London
Posted: September 18, 2014 Filed under: Geeky facts, Moving on, Waterway wonders! | Tags: Boat Race, Clippers, Globe Theatre, Houses of Parliament, Limehouse Basin, Limehouse Lock, London, London Eye, narrowboat blog, narrowboat on Thames, OXO Tower, River Thames, Teddington lock, Teddington to Limehouse, Thames, The Shard, tidal Thames, Tower Bridge, Tower of London 5 Comments
It began as a tiny thought yesterday afternoon, it grew during Bake Off and was squished again after reading the ‘London Tideway Guide: Downstream Addition’ – at 24 pages it’s a whopping eight pages longer than it’s upstream counterpart and with lin
es like ‘It is very important to appreciate that making the passage downstream to Limehouse from Teddington or from Brentford is considerably more challenging that coming the other way,’ we decided it was no go. So we went to bed, happy with the knowl
edge that just a short trip down to Brentford lay ahead.
But the sun was shining this morning, and the water was calm, and the tides were perfect. There was no way we could go though as we hadn’t given Limehouse 24hrs notice –
so emphasising our lack of booking
we felt safe to ask the Teddington lock keeper, expecting flat no, meaning we could at least tell ourselves we tried. We weren’t expecting him to say ‘It should be fine, phone Limehouse,’ and we really weren’t expecting Limehouse to say come o
n down…
Waiting with a nervous hireboater on his way to Brentford wasn’t the most calming start, then out of the blue another narrowboat sped along to Teddington Lock, he was going all the way too. Yay. Out into slack water nothing seemed any different to the non-tidal section above Teddington, in fact with so little rain and
a low tide the river was way calmer than our previous Brentford journey. As the hireboater veered away
into the safety of The Grand Union Canal we ploughed on, the tide was beginning to pick up and it was no struggle to keep good time. Miles and miles passed, the water grew wide, the Boat Race finish came and went, the Boat Race sta
rt came and went, Harrods 
Depositary, Battersea Power Station – other than the odd City Cruiser the water seemed quite quiet. Then London came in waves, thick and fast. The traffic busied up and the landmarks were hard to keep up with in between negotiating the 
best angle to direct the boat in order to tackle the ever-increasing rolls of wake. Suddenly London was all around, we were a teeny-weeny boat muddled in a big city
snow globe – even a crazy Dazzle ship used extensively in WW1 added to the mad whirl wind.
The grand finale came in the form of Tower Bridge – built from 31 million bricks, two million rivets and 22,000 litres of paint that all opens on average three times a day…no need for our passage, we just about 
squeezed under, before radioing our position into Limehouse.
As the sights decreased the reality of the turn into Limehouse Basin hit home. The main rule being: travel on to get a good view round the bend before attempting to turn to the wrong side of the river…the Clippers come quickly, which they did, two of them j
ust as we wanted to turn. Eeek. So we waited, the boat pitched and rolled in their wake. In reality there’s not 
an awful lot of time that Clippers aren’t zooming at you from one direction or the other, flashing their ‘making life easier’ sign writing – really? We bit the bullet and turned. Willing the boat to come round the waters were all over the place – people talk of ‘back-Eddys’ – perhaps that’s what it was, but
one things for sure it’s our trickiest lock turn to date, smashing Selby out the park. Safe and sound we moved into the lock and up into a gloriously sunny Limehouse Basin.
An adrenalin fuelled start to London for all three of us, having had an axe fall on him during the turn Murk was pleased to stretch his legs – which he did in Canary Wharf as though he owned the place.
On And Up
Posted: August 11, 2014 Filed under: Geeky facts, Moving on, Waterway wonders! | Tags: Alton, Anderton Boat Lift, narrowboat blog, Peak Forest Canal Carrying Company, River Weaver, Trent and Mersey canal Leave a comment
Thanks for the photo Brian!
A beautiful morning to travel up the Weaver, with Bertha’s last gusts whipping 
through leaves and reeds, the whole world seemed to be shifting. Pulling in at the Anderton Boat Lift we only had a half hour wait before our turn to rise, meanwhile Alton arrived and despite having recently filled up with Brian and Ann Marie, it seemed a bit crackers not to top up when we were both there waiting for time to tick by – buying a spare BW
key was also a good thing as we’ve discovered owning only one can lead to obsessing over its whereabouts.
It was great sharing the lift with a proper boat, with one eye shut blocking out our garish solar panel, the whole experience was like a step back in time.
*~*Citroen’s logo came from the cog gear they produced for the Anderton Boat Lift*~*
Turning right and out onto the canal things were instantly busy with most moorings taken and 
plenty of boats on the move. The washing machine was hard at it with a tank full of water from The River Weaver, which despite being not very far at all, seems a world away once the lift has worked its magic.
