with. I felt sorry for the woman on the other boat though, she’d already done 15 locks before they met us so that meant she did 36 locks in one day! Her husband did promise to cook her dinner tonight though.

Middle Lock Bridge

First view of the 'Stairway to Heaven'

imposing or what?

water pouring over the bottom gates as 2 boats came down

We shared a few of the locks with a pair of swans and their 2 cygnets. The swans had obviously done this before as they had the timing down to an art. Just as we were about to close the bottom gates they herded the cygnets in between the boats and right up to the front gates. They knew when the water level was right before we did and as soon as the gates started to move they rushed out only to repeat the same thing at the next lock. I suppose it’s the best way they can get the cygnets higher up the canal as they’re still far too young to fly.

On the way up the flight we passed British Waterways Hatton Offices where we've spent many a boring day at Canal Boatbuilders Association meetings.

looking back down the flight, St Mary's Church in the background

BW Hatton Offices

A bit lost?

water feature opposite Hatton Offices

There was a wasps nest in the lock beam at the top lock with plenty of the little beasties buzzing about.

We’re now moored about a mile past the top lock, a bit close to the railway but we have good internet and TV. The dinner’s in the oven and I intend to fall asleep in front of the TV later. I forgot to photograph tonight's mooring spot so I'll add it on tomorrow.

Warwick

We had a nice slow cruise this morning. It was warm and sunny and too nice to rush anywhere. Pity I couldn’t say the same for 3 boats who motored past us later, going so fast they could have towed water skiers behind them!  We’d moored up outside The Moorings pub at Leamington Spa as Google had showed a Pets At Home store and we were getting very low on dog food. When he was young, Charlie had really bad eczema which defied all the medications prescribed by the vet. After exhaustive internet research we tried changing his diet to James Wellbeloved Hypoallergenic dog food and low and behold his skin problems cleared up almost overnight. We normally buy this in 2kg bags and always try to have a couple in stock but lately we’ve been struggling to find it so this time we got a 15kg bag which I’ll split and re-bag tomorrow and stash away in any spaces I can find. Charlie thought it was his birthday!

Just round the bend from The Moorings is a Lidl store with a couple of moorings outside.

These were full so we stayed at The Moorings, took the granny trolley and did some shopping. We haven’t been in a Lidl before and I was very impressed. The fruit and veg was good quality and half the price of Tesco. They have an extensive selection of continental cooked meats and the salami with fennel which we had later for lunch was delish! Roger was pleased to see that they have a good selection of bottled ales and stocked up on Bishop’s Finger at £1.39 a bottle.  His favourite beer, Old Speckled Hen, is currently on special offer at Tesco so when we arrived at the Warwick branch later in the afternoon I took the trolley again and cleared the shelf. That should keep us going for a while and the beer store is now full.

If you need other shopping there’s a large Sainsbury’s, Homebase, Argos, Halfords and others at The Shires Retail Park about 5minutes walk from The Moorings.

We finally managed to pair up with another boat this afternoon and shared the two Cape Locks. We moored at the end of a long line of moored boats and went into the lock-side Cape of Good Hope pub for a couple of pints of their own beer “Two Llocks” That’s not a spelling mistake and it’s pronounced Tw’ollocks. It was very nice and a more realistic price at £2.90 a pint.

The moorings here are quite dark as the canal is over shadowed by large apartments on the opposite side and large trees on the towpath side.

Radford Bottom Lock

Sunday
As it’s Sunday we didn’t move very far, just down 2 locks to moor below Radford Bottom Lock and get internet reception. Again, we’d waited to pair up down the locks and again no-one came. It had been quite busy earlier in the morning but the boats were all going the opposite way. When I went to open the lock gates there were 7 tiny ducklings swimming around with their mother sitting on the lock gate watching. The people on the last boats to come through must have shut the gates with them in there and we had a hard job getting them out before we could empty the lock. We tried bread and duck food but ended up having to chase them out with the brush.

unusual boat moored above lock 22

We moored up just past the bridge which has this sign on it. We could do with lots more of these along the canal as the cyclists round here are particularly fast and the towpath is very narrow in places.

