GENTLE DAYS.

Pegasus our tiller pin

The weather has definitely improved over the last couple of days and this makes cruising so much nicer. Blue skies with wispy clouds, birds singing and the gentle chugging of the engine make days like these special.

When I last blogged we were moored in Polesworth for the night, we didn’t venture out to the pub, which is strange for us I know, but I really don’t want to undo all the great work I have done over the winter in losing 2stone 10lbs in weight, and beer is my biggest enemy. Also Polesworth hasn’t got the greatest pubs, well it didn’t have last time we visited.

We were going to stop in Fazeley and go to the chippy, then Captain suggested instead we could stop at Tamworth, walk in, take a look round the town, have a couple of pints and maybe pick up some chips on the way back. There is also a Coop close to the canal (just before Glascote Locks at bridge 73 Anchor Bridge) and we needed milk and a few bits. This sounded a great idea to me and that's what we did.

As we left the boat a group of late teen boys were gathered round the steps to the road. I felt uneasy but decided to chat with them to see if my feelings were unfounded, and they were. They were friendly and polite and interested in the life we lead. Sometimes you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.

https://www.visittamworth.co.uk/tamworth-town-centre-old-town

Tamworth is an old town with a castle and a beautiful church dedicated to St Editha. There is a lot of regeneration work going on, and it will be interesting to see how it improves the town centre.

There are also a few good real ale pubs to try, firstly The Tamworth Tap, which belongs to Tamworth brewery. A couple of choices for the Captain in here and he plumped for the Breakfast Stout by Arbor, and I tried the Tanworth lager, both very quaffable. The tap is a very quirky place but the seating is a little uncomfortable.

http://www.tamworthbrewing.co.uk/

The Tamworth Tap

Then on to the Kings Ditch, a proper tiny micropub, were to Captain was very happy with Naughty & Nice a chocolate stout from Vocation. No draft lager in here so I tried Satellite by Green Duck an American Pale Ale. Both good.

https://www.kingsditch.co.uk/

We headed back on the bus and gave the chippy a miss. I will have to get my kebab fix another time.

After this outing we decided to moor in the middle of nowhere for a few nights, before hitting Fradley Junction and the Swan, or Dirty Duck as it is affectionately known.

We filled with water at Fazeley and on our cruise to our first mooring we came across something quite unusual, a bat hunting in the middle of the day. It was swooping down to the water, obviously gathering the midges that inhabit the canal for a feast. We very often see bats performing their acrobatics round the boat as darkness falls, but have never seen one in the day. A first for both of us.

After a bit of a lie in, as the Captain wasn’t feeling great with a sore throat and the sniffles, we decided to do just 4 miles to Huddlesford, and then the final 4 miles to Fradley the next day.

I jumped ship as we set off, as I have decided that I need more exercise, and walked about a mile before jumping back on board at a convenient bridge hole. I’ve started doing this each day now when we set off.

The best sighting was a Buzzard with its rounded tale, and then lo and behold a Red Kite with its distinctive forked tale. Red Kites are an amazing conservation story, driven to near extinction in the UK with only a handful of breeding pairs to be found in Wales by the 20^th century. They have been slowly reintroduced using birds from Spain and Sweden. By 2016 it was estimated by the RSPB that there were around 4,400 breeding pairs now in the UK. A real success story.

Red kite

We found a lovely mooring spot and settled down for the night. I don’t know how, but we managed to miss the Northern Lights display which everyone else seemed to see that night.

The Captain was a little better next morning, and we set off in good time for Fradley Junction.

It was wash day, so as soon as I was aboard I disappeared below to sort it out. I was nearly done when the Captain shouted to say we had reached Fradley and I was needed to help moor up. We found a spot between 2 boats just before the little bridge at the end of the Coventry. It was slightly to short, but there was room for the other boats to move up a bit to let us in. I was just about to ask one of them to move when the boater in front announced he was just going, so no need to disturb the boat behind. We were soon in and enjoying our lunch.

The Swan, Fradley Junction

We decided to go out for tea and a pint at the Swan. Its been a while since we have eaten here and I was really looking forward to it. We sat outside in the sunshine and perused the menu. I was quite taken with the crab salad. Things went downhill however. When we went inside to find a table and place our order, most, if not all tables had reserved signs on them, although the times they were reserved for were a couple of hours away. I tried to ask one of the staff were we could sit and got a rude short answer, just to choose anywhere. The Captain wasn’t happy with her attitude, but I just put it down to her being busy. My salad came, and I can’t complain at the amount of crab, but the salad was a joke and really just lettuce, no tomato, cucumber or onion. I wasn’t happy and mentioned it to the same member of staff, her reply was short and very rude, basically its what you get, no form of apology, and then whilst I was still trying to talk to her she walked away. A loud ‘excuse me’ from me stopped her dead, but it didn’t improve her attitude, or my salad. I really spoiled the meal for me. I did complain to the manager before we left. But my meal was still ruined.

I mentioned it to a couple of people next day, and apparently a lot of others have had a similar experience. The beer and food were good, but they really need to address this member of staffs attitude.

