Saturday & Sunday - Hatherton to Nr Brewood - 9 miles, 1 lock, 4 hours

Saturday

We had to be up early as we needed to drive back to Hinckley as the hire company wanted to swap out the van.  Whilst this was a pain in the preverbial, it was worth it, as we are now in a brand new VW Transporter.  It was not an easy job as anyone that has seen the inside of the van will appreciate!! But we unloaded most of the stuff at the storage place then swapped the van and reloaded.

When we got back Rod and George continued the theme of gathering wood, not sure George actually helped that much!!

But the had fun.

Sunday

Whatever happened to Sunday being a day of rest? (I know our life is one long rest!).  We need to be up early again, for two reasons 1.  Mike was meeting us at 11:00 on his way to London for the NFL

2.  We were approaching a really narrow section of canal, which is only wide enough for one boat, with passing places, so we wanted to get through before it got too busy.  So we set off at 7:30.

We were really lucky we passed nothing on the narrow stretch.

We the arrived at the junction of the Staff &Worc with the Shropshire Union.  So we are now on the Shroppie heading for Chester.

We met Mike at about 11:30 then had a lovely walk in the afternoon, poor little George is knackered again!!  The main purpose of the walk was to go to the shop, according to the Co-op website the nearest one was at Covan, once we got there we decided we may as well carry on and get the van - when we drove back we discovered there was a Co-op in Brewood -they need to work on their search engine on their store locator!!

Managed to cook my first roast dinner, which for those of you that have seen me cook a roast is no mean feat, as usually the kitchen looks like a bomb has gone off!  It's amazing how tody you can be when you have to:-)

(EH 309)

Penkridge to Hatherton - 7 locks, 6 miles, 4.5 hours

What a beautiful morning, for late September this weather really is amazing.

Set off this morning at about 8:30.  

The third lock we came through was Otherton, as I got off the boat to do the lock, I made the under statement of the day, "need to put George on his lead there is a busy road by the lock" - busy it was the M6, if you look to the right of the picture between the trees you can just see the road sign!!

The last lock of the day was at Gailey which is where the A5 crosses the canal.  The wharf has an old mill.

Picture from inside the lock.

Whilst this stretch of canal is never far from the motorway or the railway it is never the less very pretty.

And the locks are close enough together to be able to walk between them.

Our mooring spot for tonight is in the middle of nowhere, so no pubs to visit, but Strictly is on tonight so it'll be a bottle of wine in front of the telly.

(EH 305.3)

Thursday - Buckingham Palace

Took a day trip to London today to go to Buckingham Palace with the girls to view the Coronation Exhibition.  Rod had to work so he and George went to Cirencester.

All this chilling is great but you kind of loose any sense of urgency or needing to be some where at a set time, this resulted in me having to run through Penkridge in my heeled boots when I suddenly realised that the clock on the boat might be a few minutes slow and I was going to miss my train - not really a pretty sight at 7:45 in the morning!!! I made it by the skin of my teeth :-)

Had a lovely day the sun shone yet again and there were good size crowds outside the palace.

Whilst I was waiting for the others to arrive was lucky to see the household cavalry ride past.

It took us about 2 hours to go through the exhibition and the state rooms, we then had tea and cake in the palace gardens.

Thanks to Carol for organising, a great day out.

Tixall to Penkridge, 9 miles, 4 locks, 4.5hours

What a beautiful day, you won't believe we were almost at the end of September.

We were aiming to get to Penkridge as Rod is working Wednesday and Thursday and I need to get into London on Thursday as meeting some friends and going to Buckingham Palace.

As we cruised along we came across the second sunken boat we have seen on the Staff & Worc, but this one was slightly different in that as we got closer we were pretty sure it was a Caraboat, we first came across one of these on our very first canal holiday and at the time thought it was an Ice Cream van!! They are a strange contraption that can be towed on the road as a caravan on be used on water - those days are definitely over for this one! 

Not long after this we crossed under the M6.

The bridge immediately before - just a slight contrast.

We arrived in Penkridge and found a nice spot to moor.  The moorings run along the back of some houses and we picked the spot because it was particularly well kept, not long afterwards a gentlemen came out of his back gate, he got chatting with Rod (I am convinced Michael Appleyard has been giving him chatting lessons!), it transpired he was an ex-miner and was 78 years old, I hope I am that fit if I make it to his age.  He very kindly gave us some runner beans out of his garden, which we will be having for tea tonight.  He also advised the the best pub in Penkridge was The Star.  He was a true gent.

I have decided that both Rod and George have a pub addiction!!  We went for a walk round the village and at every pub George tried to take us in and on the way back Rod decided we should stop at the Star, two pints later we came back for tea - apparently we are supporting local businesses :-)

(EH 301.6)

North East to Armitage to Tixall - 11.5 miles, 2 locks, 6 hours

The end of the week in the North East saw us take a trip into Newcastle, I haven't been into Newcastle City centre since I was about 12 years old (along time ago!).  Had a lovely wander along the Quayside, was great to see the Tyne Bridge set up for the Great North Run.

On Friday we did a 8.5 mile walk round Morpeth, this took us along the river and into the town, at the end of which the dogs were totally knackered, they weren't the only ones!!

When we left Soutter Point on Saturday morning we went to an amazing fish mongers that Mike and I had spotted on the way to the match the previous Saturday.  So I was really brave and cooked both Scallops and Seabass for the first time ever, though I say so myself they both came out ok.

