Fradley Junction to Shardlow - Last Leg

The final leg of the journey was from Fradley to Shardlow - a leisurely two and a half day journey. We got back on the boat on Sunday afternoon, and thought it would be nice to go and investigate Alrewas for the evening. The journey was an hour or so, through three locks. Fradley Junction was busy, with queues for the locks, and as Rivendell is a long boat, when we came to queue for the first lock, there wasn't a large enough space for us to fit near the lock. I therefore pulled into an empty long-term residential mooring on the right, quite a bit back from the lock. As boats passed up and down through the lock, our turn was coming, and with two other boats ahead of us in the canal, but behind us in the queue, I got the wave to get in the lock... This is exactly the sort of time when you want to smoothly pull out from the bank and cruise neatly into the lock.... Needless to say, the boat had some different ideas! I pushed the front end out, and ran down the bank to jump on the back before it got too far into the canal. I put her into forward, and tiller to the right to push the front end left into the middle of the canal. Now, this also pushes the rear end towards the bank. Not usually a problem, as the back end will just rub along the bank for a bit before you can use heavy left tiller to bring the rear inline with the front. However, as this was a long-term mooring, there had not been much movement on this bit of bank, and sediment had built up. The rear end beached.. Damn!! Only way off is to reverse (the back of the boat is the lowest in the water, at around 2ft 4 draft, so reversing is the best way off a shelf). This brought the front end back into the bank. Deja vu.... Get off, push front end out, drive forwards, get stuck. Repeat several times.. Now the other boats, who had been very courteous in allowing me through looked annoyed! What the hell is he doing?

Eventually, I reversed a good 50 ft down the cut, into nice clear water, and a large bust of power got the boat nicely in the middle of the canal, and I could cruise into the lock... What a start to a gentle afternoon's boating! The rest of the journey was simple, and we moored up in Alrewas, looking forward to a nice pub meal. Time for cock-up number two... In Alrewas, as in many parts of the country, on Sundays pubs do Sunday lunch, but no food in the evening. Damn again!! Back to the boat, and I made a surprisingly good and quick veggie chilli. Went down a treat, and saved us a few quid to boot... We went back to the George and Dragon for a few pints later. Nice pub - had a band on, but we were tired, so headed back for an early night.

Moored in Alrewas on the first night.

 The next morning, it was cold, but looked like the rain of the past week might have abated. The forecast was for 8-10 degrees and light winds, with occasional heavy showers. The stretch to Burton Upon Trent was fairly uneventful, apart from some rather tight spots going through bridges. I was getting to know the boat much better now I had driven it for 180 miles over 13 days or so. These would once have made my heart race and made me very nervous, but not anymore - I managed to get through without the slightest scrape. Probably because there was none around to notice!!

Lazy bridge builders! Loads of room, so lets make the boats go through the little channel on the left!!

Tight squeeze! an inch either side of this bridge!

As we came into Burton, the industrial history of this hallowed town was obvious. The heart of the Brewing industry for centuries, we found Burton to be surprisingly pleasant by boat. In contrast, it is grim to say the least going through on the A38. There are brewery tours for both Marstons and Bass breweries, but we had to push on. Inde Coope is my favourite Burton brewer.

Welcome to Burton

Burton is very pretty by canal..

After what seemed like an age going through Burton, we quickly came to our overnight stop, Willington. We chugged through the village and all the mooring spots were full, so we had to head out the other side before we found any space, on a non-piling bank. It had been raining for the past 30 minutes or so, and we pulled up and put in some mooring pins (look like a 2 ft massive nail). As a boat came past at rather too quick a speed, our boat moved and ripped the 3 mooring pins out of the very soft bank.. Time to move further down the canal onto more secure moorings!! Another quarter of a mile down the canal, and we were just coming into a nice size gap, and the heavens absolutely opened! It rained so hard, it was difficult to see the front of the boat, let alone the bank! I've not seen rain like it in Britain before - as bad as I saw in the storms in Texas when I lived there. Drenched, we finally moored up, changed clothes, and wandered off to town in the hope that pubs served food on Mondays here! Luckily, they do. We had a good meal in the "Green Man" pub, and then went over the road to the Rising Sun for a couple of pints. This pub lets in Dogs and has scrabble, connect 4 and various other games, and a great Rock/Metal jukebox. We spent quite some time here!

