Monday 27 April 2020

Annual Report


Today marks the ninth anniversary of taking ownership of Briar Rose.  Our miles and locks are a bit higher this year, because we had a longer trip in September plus the shortened trip this spring; the figures should have been a lot higher!

This year we have travelled on the following waterways:
  • BCN -- Old and New Mainlines, Gower Branch
  • Bridgewater Canal
  • Bridgewater Canal Leigh Arm
  • Coventry Canal
  • Droitwich Barge and Junction Canals
  • Grand Union Leicester Arm
  • Grand Union Mainline
  • Leeds and Liverpool Leigh Arm
  • North Oxford Canal
  • River Avon
  • River Severn
  • Shropshire Union Mainline
  • Shropshire Union Middlewich Arm
  • Staffs and Worcester Canal
  • Stratford Canal
  • Trent and Mersey Canal
  • Wardle Canal
  • Worcester and Birmingham Canal
In addition, Catherine, Nigel and the children borrowed the boat for a week in October and went down to Aylesbury and back.  Their trip is not included in our figures.

Thursday 23 April 2020

Lockdown jigsaw


Adrian got me this for my birthday a few weeks ago — and now he’s completed it!  Points for anyone who can identify the mooring.

Tuesday 7 April 2020

Ovation Boats and the Weed Fleet


The May edition of Canal Boat is out and includes my boat test on a spec boat by Ovation Boats.  There’s also an article of mine about the Weed hire boats based in the past and again now at Weedon.


Finally, the 20 Questions is my former BBC colleague Andy Griffee, who has a new novel out now.  River Rats is the follow up to Canal Pushers.