With no destination in mind it was the weather that decided tonight’s place for sleeping – black heavy sky saw us rummaging for the mooring pins, the rain came tumbling down soon afterwards.
Roving Freak Show
Posted: August 6, 2014 Filed under: Geeky facts, Moving on, Waterway wonders! | Tags: Anderton Boat Lift, narrowobat blog, River Weaver, Saltersford tunnel, Trent and Mersey canal 2 Comments
They arrived with Scottish tans, some half eaten cheese, around a pint of semi-skimmed milk, a few green beans and a slither of butter. There was also a litre of gin, what a lovely
gestu…but before the thought even finished it was quashed, ‘Nothing to do with us, from Mum.’ they announced proudly. Thank you Mummy. Common wealth memorabilia and cuddly Scotty dogs were soon strewn throughout the boat.
There was time to walk along to the visitor centre before our Anderton ride…it didn’t take long…’WHY HE GOT FAN ON 
ROOF?’ (Sarah Harvey, age 34, teacher). How intriguing, always interested in boaty gadgets everyone span round, then frowned – oookay and that would be a wind turbine Sar, and I’m pretty sure they exist in the real world too? Golly, with an everyday wind turbine proving troublesome to process, a show stopping waterway wonder like the Anderton Boat Lift threatened to be mind-blowing.
The visitor centre was grea
t with lots of creatively thought out activities, arriving back at our mooring a lift operator was banging on the boat. Apparently there was a problem with the lift and we had to go right away, the combination of problem and go right away seemed a little od
d but the lift operator was wearing a uniform, so we all did what we were told. We perched tentatively as 20 tonnes of boat drove out into a caisson some 50ft above the River Weaver.
The lift was great fun, SFR ooohed and arrghed as the drop took place, the small dead 
fish in the caisson was equally fascinating to mini-SFRs.
With a temporary moor for a quick car shuffle there was just time for tattoos and loom banding before moving on. ‘Blimey what a lovely view, think I just saw a fish with three eyes,’ was the 
initial, unimpressed reaction to the scenery as we passed the ICI chemical works, but the jeering eas
ed as the countryside opened up and kingfishers began to dart by.
Too slopey, too many thistles, footpath in the way, too narrow, dodgy looking people, too many cows – Swiss Family will find any excuse not to pitch a tent but having happily pitched up next a no camping sign on the River Avon, we 
know, when night falls they’ll be out there, knocking in those pegs. And they did, over a footpath the first night and in a field of cows (!) the second.
Endless rounds of Happy Families (what else?) means the girls are pretty shit hot at sweeping the cards from you, a losing run curiously ended up with some river dipping. It all got a little out of hand when too many bodies splashing about resulted in Murk launching himself over everyone to join the party.
Back up the lift, a couple of trips through Saltersfo
rd Tunnel – where unlucky passers by were subjected to a roving freak 
show: hairless man and the monster foot woman. One last fridge door opening to check they’d got their half eaten cheese and had inhaled every last scrap of our food, then they were off. And so were we – back down the lift and along the river. It’s so quiet, Nick is happy just listening to the sound of silence.
King Of The Mountains
Posted: July 18, 2014 Filed under: Dry land, Geeky facts, Moving on, Waterway wonders! | Tags: Diggle, Hudderfield Narrow Canal, Marsden, Marsden Facebook, narrowobat blog, pack horse trail, Standedge, Standedge Tunnel, turnpike road 4 Comments
The stretch from Slaithwaite to Marsden is spectacular as the moors rise all around. Sitting in the last but one lock before Marsden, a car stopped and a lady appeared with her camera, explaining she’d seen us on the river in York and was pretty surprised to catch us in her home village too. It was lovely to receive Christine’s e-mail as we hardly ever get a photo of us on the boat together.
After mooring in Marsden, we untied, pulled back, moored again,
re-shuffled – moored again and again. Nick ev
entually gave up and sat staring at the fuzzy television screen in complete shock, he flashed a disbelieving glance at the no service notice on the phone. ‘We’re 
going to have to talk.’ he muttered. So we did for a while, and then we walked down the hill into the town, Murk enjoyed his retro narrowboating experience as it involved splashing about in the river at a time he’d usually be snooring.
One night was fine, but by the following morning the entertainment plan was in place – raid the charity shops of 
any dvd that sounded remotely watchable. After a charity shop swoop we walked along an old pack horse trail leading up onto the moors. The views were breathtaking and dropping back into the village it was quite bonkers to find a few people saying they’d seen us on the local Facebook page, Christine had mentioned adding the photos but not being Facebookers ourselves we’d understimated the Facebook forc
e.