In our first week cruising we have done 36 miles and 13 locks on 2 canals, for although the Coventry canal runs from, yes Coventry to Fradley Junction, part of it is also called the Birmingham and Fazeley canal. This is the explanation given on Wikipedia

‘The 5.5 mile stretch which extends northward beyond Fazeley Junction to Whittington, was built by the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal Company, with the remainder of the route to Fradley Junction being built by the Trent and Mersey canal. Both sections used the route authorised by the Coventry Canal’s Act of Parliament, but although the Coventry Canal subsequently bought back the northern section from the Trent and Mersey canal, the southern section remained in the ownership of the Birmingham and Fazeley canal. However it is often regarded as being part of the Coventry canal.’

CELEBRATIONS AND PREPARATIONS.

 

Happy Birthday Captain

Welcome to a new year, yes I know its May, but there isn’t much to write about when we are the Wharf. Life is pretty quiet and we don’t go out and do much during the winter months.

So lets start with the first part of the title, the celebrations.

As some of you know the Captain turned 70yrs old at the end of April. He wanted to do a ‘big’ holiday, somewhere different and exotic. We ran through a number of options before I came up with the idea of a Caribbean cruise (I know a busman’s holiday for us) but it hit the spot and it was booked and sorted with in a couple of days. I got the idea from an old school friend of mine, thank you Janet.

She went with Tui on the Marella Voyager, whist we booked our 2 weeks on the Marella Discovery. One week was called Tropical Shores and the other Cocktails and Coconuts. It was all inclusive and visited 10 islands over the 2 weeks.

A bigger boat

All I can say was that it was amazing, the organisation, the food, the staff, the islands, everything was wonderful, and we are definitely thinking about doing another one at some point.

Claudine and Francis our waiters

I won’t go into great detail as its not really what this blog is about, but I will say one of the highlights was swimming with a turtle in Barbados.

A green turtle

We returned to Blightly the week before his birthday, and spent it not doing a lot (due to the weather and a bit of jet lag) which had a knock on effect the following week.

We met all the family in Stoke on Trent for a birthday meal, as it was the most central point for everyone, and it was great to get together for such an important milestone.

Well the week after his birthday it was all hands on deck getting the boat ready for setting off for our summer cruise. The Captain in his ultimate wisdom, decided at the last minute he was going to upgrade our solar panels and top boxes, (something he had been talking about last summer and most of the winter) but hey ho it had to be done at the last moment. This left the rest of the organising, cleaning and sorting to me.

The worst job was the cleaning of our cratch and pram covers with Cillit Bang black mould remover. It took me 2 days, but if I say so myself they looked good when I had finished, even if they smelt strongly of bleach. I made various trips to Aldi and Lidl to ensure we have everything we need food wise. Planted out my little garden of herbs and flowers. I was overjoyed to see that my mint, which had been a single sprig last year, gifted to me by another boater, had taken over the pot it was planted in and was looking very healthy. My bay tree and chives are also flourishing.

We set off on Friday 3^rd May, our boaty friends Col and Mags were to come and meet us (by car) at Hawkesbury Junction for a farewell meal in the Greyhound. Unfortunately they both came down with a very bad cold a few days before and didn’t make it, but we enjoyed the meal and raised a glass to them.

https://www.thegreyhoundsuttonstop.co.uk/

Saturday we stayed at Hawkesbury as we had been invited to Kenfest, a beer, food and music festival in Kenilworth by my cousins Gary and Toni. Gary kindly picked us up, and we had a great afternoon with them before catching the bus back to boat and a quiet night.

https://kenfest.co.uk/tc-events/kenfest-2024/

So it was Sunday before we truly set off for what should be a 5months cruise. Our plans have changed (surprise surprise) quite significantly since last year. We had talked about going on the River Nene and doing, what are called the Low Levels and the Norfolk Broads. Now we have decided to go north, starting on the Trent and Mersey, before joining the Shropshire Union and going onto the Llangollen and then later into Liverpool. At this point we will have to decide our next move, we want to go across the Leeds Liverpool and on to the River Trent, ending up in Langley Mill for the beginning of September, as we are taking the boat out to have its bottom cleaned and blacked. A job that has to be done every 2/3yrs. However information has reached us that the last lock on the Leeds Liverpool, which drops you down on to the River Ayr from the canal at Granary Wharf in Leeds, will be closed from May until the end of July for ‘essential repairs’. We don’t want to go all the way across the Pennines, only to find we have to retrace our steps because we are unable to get through this lock. So a decision will be made before we join the LL at Wigan.

So where are we now, sat in the sunshine at Polesworth after doing the 11 Atherstone locks in a respectable couple of hours. We spent Sunday night in the middle of nowhere before mooring up in Atherstone for the night (Monday), and of course we had to have a pint in the Angel Ale House, one of our favourite pubs on the system and the Captain wore his new tee shirt

Very apt don't you think

Here we were joined by our fellow Swan Lane moorer Steve, from NB Precious Jet and Charley his pooch. He had set out for his cruise whilst we were on holiday, spending time on the Ashby canal before mooring up near the bottom of Atherstone locks a couple of days earlier. We should see him again at Fazeley, were we will part company, as he is heading south to Gloucester and we will be heading north to Stoke.

Its been great to be back travelling again, listening to the birds and the gentle chugging of the engine as we glide through the beautiful countryside. I have enjoyed watching the locks fill and empty, just taking in all the sights and sounds I have missed through the winter months.

Hope you will join us on our latest adventure as it unfolds over the next few months.