Moored in Willington.

One of the three pubs within 2 minutes walk from the canal in Willington

The next morning, we made the walk to Mercia Marina, where we went to the cafe for what must be the best breakfast you are ever likely to find for a fiver. It is amazing!!! Bellies full, we headed off, and quickly came to the first of the wide locks since we left the Grand Union. This first one is a monster.. about a 12 ft drop. As was to be the case for most of the day, as we came to the lock, it started to rain... First we had to wait for a couple of boats to come up. This was not made easy, as both of the bottom lock gates wouldn't open fully, and the second boat to come in struggles to push past the first. The driver of this second yellow boat then climbed out to help with filling the lock, tying his middle rope to a bollard at the top. As the lock filled, it was quickly clear that it was going to be difficult for him to control his boat using a tied rope. As the boat rose, the rope got slack, and the boat went forward, jamming its nose into the serrated cill. The bow got jemmied in the cill, and within a few tens of seconds, the boat was in danger of being sunk - the water level was rising quickly, and the bow was jammed, water rising all the time, threatening to pour over the front at any minute. Panic ensued, and people shouted to close the paddles letting water into the lock, and open those to let the water back out. The people on the paddles didn't quite get the urgency of the request, so I shouted "the boats about to sink, let the water out!!!" and that seemed to leave no room for confusion. Within another 10 seconds or so, paddles were shut and opened, and the level started to recede. Another 30 seconds, and the boat was free... These locks can be dangerous!! A few minutes later, and the two boats left the lock, and we entered, along with a 45 ft boat, ready to go down. This was uneventful, but when it came to exit, those non-opening doors caused serious problems. First I tried to exit, while the 45 after reversed as far back in the lock as he could. It didn't work - I came to a halt. Wo we tried the other way - and juuuuuuusssssstttt he managed to push past on full throttle, metal scraping metal and timber as he went. BW really need to fix these gates - if two 50ft+ boats went in, there would be no way either would get out, and you would have to waste a lot of water and time re-filling the lock for one boat to leave whilst the other went back down again to get out.

Large Stenson Lock

The boat and the cill..

Non-opening doors make it very difficult to leave the lock if two boats are in.

 We were now getting close to what will become "home" for the boat for the next 6-9 months. The countryside around here, just south of Derby is really stunning.

Lovely countryside around here

Getting close to Shardlow!

Lovely bridges along this stretch

Before we knew it, we were at Sharlow. Once again, this village, which looks pretty grim when you drive through by road, is transformed when you go through in a boat. Really lovely. Lots of pubs, a wharf, boatyard, and many pubs litter the towpath. This was obviously an important place in the history of the canals, being the end of the Trent and Mersey canal.

Shardlow Lock

Working boats 

Great pub - the Clock Warehouse. Another dog friendly pub.

Moored below Shardlow lock - Sun at last too!

After 200+ miles, and about 15 days of boating, we finally arrived at Chapel Farm Marina - our mooring for the next 6-9 months or so, whilst Andy (who's mooring it is) has his new boat built. All we have to do now is go and park! This, it turned out, would not be that easy.... And of course, there were lots of spectators... In 200 miles, I had not hit another boat. As we finally came to our our marina, I managed to hit three as I tried to get into the mooring! Ah, the shame.. The "problem" was that the wind had picked up, so when I came to come in the entrance, and tried to manoeuvre the boat to go into the mooring, the front end was being pushed closer and closer to the line of boats. I quickly realised that this could only result in one thing - you can't control the front end of the boat at slow speed. I slammed it in reverse to try and get back out of the marina entrance. When reversing, if the front is could in any direction other than straight, reversing seems to speed up the lateral movement, and I bashed into two boats (fenders luckily) before the middle of the boat was far enough through the entrance of the marina to push the front end badk into safe water. One of the owners came quickly out to assess the damage (none, luckily as I hit his fender, and at a low speed). After a few more attempts, and one of the other boaters helping my front end in with a rope, we were finally in! What in introduction to my neighbours to be! Hopefully I'll get a bit better at this tricky bit of manoeuvring over the next few months!