Trip boats done for the day we moved upto the tunnel entrance where Nick deconstructed any sticky out bits of the bo
at in readiness for our tu
nnel trip. With drinks poured and the sun shining things couldn’t have got much better – and then they did. A fire engine rolled in for a bit of training. ‘Hello, we’ve seen you on facebook… Oh my. Cups of tea went down well, I was up in the air when a much much better idea occurred to the men in uniform. ‘You’re from Brighton, this’ll be right up your street, you’ll love it,’ they decided whipping Nick of his feet. Priceless. He was begging for it.
We were stranglely sorry to head into the tunnel, Marsden had been brilliant fun – a beautiful place with great friendly people.
Tunnel take two was no less incredible than first time round. The longest, deepest, highest tunnel on the network it blows any other out the water – there’s no going back, the rest become merely 
big bridges. First boat through this morning, the air was clear and the safety shadow was in place meaning we just slowed at the railway cross passag
e to check-in before getting the all clear to press on. At 3.25 miles long and over 200 years old the past hangs heavy in the air. Typical cargos included wool, coal and horse manure. The coal toll was higher than that for manure, meaning boats were often packed with two-thirds coal then topped off with manure – the scam was finally r
u
mbled and one lucky person got the task of digging down into each load of manure to check for hidden coal, that person also got to walk the boaters horses over the hill – there and back 
twice a day, a total of around 13 miles…and that boy was just twelve years old.
Moored and put back together we left the boat to walk one of the old turnpike roads back over the hill to Marsden…and back.
Bingley Five Rise
Posted: June 23, 2014 Filed under: Geeky facts, Moving on, Waterway wonders! | Tags: Bingley, Bingley Five Rise, Bingley Three Rise, Leeds and Liverpool canal, narrowobat blog, Silsden, water Leave a comment
The water points were busy so we pulled over and waited a while, the tank must have been on the last few dregs. Skipton soon disappeared, replaced with open countryside along with a trillion swing bridges. 
Each seems to bring it’s own challenge, from those that won’t budge an inch to the temperamental electric ones that eventually open, only to get stuck open whilst waiting traffic curls up over the Dales. There was one that Nick didn’t moan about too much though – and yep he did get them to push.
gate paddles on Bingley Five Rise
The plan was to be moored for Murray’s first match but shallow sides saw us continuing, shady wooded stretches moved us on a bit more and the outskirts of Bingley pushed us right on, into Bingley Five Rise.
It was ten past four by the time we arrived at the top lock and it seemed the lock keeper had mentally clocked off for the day. ‘They’re sharp 60ft locks, you’ll get wet and you’ll be needing that bow thruster.’ In we went.
Top of the flight is the lock equivalent to an infinity 
pool, views that look as though you could topple from the edge of the world. With Canal and River Trust working one side and Nick on the other we were down Five Rise, a drop of 59ft, in 35 
minutes – fifteen minutes slower than the first boat ever down in 1774 – perhaps the locks were all for them. Bingley Three Rise soon followed, The Damart Factory stands over 
the bottom lock, apparently there’s a well stocked mill shop selling ‘good, sensible underwear’…
We didn’t stop for the factory shop but moved a mile or so before deciding no more locks today and reversing back from Dawley Gap. Judging by the squiggles in Nicholson tomorrow’s lock/bridge combinations are a Super Mario for narrowboats.
Weaver’s Triangle
Posted: June 15, 2014 Filed under: Geeky facts, Moving on, Waterway wonders! | Tags: Barrowford Locks, Burnley, Burnley straight mile, Leeds and Liverpool canal, Nelson, Weaver's Tiangle Leave a comment
Perhaps it was recovering from Saturday night but Burnley was a ghost town. Weaver’s Triangle boasts mill upon mill, mainly derelict, encased by razor wire and spiked fencing but beneath the tangle of security the buildings
are magnificent. Eerie stillness aside, it’s not so hard to believe that Burnley’s 99,000 power looms made the to
wn one of the world’s largest producers of cotton cloth at the beginning of the 20th century.
Leaving Weaver’s Triangle the straight mile stretches out ahead, regarded as o
ne of the original seven wonders of the British waterways, it was built between 1796 and 1801 – the embankment provided boats with a 60ft high route overlooking Burnley, avoiding the need for locks. Good good. A combination of neat terraced roof tops, grand town halls and the odd TK Maxx here and there make up the view.
On through more old mills, Nelson showed little sign of life. It’s probably fair to say that some of the last few towns don’t embrace the 
canal in the way other places do.
We found some lock budd
ies for Barrowford Locks, happy to have shared them as the paddles seemed quite sharp and probably had great arm yanking potential for the roper. Canal and River Trust were around
about, trying to sort the shallow pounds towards the top of the flight.
Top of the locks is a whole new world compared to what lies below. Open fields, sheep, boats (!) and gongoozlers. We’re on a hay chaser, all moorings come with a tractor cutting or turning at the moment, evenings smell lovely.
