Shiralee Cruise 2012 # 29

Bridge 7/8 Shroppie to Great Haywood


Friday 5th October

From here to our next stop, which should be Cross Green on the Staffs and Worcester canal, is about six miles, with just the one stop-lock at the end of the Shroppie, so, weather permitting; and it’s looking O.K. at present; we should make landfall within a couple of hours or so. From the moorings there it is just a short walk to the local paper shop, after which we can settle in for the rest of the day.

Sheila still has the remnants of her cold; which has turned into that nagging cough that usually follows such things; whilst I still have a grumbling tummy, but that too has eased off. I guess we’re both succumbing to the ravages and vagaries of old age. Once these problems have cleared up of course, we’ll be our usual silly selves. Life is too short to have the miseries for too long.

Saturday 6th October

A beautiful, clear sky to start the day, although according to the mail yesterday, we can expect rain later, so, why is it that the BBC tell us to expect a clear day today?

Yesterday was another day of suffering, with Sheila still in the throes of a lousy cold and me with my upset tummy. I actually retired to bed very early last night and am now feeling much better. My tummy is gurgling, but it’s now from lack of food, I’m pleased to say. Sheila still has a bit of a cough, but that should soon clear.

Well, with a bit of luck we now have only 10 days to go before we’re back at Mercia. After all the lousy weather we’ve had of late, it can’t come soon enough for me. We can then look forward to those clear, crisp and cold winter mornings instead. Hmmm!

Sunday 7th October

A chilly start to the day, but it promises to be a bright one. This is good news to me, because we’re off to Penkridge, it’s Sunday, my tummy is all better and I’ll be able to enjoy a couple of Guinness’s. Great!!

It only took us 1 ½ hours to get here from Gailey, but it was a lovely morning and there were very few other boaters about, except those that are permanently moored up and slow us down. However, since we are rarely is a tearing hurry; at 4mph that’s impossible anyway; they don’t bother us too much, except when it’s raining, when they can be a pesky nuisance.

Coming through the final lock yesterday the boat took a bit of a soaking from a spout of water emanating from the side wall. Such leaks are quite common, although they are not usually as strong as this beauty. Anyway, I closed the back doors to avoid splashes and jiggled the boat about in an effort to avoid the worst of it. But, when we arrived at our intended moorings and, finding I needed to reverse a bit, I experienced an awful burning smell from the engine bay. Thinking the worst I lifted the cover and, sure enough there was a load of liquid, which I took to be an oil leak. Thankfully it wasn’t. Obviously some of the water gusher had found its way onto the fan belt, causing it to slip and burn a bit. Phew!

Monday 8th October

We’ve decided to spend another day here at Penkridge. This is one of our favourite stopovers on the Staffs and Worcester. There’s a good pub by the side of the canal, although, truth to tell, it was rather noisy with the music yesterday. Now, I am of the opinion that, if you choose to eat in a pub you should at least be able to do so in relative comfort. Loud music does not equate to comfort when eating. This could account for the fact that, by the time we left The Boat, at about 1.30, there were no diners there whatsoever. The Cook/Chef was behind the bar and could have been no older than 25/30 and the Manager, when he appeared, didn’t look to be much older. Neither of us recognised either of them from previous visits, so the pub may have changed hands. Whatever the case, if that places wants to remain in business, it would behove them to give due consideration to their customers, rather than the level at which the staff wish to hear the music. Nuff said!!

We’ll be taking a walk into town this morning, because there are some good shops there and, our favourite, the local butcher. On the other side of the main road there is a market, but we think that’s only open two days per week, neither of which is Monday.

You may remember me mentioning the visit by a heating engineer a while ago? Well, since then I have been trying to conserve battery power. I do not, for example, run the Inverter/Charger unless the engine is also running. This means that, when I use the laptop in the morning, I run it on its internal battery. I then charge it up as and when I have the engine running. This simple change has resulted in much more power available in the morning and, provided that I continue in like fashion, we should arrive at Mercia with batteries intact and reasonably healthy. Once we’re back on land based power, we’ll have no more problems for six months.

Tuesday 9th October

Once again, nothing out of the ordinary to report for yesterday, just the usual routine of shopping and walking the dog and reading of course, oh, and we had some rain. All very exciting, as you would imagine. Perhaps a wee bit of flippancy there?