Finally at our new home marina!

Finally moored up.

Buckby to Fradley Junction

Having been persuaded to not attempt the Leicester Arm, we were now heading back to go the "long way" round to Shardlow.. This would take us back on the Grand Union, then on the Oxford Canal to the Coventry Canal, then the Birmingham and Frazely up to the Trent and Mersey at Fradely Junction.. We had been informed that there would be a Folk Session at the famous Swan Inn there on Thursday night, so that was our next target... First though, we had to get to Braunston Locks before 2.30pm, which was when they were due to close for the day. It was 10.30am, and we were at Watford Gap Services.. Time to get a shift on! 

On the wide open rivers, we could just open her up full throttle, and we would eventually reach the heady heights of 6 mph.. On the shallow (approx 4 ft) canals, at anything above 3 mph, we generate a huge stern wave with white water either side of the boat.. So mostly we can only do just about quick walking pace. To be fair, manoeuvring a 70 ft long, 18 tonne boat on a relatively narrow and windy canal is best done at a slow pace anyway..

Back at Norton Junction, we passed the New Inn, where we had spent an enjoyable evening the night before.

An then onto our first experience of a tunnel.. The 1800 metre Braunston Tunnel. Torches were ready, lights on, and in we went. I had read all sorts about going through tunnels. About how you can get disorientated and start to steer left and right rather than going straight. About not looking up the vent holes as you will loose the built-up "night vision". But I have to say, it wasn't as bad as I thought. There is a slight kink in the middle of the tunnel, but I could always see the far end. We went slow and steady, and about 30 minutes later, we were out the other side.

Ominous looking tunnel entrance. Hope we don't meet another boat in there!

Can juuusst see the other end - looks like the light of another boat coming towards you. Gets very dark. And was damn cold!

Moored up at Braunston

We made it through the locks at Braunston, just as they were closing it all up for the day (at 2.30).. Once again, we had been lucky at getting in just in time. We moored up and went in the various shops to buy some milk and maps of the new route we were going to take.. 

Beautifully engineered bridges at the entrance to Braunston Marina. Lovely looking working boat in there too.

Having bought a clutch of maps, and ice-creams, off we went again, turning onto the Oxford Canal, the wind picked up and blew the map I had bought a few minutes earlier into the canal... I could have slammed it into reverse, waited for us to come to a stop, reverse, and try and fish it out.. But, knowing the propensity for the front of the boat to swing off in exactly the direction you would rather it wouldn't take when doing this type of emergency manoeuvre, and seeing as there were boats moored either side, I thought it sensible to just accept the loss, and keep going, and concentrate on not driving into anything!

The rest of the afternoon was lockless, so easy cruising, interspersed with meeting boats coming the other way, usually halfway round sharp bends, or just at a bridge, where only one can go through at a time.. Lots of traffic! (Well, compared to what we had become accustomed to on the rivers). That night we moored up just above the three locks at Hillmorton. We could have gone through, but it was 6pm, and we thought that was probably enough for the day. By the time we had cooked dinner, walked the dog, and done the washing up it was 8.30, and time for an early night. It can be surprisingly knackering this boating business, we were finding out!

Moored up at Hillmorton Top Lock

The next morning, we were up at 6.30, ready for an early start, and hoping to get through the locks before the astonishingly slow boat we had been following the day before. It was so slow, we had to go into reverse to slow ourselves down from tick over speed a few times. It seems there is no etiquette for overtaking. Disappointingly, it seems boaters don't tend to pull over and let others past if they want to enjoy a leisurely pace either. With a long 70ft boat, we had found that it is often far easier to steer when going at a reasonable pace, but at tick over, it becomes a real pig to steer, as there simply isn't enough water going over the rudder to make much of a force to change the heavy boats course. Small boats probably have an easier time at slow speeds. Furthermore, we have effectively got a 280 square foot sail, and you also need to go at a reasonable pace or you simply get blown to one side of the canal by the wind.

