SO WHERE NEXT?

Again I must start this blog by apologising for not posting during our stay at Swan Lane Wharf. There is not much to describe when we are not cruising the cut. We have spent the winter trying many new cuisines on our Friday night date night. Mexican, Caribbean, Lebanese and Vietnamese to name just a few. The Captain has tried many a new stout at the Hops d'Amour.

There had been much discussion about our route this year, but I insisted that we needed to do the Kennet and Avon canal, and visit Bath and Bristol. For some strange reason the Captain isn't at all enamoured with this part of the system.

So we will be setting off and heading for Nottingham first to visit family. We will go up the Trent and Mersey, through Burton on Trent and Willington, and return via the River Soar calling in at Leicester and Market Harborough. Then in early June we will be leaving the boat back at Swan Lane to go to the city of Zadar in Croatia for a week.

We will then start our journey south down the Oxford canal, joining the River Thames at Oxford, before joining the Kennet and Avon canal. On returning to the River Thames we will hopefully visit Godalming on the River Wey, to see Mike and Sandy Debens who we met a couple of years ago in Newark and their boat Syd. 

Then into London, before returning up the Grand Union Canal back to Coventry.

Well that's the plan for now, but as you know things can change, so watch this space.

So to the last blog of 2021 enjoy.

FINAL TRIP OF THE YEAR, PROBABLY.

As I said in the last blog, we got back to the wharf on the Sunday. The first couple of days were spent cleaning the car and catching up on some chores a round the boat. Wednesday was Auntie Rita’s funeral up in Bolton so we set off in plenty of time. This turned out to be a great idea, as the M6 was closed at the junction we needed to get off at, so we ended up taking a detour round the problem but we still arrived in plenty of time. The funeral was lovely, and it was nice to catch up with the Captains sisters and cousins.

As a treat on our way back we stopped off at the Walsgrave for a meal. It was very nice and a good end to a hard day.

Then it was back to normal for me, I contacted Tom at GI, the agency I have worked for over the last 4/5yrs. He was happy to hear from me but not so good for me, he said the paperwork I usually fill in in the office was to be done online, and I needed to send my documents by email.

Well he sent me the files to be filled in, but even the Captain couldn’t work out how to do it (he is much more IT savvy than me). So I phoned Tom and to my relief he said everything could be done in the office on the day I started, which would be the following Monday.

We were really looking forward to our weekend with Col and Mags and set off Friday morning to do the 12 miles to Trinity marina. It took us just over 4 hours. On our way up the Ashby canal we spotted NB Orkney again and had a chat with Lesley and Nigel, we did the same on the way back to. Hope to see them in Coventry at some point, as they intended to stay in the area over the winter.

When we got to the marina we found a serious lack of moorings. The ones on the offside belong to the marina, and there are no guest moorings to be had. The towpath side is over grown and shallow, apart from one short piece of Arnco, but a very inconsiderate boater had plonked his boat right in the centre of this making it very difficult for anyone else to moor. But we did, by turning round first we managed to get our back end on the Arnco, but the front ended up against the uneven canal side, which made it difficult for the Captain to step on to the front of the boat to get the bow rope, and pin the front in the soft ground on the edge of the canal. But he managed it.

As planned we met Col in the Marina Brewers Fayre, Mags was still working, so we had a couple of pints and when she joined us we had a very enjoyable meal. The staff were excellent and the food tasty. We then decided to try the Wharf pub just across the road, as soon as we saw it we knew we had been in before a few of years ago, and it hadn’t changed at all. The same golden retriever dog was wandering around, and a selection of books were still on the shelf. These books are free to be taken, and on our last visit I did indeed take one.

Next night I did one of my tapas feasts, it was enjoyed by all. It was a lovely finish to our 2021 cruise and next day we headed home to Swan Lane for the winter. We will be meeting up with Col and Mags again soon.

Back at Swan Lane and we have met some of our new moorers, Mickey of NB Water Rail is lovely as is Rob off NB Pegaus. We haven’t met Fliss and Neville yet, but are looking forward to doing so. Big Chris the boat painter came and went, and was replaced by little Chris the boat painter. We have caught up with Alan, Arun, PJ, Mark and Stuart. The Captain has seen Steve, but I have yet to have the pleasure. And he is back doing bits round the wharf for Keith, it will keep him out of mischief during the winter. I am planning to do a boaters get together and quiz after a Christmas, so hopefully everyone will support this and it will strengthen the community spirit of the wharf.

I am back at work, and very happy to be there, everyone was pleased to see me and I was soon snapped up by Jo, the outbound manager and returned to her department.

The only downside is getting up at 4.30am, it is certainly a shock to the system.

We have called in at the Brickies and resumed our friendship with Theresa and her staff. And we have a new favourite pub in Coventry, the Hops d’Amour, a great micropub with an excellent selection of beers and friendly staff

https://www.facebook.com/hopsdamourcoventry