Tag Archives: Shropshire Union

The Grand Tour

Day 75 – The M25 Of The Canals

Today was forecast to be one of the hottest days of the year, so why we ended up doing one of our longest days I do not know! We didn’t leave until gone 8am as we needed fuel from Venetian Marina which opens at 9am, it looked to be about an hour away on the map. It was boat after boat after boat with slow progress, it wasn’t all bad news though with two sightings of Kingfishers.

Toby did a great job steering with moored boats and moving boats all at the same time. We did the last of the single locks and then a sharp right turn, Toby doesn’t seem to be looking in the direction he should!

We both felt sorry for the chappies cutting the grass today, all that gear including a helmet and a face mask in this heat.

We had to queue at every lock which somewhat caught us out as we weren’t expecting it (and I hope doesn’t continue for the rest of the summer holidays). At one point there were four boats in the queue for one lock. The castle in the background of the second picture is Beeston Castle, we didn’t get a very good shot so you’ll have to wait until our return journey in a couple of weeks.

Iron Lock (sadly no photos as Toby forgot) has iron sides which are somewhat distorted so the advice is to let one boat in at a time, and with only one paddle working, it was slow progress. I went ahead and helped the other boaters going up and down, it was then our turn. The crew belonging to the boat going up after us decided to have a rest (with windlasses in hand) rather than help out. They don’t seem in a rush here, yet didn’t wait for me to get back on board and pushed us to the wrong side of the canal, forcing us to run aground. It must have been bad because Toby had a pop at them saying that wasn’t the done thing – and it wasn’t a hire boat.

We were slowly roasting and getting hotter and hotter, one more lock to go and it started raining with lightening visible, lucky it soon passed but we weren’t hanging about.

We’d agreed to meet Chris, Neil and Layla from nb Comfortably Numb, we saw a blue boat moored and so I tooted our horn, I then saw a guy on the back and said that’s not Neil! I apologised as I went past and he said your friends are round the bend. We moored up about 3.30 and spent the rest of the afternoon/evening with Pimms and Toby’s home brew putting the canal world to rights.

The Grand Tour

Day 74 – Dark And Stormy

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A fabulous sunset last night, with it being so hot we left the front, back, side and roof hatches open, boy did we get a shock at 1.56am with thunder, lightning and heavy rain. It was a mad dash to close everything up. Toby much prefers these dark and stormys.

Toby doesn’t cope very well in the heat and struggled yesterday, so we cast off much earlier than usual at 7.15 to try and avoid the worst of the heat; I steered while Toby made breakfast. We passed this huge industrial site owned by TATA Chemical, it was quite something.

The canal soon narrowed with lots of blind bends to keep Toby on his toes. There were a few flashes, with great views.

This has to be the boat with the most solar panels, the owner said he’s not had to charge his battery from the engine once this year.

Middlewich and our first locks for what seems like an age (Liverpool, some nine days ago). Vlockies helped on site and we paid in kindness with flapjacks, it did the trick as one of the vlockies stayed with us for all three locks – or maybe he felt sorry for me, as he asked me about the sleeve on my arm, his parting shot was ‘a day over ground is better than a day underground’ thanks for that!

We passed the Middlewich breach repair, this stretch was out of action from March to December last year, and cost some £3m to repair. That’s somewhat different to a breach many years ago at The Lion Salt Works which was repaired in two weeks!

The countryside views and the blue skies have been wonderful today and have lifted my spirits. I was feeling a little flat the last day or so thinking that we’d done all the funky bits, how wrong could I be.

We found a perfect shady spot under a big tree, it required pins – these big long pins – and boy did I whack them in!

Toby sat out in the shade with a glass of Pimms and his kindle, he’s much more chilled today.

It was also ‘bone juice day’ and my three monthly injection in my tummy to strengthen by bones. I’ve been looking at the box in the fridge since we started, so it’s good to get it over and done with. Toby was very gentle, I’m hoping there is a bit less belly fat now to find a spot.