On walking the dog, though, my heart sank... Vandals had been busy in the night, and completely drained the two pounds between the locks. Thats a lot of water to loose, and I thought it would take a long time to replace it. A phone call to British Waterways had workmen there by 8am sorting the situation out. By 9am, we were going through. I was really very impressed indeed with this level of service. I don't mind paying £800 for a licence if this is the result!

Middle pound at Hillmorton Locks. Vandals had broken into a boat, nicked a windlass and opened the lock paddles in the night.

We were soon at Rugby, and went through the very nicely lit Newbold tunnel. This was short, at only 250 metres. Mooring at a Tescos, we stocked up, and the skies darkened. It was turning colder. The week before it had been 23 degrees. It was now down to 8 degrees and getting colder. The rain started.. The umbrella came out! We moored at Nuneaton that night. 

Newbold Tunnel in Rugby

Moored on the Coventry Canal at Nuneaton

The next morning, it had been forecast to snow. Yeah - right! It hadn't rained in 6 weeks, had been 18+ degrees for the past 2 weeks. Snow?!! .... Ah, yes, snow.. In fact, a blizzard! The umbrella went up. A few minutes later, it blew inside out, and it came down. We froze. It was going to be a long day. We had to do the 11 locks of the Atherstone flight, and get on to Polesworth if we were going to stand a chance of getting to Fradley for the session on Thursday evening.

Here comes the (much needed) rain...

Here comes the Snow!! Not fun driving in the wind-chill of -3 degrees! 

We got to Atherstone, and had a decent lunch in a pub at the top of the flight, trying to warm ourselves up. The wind had died down, the snow gone, and it was now just very cold and drizzly. We decided to press on. The flight took around 2 hours to get down, but most of the locks were set in our favour, and Sam was helping by closing one half of the V-gates, which speeded things up. It was bloody freezing though, and we wished for a quick and easy run into Polesworth. The moorings were all taken when we got there, so we made do on a bend just after the bridge. After warming our hands on cups of tea, we set off in search of a pub with a warm fire and some grub...

An hour later, we had figured that none eats out in Polesworth unless its in an Indian. Sam doesn't like spicy food, and Nicky wasn't in the mood for that either. One pub smelt so much of cannabis, we decided that we wouldn't even wait to see if they did food - not really a place for a 7 years old! Chinese take-away it was, with a bottle of red in front of our own fire.. The morning brought slightly warmer weather, and the rain had stopped. It wasn't warm - still only 5 or 6 degrees, but a more inviting day was in prospect.

The next morning at Polesworth

The first stretch was quiet, and we were putting along at what I thought was a decent pace, when I looked behind and there was a canoeist struggling through our wake.. "Do you want to come past?" "Yes Please" - having been annoyed at being held up myself before, I thought I'd ask. We slowed down to reduce the wake, and pulled over, and he shot past! Guess he wasn't pushing 18 tonnes! 

Overtaken by a canoe..

Traffic was starting to build by late morning, and just before Alvechurch, we had to wait for about 20 minutes to get through a bridge. Must have been a flotilla of hire-boats picking up their new accommodation for the week.

Alvechurch

 Progressing onto the Birmingham and Frazely, we started to spot quite a few other Norton Canes boats.. Often we weren't too quick at getting the camera, but we saw Malleous, a couple of others I can't remember the names of, then finally were ready with the camera for Railay (1086) and Montmorency (1089).

Loving the name plate.. Need to do something similar for Rivendell.

Montmorency, no.1089. Not named on Norton Canes Register.

Our boat, 1017, moored at Fradley Junction.

Our dog, Rosie, moored at Fradley Junction.

