Friday 9th May to
Friday 16th May
Friday 9th May
It is now almost 6.30 am and,
despite my dire warnings of nasty weather, the sky seems to be clearing. We may
yet be lucky and enjoy a dry cruise to our meeting point. The wind is still
pretty strong, but perhaps it will pass the clouds over quickly.
Saturday 10th May
We were most fortunate
yesterday morning, the rain stayed away and we managed the seven locks and
three miles to our meeting place in a little under two hours. We immediately
struck up a conversation with another boater and learned something about the
BCN. For example it isn’t necessarily safe to moor at Gas Street Basin because,
quite simply, he experienced young drunks running across the top of his boat
late at night.
The had a meeting of all
boaters on this trip and, much to our surprise, there will be at least one
occasion when we will have to buddy-up, three abreast. I did ask Stuart about
moorings for 20 boats, in an email sometime before we joined, but he said
they’ve never had problems. Well, to us at least, buddying-up is a problem.
There’s also the problem of
long cruising days. We have at least two days of six hours and one of eight
hours, and all because of the locks involved. To cap it all the weather isn’t
up to much, promising wind and rain all over this weekend. In short, we’re not
even sure if we’ll continue with this trip. Several people have already
cancelled, for one reason or another.
Even as I sit typing this,
the wind is picking up and we have been warned of heavy rain later this
morning, and this will be just about the longest day of all. Also, despite the
fact that we will have some assistance with the locks, in the form of volunteer
helpers, I’m not keen on Wifey clambering over locks in the rain.
Any boaters reading this
will, I have no doubt, think we’re blaming the organisers for our decision, so,
before tearing us off a strip and calling us a pair of whingers, don’t! The
organisers; Stuart and Marie; are a great couple and have been doing this for
several years and deserve all the success they can get. I’m afraid it’s all
down to me.
Later………………
Well, after much hemming and
hawing; mostly on my part; we finally decided against completing the BCN
cruise. There were several reasons for this, not least of which was the 3 long
cruising days and the buddying-up three abreast on at least one occasion. How
they ever managed with 25 boats on previous trips, goodness only knows.
So, we’re now on our way back
to Fazeley, from whence we will probably take the bus into Birmingham and then
go on to Hopwas and Handsacre. Ah well, c’est
la vie!!
Sunday 11th May
We are now back at the
Marston Farm Hotel moorings, well, actually, about 100 yards short of there.
Bearing in mind that it was a Saturday when we arrived, and that the hotel has
a huge marquee in the grounds, we decided not to moor up outside, just in case
they had a wedding, or other celebration going on. Sure enough, even from 100
yards away we could hear the thumpity-thump of music. Hopefully they all had a
whale of a time.
At the talk on Friday
evening, we were all asked to take note of the boat in front and the one
behind, and keep our mobiles topped up and to hand. This was to ensure that,
should we need a hand at any time, we could call on the assistance of the
nearest boater. Later yesterday afternoon I received a text message that said
that there was a blockage at lock 10 on the Perry Barr locks, and that CRT had
been called out. If that’s what can happen on the first day of cruising; and
one of the longest ones at that; we’re happy now that we turned around.
We were warned, of course,
about the possibility of shopping trollies barring our way, and to allow our
boats to ‘drift’ through bridges with gears disengaged. Apparently this is a
common problem on the BCN. I doubt very much if we’ll ever bother taking this
route now.
Now, hopefully the weather
will clear later and we can take a walk down to The Dog and Doublet pub. At the
moment it’s chucking it down, so it’s not looking good. But we have had to miss
out on our Sunday pub before, so it won’t hurt to miss it again.
Mouse trouble!! Once again my
wireless mouse is playing up and I’ve had to dig out the one with a tail. I
always switch the wireless one off when I’ve finished and only replaced the
batteries a short while ago, so I suppose I’ll have to look out for a new one
when we get to Birmingham.
