Great Haywood to Whittington
Friday 28th June
As mentioned in the previous blog, it’s our anniversary and
Wifey’s birthday. We should be moving on this morning, having spent our 48 hour
allowance but, as it is tipping it down with rain, we might just trundle
ourselves through the nearby lock and moor up near Sandy and Andy, who turned
up with their dog Taz yesterday morning. However, since it’s not too windy, we
might just spend an hour or so with Sandy; Andy will be working this morning; then
move along a little later, it all depends on the weather, as usual.
We want to be in Handsacre for Sunday though, because that’s
where we’ll enjoy our celebratory pub lunch. Here’s hoping!
Saturday 29th June
Well, our anniversary and Wifey’s birthday went off quite
well, even though it rained for most of the day. We had intended to get to the
pig farm in the morning, but instead we opted to stay at Great Haywood,
although we did move down the lock to join Andy and Sandy, who had moored their
boat on the 14 day moorings. Unfortunately Andy had to work yesterday, so we
scrounged a cup of coffee off Sandy and chatted for a couple of hours. Yes,
really, a couple of hours.
Today, if the rain stays away, we’ll trundle along to
Rugeley, where we’ll do some shopping at Morrison’s, after which we’ll continue
on to Handsacre, where we’ll enjoy our promised Sunday lunch.
Sunday 30th June
Well, here we are at Handsacre and it took us 3½ hours to
complete the trip, not including our stopover at Rugely for shopping.
Yesterday remained dry and today has also started out that
way, although the clouds do seem to be building.
Early this morning I awoke determined to finish my pastel of
the Llangollen Trip Boat, which I did and all before giving Sheila her 1st
cuppa of the day. I can’t say I’m 100% happy with the result, but it’s a vast
improvement on other stuff I’ve done. I’ve sent a photo of it to Emma asking
for her comments. If she suggests improvement; which I’m sure she will; then,
if I can get it improved to my satisfaction, I might even sign it.
Today we will dine out for a change, instead of just beer
and snacks. But, have no fear the Guinness will still hold pride of place on
our table.
Tomorrow we’ll be off to Fradley Junction and start heading
down the Coventry canal.
Now, just before we left Great Haywood yesterday morning, we
had a short chat with Andy and Sandy and they gave us some news regarding Chris
and Josie. It seems they will be leaving Mercia Marina in August and are moving
to Streethaye Marina, which is about 20 minutes’ drive from Mercia along the
A38 and is considerably smaller, holding only about 90 boats.
There appears to be some disgruntlement by some of the
Mercia residents, all to do with the growth of grass and weeds around the marina.
Sandy was particularly upset at this state of affairs because she suffers with
hay fever. But, it’s not only the growth of weeds and such; supposedly in order
to preserve the wildlife; but the geese, of which there are a whole host, are
leaving their droppings all over the footpaths and nobody seems obliged to keep
these pathways clear.
For us, who only moor there during the winter, these
problems don’t have much of an effect, since the geese tend to spend more time
in the water and aren’t rearing their chicks. Also, the grass is dying off
before we get there, so we have no way of knowing how bad the situation gets
during the summer months.
Assuming we don’t find online moorings during our travels,
we could very well return to Mercia.
Monday 1st July
After a short chat with Andy and Sandy on Saturday morning,
during which they told us that Chris and Josie were also leaving Mercia, we set
off for Handsacre, where we planned to enjoy Sunday lunch at The Old Peculiar
pub. We managed to moor up in exactly the same spot as we always do when
passing through there, right opposite the last house before the bridge, said
house being on the other side of the canal.
We’ve never experienced any problems with the people in that
house and indeed, the owner actually gave me a cheery hello as we arrived.
However, later in the afternoon he appeared with just about the longest hedge
trimmer available and set to chopping down some unsightly weeds and such along
the canal bank. This, as you can imagine, was pretty noisy, but it didn’t spoil
our enjoyment of the tennis too much. He even raked up all he’d cut down and
put it in a wheelie bin.
The real problem came when, late on Sunday afternoon he came
out with a flame thrower. Yep, a flame thrower, and proceeded to set fire to a
bunch of growth which, had he taken notice, was surrounding a tree stump. Had
he also realised that there was a gusting, swirling wind out there, perhaps he
wouldn’t have chosen that particular time to set fire to the stuff, but I doubt
it. The result for us was a boat full of smoke, for which I thanked the nice
man, in no uncertain terms. After all, it was a pretty hot afternoon and our
only recourse was to close all windows and doors.
Eventually the fire died down, but the stump continued to burn
and, since there was no other way of getting away from it, we decided to move
on and we’re now at Woodend, about a mile from Fradley Junction. So, as a
result of one man’s ignorance, we will be able to take our time leaving here
for Fradley, so I suppose you could say every cloud has a silver lining, even a
cloud of smoke.
This morning is looking pretty good, a clear sky and no
wind, although the weather people have said it will be considerably cooler.
Laving here a bit later than normal, probably around 9 am,
we’ll stop at Fradley and dispose of our rubbish and top up with water. What
we’ll do after that is anybody’s guess, we may stay overnight or we may move
on.
Oh, almost forgot, we also met up with another boating
couple, just as we were finishing our lunch at the pub. We didn’t chat long
enough to get their names, but we did discover that they live in Stroud,
Gloucestershire and moor their boat on the Gloucester and Sharpness canal,
which runs from the River Severn to the Bristol Channel, with just one lock at
each end. Apparently, moorings at their marina only costs about £1500 a year.
Now, I’ve just checked on Autoroute and according to that it
would only take about 2½ hours to get to Harlow from there. Of course, even
though it would be cheaper than mooring at Mercia for the whole year, it won’t
save me anything in time or petrol when travelling to Harlow. My version of
Autoroute is so old that the cost of this trip would only be about £17.50!!
Wow, those were the days!
Tuesday 2nd July
Having spent a very peaceful night at Woodend, we then moved
down to Fradley Junction and spent the night there on the Coventry branch. Once
we arrived and settled in it was just a case of disposing of rubbish and
whiling away the time until this morning, when we’ll continue down the Coventry
canal to Whittington.
Wednesday 3rd July
Not a lot to report for yesterday, except to say that we
moved on about five miles to the village of Whittington. On the way there we
passed the new Streethaye Marina, where Chris and Josie are moving to. Much to
our surprise this marina is nowhere near finished, but it does have a few boats
moored there already.
Our Nicholson Guide is so old that it mentions The Swan pub at
Whittington which, as I recall, had already closed when we came through two
years ago. The pub has now been demolished, no doubt in readiness for a new
block of flats. There are two other pubs here, one of which is The Bell, which
is quite a walk away from the canal. The other one is The Dog, neither of which
have had the pleasure of our company and, since we probably won’t come this way
next year it’s unlikely that they’ll do so.
We did walk into the village yesterday, but only for a small
amount of shopping and to fill a couple of prescriptions, both of which Wifey
collected later in the afternoon.
This morning we’re heading off to Fazeley Junction, but on
the way there we’ll be calling in at Sainsbury’s and Hobbycraft, which are on a
huge trading estate about a mile before the junction.
Well, I think that’s about it for this blog. Time to post.
Enjoy the rest of your week.
Dave, Sheila and Rusty.
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