Shiralee Cruise 2011 #32

Tuesday 11th October.

Yesterday was most enjoyable, but a little trying on my legs. First thing after breakfast we walked from the boat; which was moored as far away from town as we could possibly get; all the way up to the third lock, just to empty our cassette and dispose of our rubbish. Of course, we then had to walk back.

After that little exercise, and knowing I would be walking into town to meet Alan and Chris, I let Wifey go to get the paper and visit the bank.

Alan phoned at about 10.40 to say they had boarded their bus and would be arriving at about 11 o/clock so off we went again. We then headed for the Wetherspoon’s pub, which just so happens to be beside the bus stop, and enjoyed a coffee and long chat before heading back to the boat.

Just before we left to meet up with them though, I noticed that there were quite a few spaces vacant between our boat and the water point, which presented an opportunity to move down a bit. No such luck though because, by the time we got back all those places had been filled, so we’re still at the back of the queue.

Later in the afternoon we all headed back to Wetherspoon’s for lunch and, would you believe it, they had run out of Guinness? Actually they hadn’t run out, they were changing the barrel, but I didn’t hear them say that and settled for a lager instead. I’m nothing if not versatile!!

Our two meals came to less than a tenner and were most enjoyable. I can’t think why we haven’t used Wetherspoon’s on our earlier visits, with Guinness at only £2.75 and all bitters at £1.99, they really are the cheapest around. Some of their meals even come with a free drink, even though the price would be most acceptable without the freebie. If they can be so reasonable, why can’t the other breweries?

After all the chat and catching up, we walked to the bus stop with Alan and Chris, the return one being across town and nearer to the canal. Unfortunately, and despite their own aversion to hordes of kids on buses, they were treated to a bunch of them leaving school. Oh dear, what a shame, tut, tut!

Our friends should be back in the U.K. sometime in January, but they’ll be jetting off to Cyprus then, so it’s unlikely we’ll meet again at that time. Still, it will be good to see them again, whenever that will be.

Today we should be leaving Stone and making our way back towards Mercia Marina. I emailed Lucy there yesterday morning to let her know our due arrival date, but as yet I haven’t received a reply. The problem is, once again we are faced with high winds this morning, so there’s a good chance we may have to stay another day, but that’s really not a problem as we have several days in hand.

Wednesday 12th October.
Topped up with water and left Stone yesterday morning, arriving at the bottom of Sandon Lock at about 11 am. This is a peaceful little mooring and apart from one other boat moored about 50 yards ahead of us, we were on our own.

This morning we set out about 8.15 and, after just one more lock and four miles, we arrived at our current moorings, somewhere between bridges 78 and 77 and nobody else will be able to join us because there is only enough space for one boat, and that’s ours!

Tomorrow we must get to Great Haywood because we are almost out of coal. With just enough room for about three boats, Great Haywood can be difficult to stop at but, since the next possible place for buying coal is at Fradley Junction, we really don’t have a choice. Meanwhile we’re going to enjoy the rest of today and tonight in peace and solitude.

Now, Great Haywood Junction, which joins the Trent and Mersey to the Staffs and Worcester, has an Anglo Welsh boatyard, BW water point and rubbish disposal and the boatyard has an Elsan disposal unit, which we’ve used in the past. They also sell diesel and coal, the latter of which we were desperately short of. There is room for about three boats at the water point, so it can be a bit tricky stopping there when it’s busy and we really weren’t looking forward to doing so.

But luck was on our side this morning when, much to our surprise and delight, who should appear coming towards us but the Coal Boat and its Butty. There are several of these boats cruising the waterways and we always try to buy from them rather than marinas, most of which can be quite a bit dearer. When they are fully laden they do sit pretty low in the water and, due to the weight they are towing, they move along very slowly, which is just as well because it can take some time to stop a load of several tonnes of coal at speed.