Inside the Swan Inn, deep in the cellar. Waiting for "tea' to arrive.

The evening was great. We met up with fellow folkies and boaters, Val and John, who were on their boat Tickie. The folk session was good, with around 10 or so musicians turning up. I had quite a few beers, and sat back and relaxed. Sam found some friends, and went off playing. All happy! The next morning, Val took me to the local train station, and I got a train back to Northampton to pick up the car. We had to go back to Norfolk, as Nicky had a gig.

It took an hour by train back to Northampton, and an hour and 20 to get from Billing back to Fradley by car.... This had taken us 6 days by canal! You can see why trains and roads won out! As I returned, Nicky had some horrific news. One of Ouse Washes members husbands, Matt, had been killed in a motorcycle accident the evening before. I really liked Matt. He was a fellow spanner wielder, and was into Landys, bikes and computers. I had shared many an hour talking engines with him over the years, and on one occasion even several bottles of whiskey! His poor, poor family. He was only 41. A car just pulled out in front of him. A mistake with the most terrible consequences. The pit of my stomach churned. I cried. Life is so fragile. Oh my goodness - what is the sense in this?

Today I went to the spot. Its only a mile from our house. There was nothing to mark the spot, but dried blood. I laid two spanners in the shape of a cross. I'm not religious, but it seemed the right thing to do. I can't see why anyone could believe in religion in this type of situation. A good, honest, loving husband and father was taken by someone just not paying attention. Its just not right.

Rest in Peace, Matt. Great man.

Billing to Buckby (via Watford)

After 5 weeks at Billing Aquadrome, it was time to move on. Despite it being a rather nice place to moor, with great facilities, I'd had my fill of 70 miles each way up and down the M1 to work each day. There had been very little rain all winter, and none in the past 5 weeks, and there was a 2 week window when the Northamption and Leicester arms of the Grand Union Canal would remain open, and then they would be shut indefinitely.  It was also the last day of March, and my EA licence ran out on the 1st April.. It was time to move!!

We left Billing at 8am on the Saturday, hoping to get onto the Grand Union at Gayton Junction by the end of the day. Local boaters Sue and Joe on Cape Clear had suggested this should be easy, but we were rank amateurs by comparison to these seasoned boaters, and were quite worried about the reported low water and the fact that a lock had broken on another boater, "Tree", just a day or two before. Would we get up onto the GU???

Setting off, the Nene provided a beautiful setting for the mornings boating. Really stunning stretch from Billing into Northampton.

Billing

Coming into Northampton

Finally though all the guillotine locks, and standard wide locks with only a few ft rise.

Moored in Northampton - 2 minute walk to Morrisons and several other shops. 

We stopped in Northampton and went to Morrisons to stock up and have some lunch. Then it was goodbye Environment Agency waters, and "Hello" British Waterways. Our EA licence ran out at the end of that day, so we were quite glad that we had made it to BW waters. However, after the rather splendid approach on the Nene, the great time we had had on the Great Ouse and Well Creek, it was with trepidation (and some disappointment) that we saw our introduction to the canal system! The sign looked very neglected. It stood in what looked like a waste ground come homeless camp. The very first lock looked broken. All in all, this looked like a very neglected afterthought of a canal.

Entrance to the BW canal system.. Not exactly confidence-inspiring!

Yes, the very first BW lock looked like it had had better days!!

We met some other boaters coming the other way at this lock, who warned us that a very grumpy working boat was following them, and that the section up to the Rothersthorpe flight was full of weed and shallow. They weren't wrong! This section of the canal is not well maintained. It goes through rather run down areas of Northampton, and is very uninviting indeed, with lots of rubbish in the canal, a large amount of reeds and weed (especially considering its only March!), and graffiti everywhere. Not a place you would want to moor at overnight! Luckily, we passed the working boat before the reeds took over. Some of the sections were almost completely overgrown.

Northampton Arm between locks 14 and 17 is overgrown, shallow and needs some maintenance. Lots of shopping trolleys and other junk in there too. This was one of the better bits.. I was too busy steering to take pics of the worst bits.

