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.

Hawkesbury Junction to Atherstone lock 10, 9.5 miles, 9 locks, 6 hours.

We left Hawkesbury at 8:20, another beautiful morning.  We had been woken at 3:00 a.m. by a passing canal boat, why would anyone be travelling at that time in the morning (Mike do not get any ideas!!!)

As we travelled passed Bedworth we came across a slightly different take on garden gnomes.

So if you ever wondered what happened to shop mannequins when the pass their sell by date - you now know!!

We the passed Excellence A Float, where we hired our second holiday canal boat from - would recommend if anyone ever wants to hire.

There was a bit of a queue when we get to Atherstone top lock, but not too bad, there are 11 locks in the flight, but we stopped after lock 9 - food was required.  

As you can see George has been assisting at the locks.

As a passer by pointed out, he clearly considers himself to be in supervisory mode!  Which left me with all the work to do!

Brinklow to Hawkesbury Junction, 9 miles, 1 lock, 1swing bridge, 4 hours

A bit of a disjointed day today, but before that just need to share that it is not just me that ends up biking twice as far - poor Rodney ended up doing 20 miles yesterday, as the route he had planned had a rather large ford in it, which is not a good idea on a fold up bike, so a detour was required. We did get to TGI Fridays, oh and B&Q!!

We set off at 8:00 this morning to get in an hours cursing before Rod had to go to Crick to do a handover of Michael's boat to the new owners.  It was a lovely bright start.

From Crick he was then off to Wharf House to make a couple of purchases for By The Way - any guesses as to what the main purchase was, there is a clue in the picture below (spot the addition).

I took the opportunity to go for my last run before next weekend, managed 10.5 miles which I was really pleased with.  As I was running along one of the country lanes, there was an old guy outside his cottage with a scythe, he shouted out "what are you running away from" I felt like saying you with that scythe in your hand!! (was like something from a horror film - slight exaggeration!).

We were aiming to get to about 2 miles past Hawkesbury Junction, (this is the junction of the Oxford and Coventry canals) but as you can see the sky was get pretty dark, and we decided to take the first spot we saw, which turned out to be a very good idea, as just as we stopped the heavens opened.

George has quickly got back into the swing of boat life, Mr Chilled!

Willoughby to Brinklow - 3 locks, 12 miles, 1 tunnel, 5 hours

What a difference a day makes, yesterday basking in sunshine - today full wet weather gear!

We set off today at about 8:30 it had stopped raining but as you can see the sky looked pretty ominous, but we can't be accused of being fair weather boaters - this is in truth due to the fact that we need to get to Kings Bromley marina by Friday next week as we are booked in for the following week.  

On a very selfish and personal note I am glad the temperature has dropped - I know no one else will be except Liz - this is much better running weather and with just over a week to the Great North Run I need all the help I can get!!!

We travelled through the locks at Hillmorton, we were very glad we were heading down, as there were a couple of boats coming up together that were getting in a right muddle - boys weekend - looked like it could get very messy.

As we came through Rugby we saw a boat that was moored  next to us at Yelvertoft, they have been out for a month and are heading back - it's a small world.

We then headed towards Newbold tunnel, I dutifully turned all the lights on inside the boat, I must pay more attention to the guide book next time, there was no need it was a very short tunnel!!

We then heard a noise that we had not heard for a few weeks, the East Coast mainline!  We are back to running along side the railway.  Was a nice reminder of the fact I don't have to go to work:-)

We eventually found a lovely spot to moor at and after a bacon buttie for lunch Rod got on the bike to get the van, he has about 11.5 miles to go, hope his route is better planned than the one he sent me on!

We are then off to Rods favourite shop B&Q Superstore (it's a boy thing!) the saving grace is that there is a TGI Friday's opposite - guess where we are off to for tea.

Menorca to Willoughby

We had a lovely last couple of days in Menorca and it would seem we have brought the beautiful weather back with us.

We discovered a fantastic restaurant in Punta Prima, where we had Chateaubriand - yum yum!

Whilst we were sad to leave Cala Torret

We were also looking forward to getting back to By The Way and picking up Georgie B!!

We landed in Manchester late Sunday night, so Monday was taken up with picking up George and getting the boat ready to go.  If was a really long day so we took the opportunity to go to the Kings Head in Napton as Monday night is steak night - this was washed down with a strawberry and lime Koppenburg which we got the taste for on holiday.  That is it now for me I am tee total until I complete the Great North Run on Sunday 15th.

We left Wigrams Turn Marina early on Tuesday morning and cruised for just a couple of hours, as I needed to go to the hospital in Leicester for a check up on my shoulder - consultant was really pleased with my progress and has discharged me - yippee!

Rod had to work today, so we set off really early about 7:00, what a beautiful morning.

We travelled through Braunston junction.

Then on another couple of miles stopping at 8:45.

Rod set up the GPS so I could bike to get the van.  I ended up on a bit of a mystery tour, he may be trying to tell me something, as it took me to completely the wrong place resulting in me biking twice as far as I should have meaning I was gone twice as long!!!  He doesn't get rid of me that easily I found my way back.