Just 100yards along the road from the lock is a free-range poultry farm. We wandered up there before lunch and bought some huge eggs & some veg. They also sell oven-ready chickens and ducks but they were a bit out of our price bracket at £16 for a chicken and £18 for a duck!

Since we moored up 8 boats have come down the lock, all paired up and all going our way, typical! This afternoon Roger is going to service the engine and I’m going to make bread and then watch TV with the headphones in while he plays his guitar and it's his turn to cook the Sunday roast. Just what Sundays are for?

Bascote Locks

Saturday - no internet
The Blue Lias pub may look very modern from the outside but it's a bit weird inside. Tables are arranged in small booths, varying from private little nooks for 2 people to slightly larger ones seating up to 8.  I think the original impression was meant to be ‘quaint’ but to be honest they just look like bus shelters, complete with tiled roof and plastic gutters. Hanging baskets dotted round the pub are filled with dusty plastic flowers…..altogether a very strange place. We didn’t eat in there as the menu was nothing to get excited about, unless you like everything fried, but the Adnams Broadside beer was excellent if a bit expensive at £3.30 a pint.

We didn’t rush to set off this morning, instead we sat and waited to see if anyone came down the Stockton Flight that we could pair up with. After an hour no-one came so we set off alone. A little while later, when I went in to brew up, I found out that I’d trodden in dog muck and had traipsed it right through the boat as far as the kitchen. YUK!  Thank heavens for washable door mats and Amtico flooring is all I can say. It must have come from the pub gardens but wasn’t from our dogs as I ALWAYS pick up. Those owners who can’t be bothered. shouldn’t be allowed to have a dog.

It was a very showery morning and after mopping the floor and washing the mat, I started  working the locks with Roger driving the boat. The staircase lock at Bascote is large and the gates are huge and extremely heavy.

Bascote staircase bottom lock

We moored for lunch in between locks 16 & 17 and again waited for someone to share the next few locks but we didn’t see anyone coming in either direction. We’re now moored just above lock 22. Some of the pounds between the locks have been a bit low and a notice on lock 22 says that BW had to be called out yesterday as the next pound is really low. It looked Ok to us but we’ll see what it’s like in the morning when we carry on.

middle of nowhere above Lock 22 (no internet)

Stockton

We waited for a boat to share Calcutt Locks and then later pulled in for lunch while they carried on. A couple of hours later we arrived at Stockton Locks which is the start of virgin territory for us.

Stockton Top Lock

We waited for a short while hoping to pair up again for the 8 locks but no-one came, so when a boat came up out of the first lock we set off down alone. At the second lock we could see down the flight and 3 locks down there was a pair of boats just going into the lock, coming up. One of their crew had seen us coming down yet she still emptied the 2 locks between us making us either wait 20 minutes or start refilling the locks again and waste the water, again. When they finally arrived up the lock it was obvious why they’d done what they had. They were travelling together, the women being a real sour faced pair and the men pretending to be “real” boatmen. You know the ones, fairly new boats with shiny put-put engines, overalls, flat caps, pony tails and the total effect spoiled when they open their mouths and speak with a “posh university” accent. One of the men couldn’t be bothered winding down the paddles so just got back on his boat and left it to me. We've found before that these types look down their noses at any boat that doesn't have vintage engine and seem to think they have priority at moorings and locks! I just keep my mouth shut and let them get on with it.

The lock ratchets are totally different to any we’ve come across before but the mechanisms themselves are fairly easy as they’re hydraulic. The gates are large, steel and quite heavy but I enjoyed the work.

looking back up the flight, lock bye-wash waterfall on the right

Just as we started down the last lock the heavens opened but luckily there’s a pub at the bottom and we moored right outside ready for a pint or two when it opens at 6.00.

According to the guide book, Stockton Locks are set in blue lias limestone in which the fossils of giant reptiles have been found.  No doubt that’s why the Blue Lias pub sign has a dinosaur on it.

There’s a caravan park and several fishing pools & a lake behind the pub and if it hadn’t been raining as much as it is, we might have walked round them. Maybe tomorrow, right now there’s a pint calling.

no sign of a frog prince