I manage to convince them that today I really want to leave early. One: I have to negotiate a ferry cable (use the horn three times, and the ferry man lowers the cable), and two: I’ll meet up with Swansong. And what a timing: we arrive at the moorings at exactly the same moment! We … Read More →
Two nights we spend in the nice village called Tewkesbury. It has a cathedral-like church… …two wonderful museums… …three bookshops, and a good Italian restaurant. Was the Severn a bit boring, with it’s high banks, the Avon is completely different. No high banks, but views over fields; cat-tails and yellow water lilies. And fields, and … Read More →
That’s on the ‘clock’ just when I turn WRT out of the last of the Stourport Locks onto the river Severn. As we bought her with 3150 hours, we’ve done 850 hours of cruising so far. Most of them were easy. The last half an hour certainly wasn’t. It’s windy and on the landing pontoon … Read More →
No, we didn’t cruise all the way to the Mediterranean. We’re in Stourport. In the basin, moored up for a couple of days. And, like last year, it reminds me of Venice. It is awful long ago I wrote something for the blog. Eh, no, let me rephrase that. I wrote some stories in concept, … Read More →
There are a heap of locks between Swanley Bridge Marina and Norbury Junction. Thirty-one, to be precise. The boating season has started so there quite a few boaters heading down north. When we meet them when we are in the locks we’re constantly faced with a very concerned person. They all say something like: “How … Read More →
It’s going to be one of the hottest cruising days ever. It’s nice and warm when I get up, but when Lawrance finally is ready to take our rental car back to Enterprise in Chester it’s already 50°C in the well deck. By the time he’s back, finishes his lunch and we set off (13:00 … Read More →
On our holiday in 2013 we visited (Chester)… But we cheated, by stopping at Egg Bridge and taking the bus into town. That did save us a lot of locks. This time we make up for that. We go to Chester, and even as far as Ellesmere Port, to visit the Waterways Museum. We moor … Read More →
After all these delightful days on the river Weaver it’s time to get back onto the canals. Our passage on Anderton Boat Lift is at 12:10 hrs on Sunday, so at 11:40 hrs we move to the holding moorings fro the lift. And wait, and wait… At 12:20 hrs Peter tells us to get ready, … Read More →
Early Tuesday morning on the 30st of May we present ourselves at the booking office for the Anderton Boat Lift. Just to be told that the lift is fully booked for the day. Only one caisson is used, because of a fault in one of the gates. So we’re at the visitor’s moorings, going down … Read More →
My trip to Lydiate set off a whole train of thoughts. When on the tiller I always get comments like: Oh, my wife wouldn’t think of steering the boat. And: One doesn’t see a lot of women steering narrowboats. So I know I’m a relatively rare species. But what does the wife do when something … Read More →