Sunday morning we set off with a plan to stop at Armitage where we had arranged to meet up with Marie and Antony.  We had a lovely afternoon/evening, was great to catch up. The weather was absolutely amazing especially for the end of September.

We set off this morning with the aim of getting just past Hayward Junction and onto the Stafforshire & Worcester canal.

The weather wasn't quite as had been forecast it was damp and drizzling, later in the day Rod bumped into a guy who advised that his six year old had informed him this morning that "the weather man tells lies!" She is not wrong.

As we travelled on we went over a couple of Aqueducts, the one below at Brindley Bank and the second over the River Trent.

We also passed a couple of impressive country homes, the first Bishton Hall, which is now a school.

We then travelled alongside the beautiful and impressive Shugborough Hall.

We were soon at Hayward Junction, where we took the left turn under the bridge onto the Staf & Worc canal.

Shortly afterwards we moored up for the day, and were treated to a great view of a hot air balloon going overhead.

Rod did his usual end of day checks, engine oil, grease the stearn tube and the dreaded weed hatch, he thought we had caught something today on the prop as By The Way was running a bit slow, and low and behold the following was wrapped around the prop - yuck!!

(EH 297.2)

North East

We have had a great week so far.

Sunday was the Great North Run, unfortunately Liz was not able to run, under doctors advise.  The weather was cold and we had a sharp shower at about the 4 mile mark, but really chuffed I finished in 1:56:07, almost 4 mins faster than last year. 

The Red Arrows put on a great show, so impressive.

The next day the boys went mountain biking to Keilder forest.  Liz and I walked the dogs on the beach and had a generally relaxing day.

On Tuesday we went to Beamish outdoor museum.  We had a fantastic day, if you are in the area it really is worth a visit.  

The dogs had a trip on a tram and an old bus.

We also had a visit down the mine, so cramped, our backs were aching and we were only down there 10 mins and we didn't actually do any work!!

There is a reconstruction of the pit village, showing how the community lived and worked.

Also the best chips in the world from the Fish and Chip shop, cooked in coal fired fryers and cooked in beef dripping - very naughty but oh so nice!!!

We also visited the Co-op - just a bit different to modern supermarket shopping!!

The next day we went for a lovely walk, really pretty with contrasting views of the countryside and the urban spans of Sunderland one way and then the Tune dock in the other.

We then drove to the beautiful fishing village of Staithes, really quaint streets and very pretty.

Then as we were so close we carried on to Whitby.

We are off to Newcastle today for a bit of retail therapy.  

Sorry it's a bit long, but as you can see we have been very busy :-))

Hopwas to Kings Bromley marina, 3 locks, 1 swing bridge, 6 hours, 10 miles

We pulled the pins this morning at about 8:20, weather was not brilliant it was drizzling, but as you can see George was pretty keen, he is feeling much better!

We travelled to the end of the Coventry canal at Fradley junction, which is where it joins the Trent and Mersey canal.  Thankfully it was not too busy as there is a swing bridge immediately before the junction and a lock immediately to the right of the junction, whilst we were going left you can get caught up in traffic here!  

This is a new stretch of canal for us, we have only ever travelled the Trent and Mersey right from Frafley junction.  We soon hit a couple of locks, the first of which was fairly deep.

We travelled through a couple of further locks before we arrived at the marina.

We are off to the North East tomorrow and need to set off fairly early, as Mike and I are going to watch Sunderland at the stadium of light tomorrow afternoon, against Arsenal.  Being an ardent Spurs fan Rod refused to be subjected to watching Arsenal.  Ha'Way the lads - we really need a win.

Then Sunday morning is the big event - starting to get a bit nervous!

Will post some updates from the North East.

Atherstone to Hopwas 4 locks, 9 mile, 4.5 hours.

Left Atherstone at 7:40, we still had two locks to do to complete the Atherstone flight.

We continued to travel alongside the East Coast mainline.

We had a couple more locks to go through at Glascote, progress was slow through here as there were three boats in front of us waiting to go through, a canal traffic jam!

We then cruised on via Fazeley junction, this is where the Birmingham and Fazeley canal joins the Coventry, not very scenic but the industrial view reminds you of the original purpose of the canal network.

We then crossed the River Tame which looked really pretty, a real contrast with countryside in the front but the high rises of Tamworth in the background.

We then moored at Hopwas, which is very close to Tamworth, excellent download speed on the dongle ( important as Rod was doing Tech helpline the next day) but there should be this close to a mobile phone mast, lovely pub here which we have stopped at previously the Tame Otter, which I am sure we will visit over the next couple of days as Rod s working Wednesday and Thursday.

We were woken at 4:00 on Tuesday night by George pacing around, we discovered a couple of lumps on his neck which he obviously scratched and made them bleed.  We managed to settle him, but at 6:50 he was pacing again, we discovered several more lumps, so as Rod needed to work I took George back to the vets in Lutterworth for open surgery at 9:00.  The vet advised he had some kind of allergic reaction, came him a steroid injection, a antihistamine injection, antihistamine tablets and antibiotics - this took the lumps down quickly but he remains out of sorts and very clingy but hopefully he will be back to himself in the next couple of days.

He is currently curled up by my feet.  The upside for him is we are having to mix his tablets in Tuna - his favourite.