We often found ourselves pushing weed along this section.

Eventually, having gone very slow indeed, we arrived at the bottom of the Rothersthorpe flight. Northampton M1 services are just visible at the top of the hill. We settled down for a cup of tea, then set off, just as another boat was coming up behind us. They helped us out for a few locks, but it was clear that they were going to be far quicker than us at working up the flight, so after the fourth lock, we suggested they passed us and went on ahead. They were quite thankful, and were out of sight within a couple more locks.. We did it slow and steady, starting to get into a routine as best we could, still on a learning curve. Sam (7 yr old son) made a mistake by letting a paddle down without putting a windlass on the spline. This was the last time we allowed him to do the paddles... Could have been very nasty. Maybe in a year or two. 7 Year olds don't necessarily take enough notice of what you are trying to tell them...

Bottom of the Rothersthorpe flight.

About two thirds of the way up, Nicky was accosted by a very angry and out of control bloke for "leaving the lock gates open". Now, nearly every boater we had met thus far had been helpful and decent, but this guy was just ranting and very intimidating. On these locks, when you are leaving the lock full of water, and close the single gate, it often drifts back open again. Nothing you can do about that really. Certainly no need to intimidate and shout at people. When he clocked me, a 6ft 1 fat bloke, he went off on his way, but Nicky was quite shaken up, and we decided not to moor at the top of the flight, but to carry on up the Grand Union for a bit, despite the fading light.

First evenings mooring. Quiet spot. Early night after 23 locks in a day!

Nice sunny day the next morning.

Since starting out travels in January, we had only passed about 6 or 7 boats, and so the amount of traffic on the Grand Union was a bit of an eye opener! So was the amount of moored boats. For large stretches, we were crawling along passing these boats, and wondered if we would have to do the whole journey at a snails pace. We hadn't planned for going the whole way at tick over! 

Narrow bridges with moored boats - a novelty after the wide Nene and Great Ouse.

Much more traffic than we were used to.

The wildlife is the same though! 

Moored boats everywhere... crawling along - will we ever get there?

As we came to Whilton Marina and the start of the Buckby flight, it seemed like traffic chaos (to us, used to no more than one other boat waiting for a lock).. We shared the lock with a lovely couple from Ely on their lovely shiny boat.. I went in first, not sure if I could easily come in second and not scrape their boat.. I still very much felt like I needed L plates on the boat! Liz showed us some very good routines for doing locks, like hand signals to confirm each stage, and smooth opening of the paddles. The afternoon went quickly, and we were last out of the flight before it was shut for the day. We had heard the pub at the top was good, so decided to moor up just around the corner.. 

On the Leicester Arm... 

And go to the pub :)

Good pub.. Good beer, good food... 

Good night!

 We were up early the next morning, and headed up to the Watford flight. Some interesting boats on the way... Cruel use of a ted as a  fender though!!

We got to the bottom of the Watford flight at 9am, and already there were 2 boats in the queue. The flight was due to open at 10am. After a coffee and walking the dog, we were ready.. The two boats went through, and we entered the bottom lock. There were two BW chaps there, and when they heard we planned to go through Leicester and onto Shardlow, they both said "no way!! turn round, go via Braunston - that boat won't get through, there is too little water"..... Damn.. We knew the shortage around Lock 38 was bad, but hadn't realised it was that bad. Having beached twice up the Rothersthorpe flight the day before, we decided we should heed this advice, and go the long way round. Queue a 500 yard reverse out of the lock to the winding hole and turning around... In front of many witnesses, and past several boats... It went really very well. I reversed in a neat arc past the boats, and then turned it in 3 or 4 forward/backward thrusts only. I thought I was looking quite proficient, but just at that moment, I managed to knock the barge pole off the roof into the canal! Ah well.. My rank amateur status was quickly returned!.. Off to Braunston we go... The flight closes at 1.30... Will we make it?? This journey was turning into a race against time far too often. Who said boating is relaxing?

Off we go again....