Tardebigge Flight
Posted: May 25, 2014 Filed under: Moving on, Waterway wonders! | Tags: narrowboat blog, Tardebigge, Tardebigge Locks, Worcester and Birmingham canal 1 Comment
Inspecting the bent mooring chain this morning did nothing to alleviate our fear of yellow boats.
An epic 42 locks just sort of happened, we’d planned a fairly cushy 12 locks and four miles, but at lunchtime we topped with water and looked at the moorings next to the three wheeler rally, then up at the clear run ahead and thought, ‘Why not?’
The longest flight in the country isn’t all singing all dancing, there aren’t swar
ms of volunteers, not even an information board – instead the beginning is pretty tranquil and stays that way.
Beautiful countryside, the locks are quaint – although the paddles are beyond stiff, according to Nick each one 
only involves ‘two seconds of pain and then you’re away’…which is true, if you can budge them at all. So it was a pretty long day for Nick who ended up doing practically all the flight of 30 (plus the previous 12). With a fair few Bank Holiday Sunday gongoozlers about we managed to recruit a bit of free lock labour, anyone who came near this boat today had a windlass 
launched their way.
Up past the Lock Keepers Daughter’s Lock House, setting of the enchanting autobiography by Pat Warner.
Originally a temperamental boat lift, at around 11ft the top lock is deeper than the rest. The weather improved throughout the flight 
and we finished the afternoon in sunshine. With an incredibly fortunate run of locks in our favour we emerged from Tardebigge Top Lock 3 hrs 18 mins after entering the bottom one.
Tardebigge done.
Hatton Lock Climb
Posted: April 29, 2014 Filed under: Engine stuff, Moving on, Waterway wonders! | Tags: fuel filter, Grand Union, Hatton, Hatton locks, Shrewley tunnel Leave a comment
Oh dear, we joined the early brigade. For one day only. All sorts goes wrong at unearthly hours, sugar in the wrong tea mug etc. Anyhow by 7.30 we were already into the locks. The mist was probably a good thing as we couldn’t see the daunting flight peering down on us.
Most were for us. And operating a strict one gate, one paddle operation the climb wasn’t too painful. At least not from where I was stood anyhow. A few volunteers about as we reached the top, not something we’ve experienced before but there seems to be some kind of respect thing going on for early morning boaters…
On a few miles where we m
oored up high, looking down on green fields with cows. A quick boat clean inside, boat wash outside and a fuel filter change.
It was evening by the time he asked, ‘What day is it’ (Tuesday), ‘What are we doing here then?’ (What?!) ‘I mean we’re a whole day early, where did yesterday go?’ (?)Perhaps it’s time to visit the real world for a while…
Flight Sleeping
Posted: April 28, 2014 Filed under: Dry land, Moving on, Waterway wonders! | Tags: Cape Locks, Grand Union, Hatton locks, narrowboat blog, Royal Leamington Spa, Warwick, water 2 Comments
Leaving Long Itchington we set off into locks, locks and more locks. The number of boats on the move dropped off the closer we got to the Hatton Flight. 
Through Leamington Spa, a quick Co-op fly by then onto Warwick where we finished the shopping list in lovely Lidl. On past Tescos, food comes easily along this stretch.
The sun came out this afternoon, we’ve been flip-flop travelling with a guy on a hire boat whose shorts have been getting alarmingly short. Finally spotted him de-boating at Kate Boats in Warwick, phew.
Boats lurched awkwardly as we rose up through Cape Locks and on past The Cape of Good Hope, with water levels all over the place 
we had a quick attempt at mooring before moving up through the first of the Hatton Locks. Moored, showered, drinks poured when two boaters headed past, straight from the lazy tree. Locks empty, gates left wide open…we looked out at the easy ride ahead. Too good an o
pportunity to pass by we untied and worked our way through the open lock gates, cooking along the way. Part way into the Hatton Locks, we’re sleeping in a pound but at least we’re sleeping level unlike the poor wonky boaters at the bottom.
Foxton Locks
Posted: April 23, 2014 Filed under: Moving on, Waterway wonders! | Tags: Foxton, Foxton Locks, locks, narrowboat blog, sunshine Leave a comment
Early starters jostled for position at six something, they were long gone by the time we made it onto the stern. The sun came out and midway up
the gongoozlers did too. Easy life back in the land of single locks, we hovered half way up for a few boats coming down before finishing the climb.
A load of laundry washed a
nd spun, pulled in for a quick water top up before leaving locks behind for quite a while – the whole run through to Watford is lock free. Miles soon ticked by today, beautiful bluebell woods and fields of lambs.
Our priorities have changed since we left dry land, never thought we’d get so excited about four old iron rings. The rain had just about set in by time our ropes clanged through what seem to be long forgotten mooring rings out in the middle of nowhere.
Marpessa2 