Today we’ll be off to Weeping Cross, from which we will take the bus into Stafford. Unfortunately the butcher in Penkridge was closed yesterday; some butchers still do so on Mondays; so we had to resort to that thin and tasteless bacon from the Co-op. We need proper bacon!!

Later….

Well, we arrived at Weeping Cross somewhat later than I had hoped. Perhaps we were simply going slower than usual but, with five locks and six miles to do, we took 2½ hours, in a light, but chilly wind and, poor old me, I started feeling quite cold during the half hour prior to our arrival.

Weeping Cross has a pub beside the canal only a short walk from our current moorings, which we called into on one previous visit. We said at the time ‘never again’ because, not unlike a post office or bank, I was asked to queue in a line for my second drink. Now though, the place seems to have changed hands – what a surprise – and looks like one of those Beefeater type joints, so, on our next pass through, we might just give it a second chance.

Initially we were considering taking the bus into Stafford today but, since we didn’t arrive until after 11 am, we have deferred the trip until tomorrow morning.

Wednesday 10th October

Well, tomorrow has arrived and looks set fair for a trip into Stafford. The original purpose for this trip was to buy myself a pair of waterproof boots because, when we arrived at Penkridge, my socks were wet. We put this down to leaky boots at first but, when we arrived here yesterday, having walked over lots of wet grass again, with my sock still dry, we now think the gushing water through the lock before Penkridge, must have splashed over the top of my boots and seeped in through the laces.

This doesn’t mean we have no reason for the trip into town. Who needs a reason for a free bus ride? Although, should I find a reasonably priced pair of waterproof shoes, I might still spend some cash.

My pastel painting is not going so well. In fact, it’s becoming a disaster. Pastels are such a messy medium, as I am rapidly coming to realise. With watercolours and oils you are left with a few splashes to clear up, but, with pastels, the dust gets everywhere, including all over the work already done, resulting in a smudged and messy piece of paper.

Emma seems to think that, once I have gone through the whole picture, most of the smudging will have been covered up with new pastel. She has yet to convince me of this fact.

Later…..

We changed our minds about the trip into Stafford. Instead we set off for Great Haywood, as the weather was dry and still fairly mild. Arrived GH at 10 am and will probably do the Stafford trip tomorrow morning.

Although I haven’t finished this pesky caravan pastel, Emma has asked me if I could get some bigger paper, probably A3. What she has in mind, I have no idea, but it will probably be a landscape of some kind. I’ve asked that she keep it simple, which rather coincides with my simple mind, I suppose.

Thursday 11th October

If things pan out as intended and the weather holds good, we should be at Mercia by this time next week. With the days becoming just a wee bit colder and the nights drawing in, that marina will be a welcome sight. We have been allocated a bay just a few moves away from our last one, so we’ll still be among friends. We’ll be closer to Richard and Sue; they looked after Rusty a couple of times last winter; and we’ll have a couple of nurses, I think, right next door.

We are, as you know, at Great Haywood, where the Internet tower is within shouting distance, as is the train line. Fortunately we rarely watch TV whilst cruising, because reception here is not very good. Up here, just past the junction with the Staffs and Worcs canal, reception is possible but, had we been just a few boat lengths further along, we would have had to go without.

As it is I’ve been able to maintain contact with Emma, who has helped me over a bit of a stumbling block with my caravan painting. Painting? Blooming mess more like. I’ve had trouble placing a flimsy curtain in a window and, after several mistakes, decided to change it somewhat. But, I won’t be sorry to see the back of it. Of course I’ll keep it, if only to show how dreadful I was at this stage. Hopefully the next project will be somewhat simpler in detail and give me a chance to improve my technique.

Here we go again!!

I’ve just been online to Emma, thanking her for helping with that curtain. Once again Outlook refuses to send my reply, instead sending me the usual error message as to why the message can’t be sent.

After no less than three attempts whereby, as is my normal practice when this happens, I shut down my dongle, rebooted the laptop and pressed send/receive. Nope, same message. This is so infuriating and I don’t know what I can possibly do about it. If anybody who knows my email address has any idea as to what I can do here, your help would make me a happy bunny. If no help is forthcoming I’ll scweam and scweam and scweam. So there! What’s more, I’ll stamp my feet as well.

Now, since my laptop is running short of power and I am now offline, I’ll have to post this blog later.

Meanwhile, all the best to you all.

Dave, Sheila and Rusty.