Anyway, we gave them a wave and shouted our order to them. Unfortunately the man was in some pain from broken ribs and was having some difficulty carrying the coal bags, and I could be no help with my knees and, with the towpath being mostly grass, bringing our trolley out would have been a waste of time, so he had to carry all four bags on his own. Still, he didn’t seem too upset about it and we parted in fine moods, especially us now that we only had to stop short of Great Haywood and walk our rubbish and Elsan down.

While Sheila walked around to the boatyard to empty our Elsan cassette, I dumped the rubbish in the bin. I then went looking for her but, since I had never used the Elsan unit before, I had no idea where it was. When she came back she told me that they now charge £1 for using it and, when she explained to the woman there that she hadn’t brought her purse with her, her reply was, “Well, you’ll just have to come back then, won’t you?” Miserable cow! Watch out for this one folks, she’s a meanie alright. As it happens, when Sheila mentioned this to one of their workmen, he said, “Forget it”, so we did. These boatyards don’t normally charge for this facility, especially if you are purchasing other goods, such as coal or diesel, so they must be feeling the economic pinch.

Thursday 13th October.

Today we are moving on to Bridge 69, another site that’s way off the beaten track, but at least we’ll be able to watch TV there. Would you believe it, last night we wanted to watch Midsomer Murders but, as is usual with these instances, the ITV channels were breaking up. However, all is not lost, because I know we have a strong Internet signal at bridge 69, so we can watch it on the laptop through ITV Player, so there!”

We are now only a week away from Mercia Marina and winter, so you won’t be receiving many more blogs. I have no idea how many of you actually read them, although I do have one or two followers, but whoever you are I hope you enjoy them, as boring as they seem to me. After all, what I put down here are just day to day happenings and, as you can see, they are sadly lacking in juicy tidbits.

Next year we should be able to introduce you to some new stretches of waterways, in particular the Kennett and Avon Canal which runs from the Thames to Bristol. From what we hear about this canal, it’s not been given much in the way of moorings, so we’re not expecting a particularly enjoyable ride. However, so long as the weather is in our favour we can always pull in to any old section of canal bank and put the plank out if necessary.

The Bristol Channel up to the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal should be pretty interesting too, seeing as how we’ll be paying about £160 for the use of a pilot to steer us around any obstacles.

Crossing the Ribble Link up in Lancashire is a two hour trip, so we’ve been told by somebody who did it this year, but that doesn’t involve a pilot, although we are obliged to wear life belts and must ensure our mobile phone is fully charged.

All in all 2012 should be interesting.

It is now almost 8.30 and whilst sitting here after breakfast, we spotted a few sheep wandering along the towpath. In fact there weren’t just a few, Wifey counted 16 altogether. The obvious thing to do in this situation is to try to locate a local farmer and advise him of the facts. I tried two different 118 numbers and finally came up with a number for a farm near Great Haywoood, about a mile away. This was after a complete failure by those 118 services to find a number anywhere near where we are.

So I telephone the number that they found, only to discover it was a rented property and not a working farm. What’s more, the lady who answered didn’t have a local phone book and could not help at all.

I next tried the Internet and found one near Great Haywood but, just as I was calling them, all those pesky sheep found their way back into the field. However, they had actually found their way back behind the fence separating the canal from the fields. They were not back in their own field and they now have ample opportunity to return to the towpath at any time.

I find it hard to believe that these 118 services are unable to find the number for a farm in this part of Staffordshire, goodness knows there are plenty of them on the map!!

Friday 14th October.

Today we’ll be making our way to Handsacre via Rugeley for shopping at Morrison’s and water top up. For the weekend we’ll probably stay at the top of the locks at Fradley Junction, move on to Alrewas on Monday, Branston Tuesday, Willington Wednesday where we’ll call in to the surgery to make appointments and finally, the marina on Thursday. And that, dear reader, will be that for this year.

Since there is no telling what exciting and stimulating happening may come our way during this last leg of our cruise, I’ll post this now and finish with blog number 33 when we get back to Mercia.

Cheers for now and have a good weekend.

Dave, Sheila and Rustydog!