May Bank Holiday: Day 2

We both slept really well, and woke to bright sunshine.  We had a pretty relaxed start to the day, and set off about 9.30.  Lots of people have said there seem to be very few boats about, but they must all be in Milton Keynes, because we passed loads.  At one point, the Jules Fuels boats were serving a customer, so there wasn’t much room to get by.

We continued past Campbell Park Marina, where the flats and townhouses on the other side are progressing.  There are shops and businesses open now.

We turned round at the winding hole before Bridge 83, and returned to the Campbell Park where there was plenty of space on the park side moorings.  The fuel boats arrived for the other direction and moored in front of us.  A very large fish which looked a lot like a koi carp drifted by.

We had lunch, then went for a walk across the park to the new development.  The electric trip boat, Electra, was back on its mooring.  We walked across the rusty bridge and walked a loop.

This afternoon, my Radio 2 colleague Niki came to see us, while her husband and daughter went for a walk.  We had a good natter about all sorts of things.  The towpath has been quite busy, with lots of people keen to have a good look in our windows!

8 miles, 0 locks.  (9 miles, 1 lock)

May Bank Holiday: Day 1

We left home at 7am, and drove up to Brinklow Marina, to attend the Electrika electric boat show.  We listened to some of the talks and spoke to a lot of people, and I’ll be writing a piece for Canal Boat.  It was good to hear from electric boat owners, and see some of the latest tech.  We left about 2pm, made a stop at Tesco in Rugby, and headed for Briar Rose.  We were soon unpacked and setting off, heading for Cosgrove.

Before the lock we passed a couple of boats going the other way, and then at the lock a boat was about to come up.  As the lock landing is a bit awkward there, when the gates were open I went in to give them room to come out.

We’d realised that we probably hadn’t filled the water tank at the end of our Christmas trip, so we stopped on the water point below the lock and filled up.  It’s just as well we did, because it appeared the tank was quite low.  We moored a few hundred yards further along towards the aqueduct.  I still needed a few thousand steps so we went for a walk round the Ouse Valley Park, and were delighted to find the ice cream man by the aqueduct.  We had to walk through a field of cattle, then headed back towards the aqueduct.

It’s got really quite warm this afternoon, and we’ve been wishing we’d brought some shorts with us.

1 mile, 1 lock.

Twitchy Feet on test

The June Canal Boat is out and includes my boat test on Twitchy Feet by Smithwood Narrowboats

Annual Report

Thirteen years of Briar Rose ownership completed.  This year's usage went back up again as we had a long autumn cruise, and our Crick trip had a few extra days at the start too.

During the year we travelled on the following waterways:

• BCN New Main Line
• BCN Old Main Line
• BCN Titford Canal
• Birmingham and Fazeley Canal
• B&F Digbeth Branch
• Coventry Canal
• Grand Union Digbeth Branch
• Grand Union Leicester Line
• Grand Union Mainline
• Llangollen Canal
• Middlewich Arm
• Montgomery Canal
• North Oxford Canal
• Prees Arm
• Shropshire Union main line 
• Trent and Mersey Canal
• Whitchurch Arm

Curiosity on test

The May Canal Boat is out, and includes my boat test on Curiosity, by Boating Leisure Services.  This boat will also be at the Crick Boat Show at the end of May.

Rain

I came up to the boat after work yesterday.  The Eberspacher took a couple of goes to get running, but everything else was fine.  I was woken several times in the night by torrential rain, and this morning the marina road was more like a lake.

I had to go to Dunchurch Pools for a boat test, but I was ready early so I stopped at the little car park by the penultimate Stoke Bruerne lock and walked along to see how the Tove was doing.  The overflow entry of the river was running, showing how much water there is about.

The boat test went well, and despite there being some rain, the sun struggled out for the five minutes we needed it.

Andy Dence boat on test

The April Canal Boat is out, and includes my boat test on a spec boat by Andy Dence.