Narrowboat Just Heaven

Only a short cruise today, just two locks and a few miles. We arrived at Tixall Wide in time for lunch, then went for a long walk up into Brocton Coppice and around the Shugborough estate.

We started off by walking back along the towpath to bridge 106 then across the river, the railway line and the busy A513. There are many paths criss-crossing Brocton Coppice  and Cannock Chase. We went up across the Coppice to meet the Staffordshire Way between Harts Hill & Mere pits. The Staffordshire Way then took us back  along the A513 for a while before cutting across the Shugborough estate to join the towpath of the Trent & Mersey canal. From there we made our way back via Great Haywood junction.

There are a great many canal related walks that can be done which include part of the Staffordshire Way. This long distance footpath starts at Kinver Edge and goes up to Mow Cop. On the way it crosses, or goes close to, canals in seven different places.

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A longish day today. When we awoke the sky was blue and the sun shining, so an early start was called for. On the move by 7:30. Unfortunately by nine o’clock the clouds had gathered and the rest of the day was grey and overcast. Still not many boats around and we didnt have to queue at locks at all, though we did occasionally have to wait for a boat coming towards us. We didn’t mind as it means we get the chance to natter to other boaters.

At Rodbaston lock there was a boat going down when we arrived, as they were going down a short, old tug style boat approached below the lock. As it went to slow down a huge cloud of black smoke belched out of it’s exhaust stack. The other boat left the lock and I waited for the tug to come in. There was another cloud of smoke and a young woman carrying a windlass walked up the path. She was covered in flecks of soot and had black hands. I got chatting to her and the boat’s steerer and it seems that they had bought the boat only a couple of hours earlier in Penkridge. The vendor started the engine, but it didnt smoke then, but since they are covered in soot everytime they open the throttle!  They have a barge on the Leeds & Liverpool, but fancied doing the narrow canals so bought the tug on a whim.

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No photos this trip I’m afraid. We forgot to bring the camera battery charger with us, went to take the first photo and the camera shut down saying no power.

We didnt leave the mooring until about twelve, then a quietish chug until four thirty when we moored up on the visitor’s mooring above Bratch locks. There was hardly any other boats on the move and every lock was in our favour. We had our evening meal about sixish then decided to go for a walk. Up the towpath to Awbridge lock, then along the road for about half a mile until we came to the bridge where the old railway line crosses. We went up onto the line and then back towards Womborne and back up the towpath. We only saw one other person, a dog walker. The weather was a bit damp perhaps that’s what kept everyone indoors.

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We spent the weekend chilling out, going for walks and doing a few jobs onboard.

On Saturday we arrived about lunchtime, then in the afternoon we went in search of the “Kinver Edge Farm Shop”. We had seen several signs for it and a check of their postcode with Google maps indicated that it was just up Church Hill, a short walk from Kinver Lock. It isn’t where Google says it is! It is actually much further along the lane, probably about half a mile further. When we got there we were very disappointed. We are used to farm shops well stocked with a range of local produce and other goods from small rural producers, but all they had was a few vegetables and a freezer with some sausages in. It is much more of a PYO place with a small cafe. The walk wasn’t wasted however as we saw parts of Kinver Edge and decided to come back for a proper visit the next day.

Sunday:
Set out for Kinver Edge again and did a lovely walk taking in the open heathland and the wooded section below the Edge. We will definately be back for more exploration of this wonderful natural asset.

These caves were once inhabited

Nanny`s Rock

We were talking to some other local moorers who said that they had witnessed boats hitting our boat as they were coming in to the lock. We also saw some near misses whilst we were on board, so I have decided to get some tyres to put down the side of the boat in the hope that this will encourage passing boats to keep further away from us.

After our evening meal we again did the walk down to Whittington Horse Bridge and back, this time in the opposite direction.

Monday: Another walk today. This time up the towpath to Stewponey lock and then back along the footpath through Primrose wood. Then back home in time to pick up the grandchildren from school.

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As we were passing our old mooring at Roundhill Wharf we saw that NB Aurora was getting ready to leave. We had a quick word with them and discovered that they had finally sold the apartment at Roundhill Wharf and were moving their boat up to Audlem. They were intending to live on the boat for a few weeks until the new house was available.

The bridge under the road at the bottom of Kidderminster lock has been a target for grafitti for many years. It was also dark and dirty, but now it has been transformed with new mural depicting the decades from 1920s.

This is a vast improvement, I hope the local youths don’t think that they can improve it by adding their own contributions.

We got to our Kinver mooring just after twelve and spent a couple of hours doing odd jobs and cleaning the boat. We expected Aurora to come past as they had followed us through Kidderminster lock, but they must have stopped off somewhere on the way.

We left at about 14:30 as I had a blood donor’s appointment at 17:00.

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As we only needed to get to Stourport today we had a leisurely start and set off just after nine. The weather had changed overnight and it was much cooler than the previous days. A quiet, uneventful run up to the Hampstall Inn at Astley Burf. The pub has recently put in excellent new moorings. The moorings are for pub patrons only, so I went up and bought a pint of cider. We had actually stopped for a late morning “full English” which didnt really go with cider, so I poured it into a bottle and saved it for later. The pub was just starting serving the carvery Sunday Lunch, which looked excellent value for money.

By one thirty we had arrivedin Stourport and made our way up the two narrow staircases from the river. There was one other boat ( a Brookline hire boat) ahead of us, but other than that it was very quiet.