My driver’s licence:
I’m still waiting. My first
renewal application was sent in; by guaranteed next day delivery; on 25th
February. DVLA then responded with a request for a new photo, which I duly sent
off. After about two weeks they then decided they needed a medical
questionnaire completing, this despite the fact that they already had those
details. This I submitted on 26th March, which they received on 27th.
In that questionnaire they also asked if I would agree to them contacting my GP
and asking for my medical records, which I also agreed to. To date they have
not asked for those records, at least, not from my current GP.
From 26th March to
11th May should be ample time for them to complete and return my new
licence, especially since they have not asked for my medical records. I have
now emailed them again, asking why there has been such a long delay. I now have
visions of them saying, “Oh, but we posted that on to you last week”, or some
such nonsense. I am very worried at this moment in time. Mind you, having no
licence would save me an awful lot of dosh in terms of petrol, insurance and
other stuff, such as MOTs and repairs. Hmmmm!
Monday 12th
Once again we managed to move
along before the rain hit us. We left our moorings, about 100 yards above the
Marston farm Hotel, at about 8 am and arrived at the lakes a couple of hours
later and just in time for our cup of coffee. Just a few minutes later the
heavens opened up. Someone up there must be smiling down on us, which is more
than can be said for those on the BCN cruise. No, I’m not gloating, but we do
think we made the right decision.
There’s still a lot of work
to do around these lakes, much of which seems to be about flood defences, so we
couldn’t walk around some of it. However, we did see a flock of Swifts, which I
first took to be Swallows; until my dear Wifey pointed out my mistake. These
birds had darker undersides and longer, forked tails. Don’t you just love these
clever clogs? There are also several small, man-made islands in the lakes, all
of which have been adopted by nesting Black-Headed Gulls and Terns. Once
finished these lakes will be well worth a longer visit.
Today we’ll be heading back
to Fazeley Junction, where I’ll be on the lookout for a dentist. I have a loose
tooth in my front, lower jaw and it’s giving me hell when I’m eating. In
theory, of course, if I kept it there I could lose weight, but it’s a wee bit
uncomfortable, so it’s got to go.
From Fazeley we’ll make our
way to Handsacre where, hopefully we’ll meet up with Andy and Sandy.
Thursday 15th May
Still at Fazeley Junction,
and we have been since Monday, but we’ll be leaving this morning for
Whittington. No dentist in sight though.
On Tuesday morning we took
the bus into Birmingham, which took almost an hour. We didn’t go for anything
in particular, only to say we’d been. We wandered around the Bullring, had a
cup of coffee and a cake, then wandered around some of the rest of the town.
Disappointed!! Couldn’t find a butcher’s shop anywhere, but I did manage to get
batteries fitted to two watches, so that was a result.
Upon our return from Brum, we
discovered that Fazeley had had quite a lot of rain. How lucky is that?
Yesterday we had planned to
take the bus to shopping park on the way to Tamworth but, since we didn’t
really want anything from there, it seemed like a wasted journey, so we stayed
put and enjoyed the fine weather, which is set to stay with us until the
weekend, by which time we’ll be at Handsacre, where we intend to try the local
fish and chips on Saturday evening.
Friday 16th May
Thursday morning saw us
making our way to Whittington, which is about five miles from Fazeley and into
open countryside. The only problem with it; once we’ve passed through the
residential area; is the nearby train line, which can be pretty invasive,
especially on a very warm day, as it was yesterday, with all windows and other
orifices open wide. Fortunately Wifey walked into Fazeley for the Mail before
we left, so there was no need to trudge into Whittington. However, if we want
the Mail today, that will be Wifey’s job while I prepare the boat for
departure.
The weekend is almost upon us
and we’ll be spending today at Fradley and then, on Saturday we’ll turn left
onto the Trent and Mersey canal, up about five locks and on to Handsacre for
the weekend, where we should have been meeting up with Andy and Sandy.
Unfortunately they’ll be visiting family instead, so we’ll see them at a later
date, possibly the following weekend.
So, that’s about it for this
blog. Enjoy your weekend, whatever you may be doing.
Dave and Sheila
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