As we came through the basins I heard someone call out “Hello Mr Heaven”. I turned around to see NB  Ruffian which is owned by another Mr Heaven, an accountant from Birmingham, possibly a relation but quite distant. As we were waiting for York St lock they pulled up behind us and we had a short chat. He said that they were just out for a short cruise to Pratt’s Wharf. We had also condsidered stopping at Pratt’s Wharf, but when we got there there was only one space so we thought we would let Ruffian have it. (Also the nearby sewage works was having a ’smelly’ day)

We went on a little further and finally moored up just above Falling Sands lock. We were just in time, as I was securing the ropes it started to rain which was the begining of a terrific thunderstorm. About an hour or so later, after the storm had passed, we decided to go on a walk. We went up to bridge 11, crossed over and up the lane leading down to it. Then along the road looking for the lane that leads down to Oldington bridge. We knew that it was down through a industrial estate, but this road has several and we tried all of them until we found the right one. When we walked back alon the towpath past Pratt’s Wharf Ruffian wasnt there so perhaps the thunderstorm persuaded them to moor up earlier.

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Up earlyish and had breakfast before 8:00 so we could be ready when the bridgekeeper came on duty. Heddi walked to Sainsbury’s to get a few things and I followed with the boat after the bridge had opened. We called the lock keeper who said that we may have to wait as they had some “work flats” going though and he didnt want to empty the lock too many times as the river level was rather low. When we arrived the lock gates were open and there was a small work boat already in the lock attached to some pontoons lashed together. I expected to have to wait for more work boats, but we locked down straight away. We overtook the work boat as we left the lock. he was going very slowly trying to push the pontoons against the current.

Unlike our previous trips up river the current was fairly slow and the GPS showed us doing about 4.2mph up to the parting and around 4.8 -5.0 on the main river. At this speed we knew that we should in in Worcester by mid afternoon.

The weather was really hot and we were glad of the breeze to keep us cool, the cows were stood in the water cooling their feet.

We arrived in Worcester about 3:30, picked up water at the point near the trip boats and went off to find somehere to moor. We prefer the mooring upstraem of the boat clubs. It’s quieter there than by the Sabrina bridge. The mooring were much busier than we have seen them before, we did find a space, but it wasnt ideal.

What we hadn’t reaslised was that the racing would be on and it was Ladies Day. The weather was much kinder than for our visit last year.
It was rather noisy as we had moored close to one of the PA speakers for the races, but by about 6 o’clock it had finished. We went for a walk later and were astounded by all the mess left around by the race goers. All credit to the race organisers though. They had an army of cleaners working throughout the evening and it was all gone by the morning.

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Up earlyish as we had arranged to meet Heddi’s sister Pauline at 11:30 at Hempstead bridge. She lives in the Forest of Dean so nearer Gloucester is more convenient. Also we wanted to start back up the river early on Saturday morning so being near Gloucester would make that easier.
After a some confusion regarding how to find us she arrived a bit late. We took a short cruise into the docks and moored up on one of the finger pontoons for lunch. Again the weather was really lovely and warm. We dropped her off back by her car and then walked into the Gloucester Quays shopping centre. This is marketed as a “designer outlet”, but it is full of the usual clothing shops you find everywhere. Heddi bought some tee shirts and we walked back.

I got a call from Andrew (aka Capt Beeky) about 5:30 to say that he and Sheila were on their way down the M5 and would be with us in about 20mins. They duly arrived and we all sat out in the evening sunshine nattering for about an hour before they had to depart for home in Dorset.

We had our evening meal with just the two of us, the first time since we set out over a week ago.

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Rachel, Steve, Penny & Phil arrived at about 10:30. We showed Penny & Phil around, they hadn’t been on a narrowboat before, and seemed to be impressed. It was a lovely, clear, warm sunny day and we set off northwards with the three men at the back and the three women at the front. There was quite a long delay before we could get going as the bridge keeper was having problems with the bridge. We cruised on to a spot just past Saul Junction where we knew the towpath was wide enough to accomodate us all for picnic lunch. After lunch, washed down with Bucks Fizz and cider (not together!), we chugged back with this time the women at the back & the men at the front. They left about 3 o’clock and we went back up to Splatt bridge and moored up in exactly the same place as before, even putting the pins back in the same holes!

We thought that Jan, Mike, Teresa & Lindsay would all be coming together in one car, but we got a text msg implying that J&M would be coming first with T&L following on later. But no, they all came together in two cars!

Where are the others

We had been planning the barbecue for quite a while and had settled on a pork only menu. Which is odd as normally Heddi doesn’t like pork! We had spare ribs in a spicy chilli sauce to start with, then tenderloin of pork with a lemon, prosciutto and sage coating together with freshly baked bread and salad. As on Sunday the new barbecue worked brilliantly.

The weather stayed warm, which was good as there isn’t really room for six to eat indoors, so we sat out until about 10:00.

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The day started off cold & grey, but we thought that we would go for a walk anyway as we hadn’t been very active over the last few days. So with Izzy in the buggy we set off up the towpath to Fretherne bridge and back through the village. The rest of the morning was spent with Izzy feeding the ducks and then they left after lunch.

We had arranged to meet freinds Jim and Mo at Patch bridge this evening and also some of Heddi’s school collegues were coming to see us the next day. Patch bridge woulkd be easier for them to find as all you have to do is follow the signs for the Wildfowl & Wetlands trust. So we chugged the couple of miles down to find a mooring. We needed somewhere easy to get on and off as Rachel isnt very mobile. When we got there it was packed with boats, mostly large GRP cruisers. The most accessible moorings here are on the east bank, the west bank has quite a slope and no firm edge to moor up to. There was one space on the east bank, but it appeared to be a water point. We asked some local boaters who said that there was another, official water point up nearer the bridge, and that it was OK to moor by the other one, so we did.

By now the weather had improved a lot and we sat outside with a glass of Pimms awaiting the arrival of Jim & Mo.

They came just after 7:00 bearing a take-away pizza as arranged. We sat outside until well after sunset and even when they left at around 10:00 it wasnt completly dark.

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