The tow paths are muddy puddles and upstream the rain has swollen the River Severn to the point it has surrounded the Abbey at Tewkesbury! I’m relieved that we are on the canal and not at the mercy of the flood waters. Some of the images on social media have been quite scary. When there…
What could possibly go wrong this time? We’d been cruising for a few hours and moored up for a late lunch, I’m in the galley and I realise I can smell paint stripper-but I’m chopping garlic, so I’m wondering if my sense of smell is playing up so, I ask Ian. He wanders around, yep…
After celebrating Christmas and New Year with family in Cheshire we’ve moved the boat out of the marina and hunkered down to recover from catching the winter lurgies. The peaceful waters are being rocked by either Storm Goretti or the dredger operating in the quays at Gloucester! Our first shock has been to recognise…
As I type this our thoughts are with those poor boaters on the Llangollen Canal who experienced the terror of losing their boats when the canal breached close to Whitchurch in the early hours of the morning. It is only by sheer luck that, when we were hunting for a marina mooring for December, we…
We’ve finally made it south of Tixall Wide on the Staffordshire & Worcester Canal (S&W) and it is simply stunning. The canal meanders through wooded valleys beside a curtain of red sandstone and we’ve already planned to come back this way to spend time in the picturesque mooring spots that we’ve now pencilled into our…
After our last motorhome trip to the Outer Hebrides we made the decision to change our motorhome to a campervan. It’s shorter and narrower and more suited to the type of adventures we wanted to go on. August then became a rather stressful month as we got Hollie ready for sale and then finally sold…
What can I say, this year is becoming rather too eventful for my liking! At the start of September we spent a few days in Barlaston and then stayed in Stone for a week. Finally we headed off for a bit of peace and quiet in the countryside….. except …. Ian soon discovered that…
It might have been a great idea, but it was probably the slowest escape on record! Our original plan was to stay moored up in the vicinity of Congleton until Heather had completed the rehab for her new knee. Then, hopefully by the end of September, start heading south for the winter. A list of…
July has been a bit of a battle. Having made the decision to head back up to the Macclesfield Canal, we had 21 days to tackle 189 miles and 132 locks. There were also planned stoppages and time restrictions on some of those locks, so we had to “get a wiggle on!”. But we…
Despite all the warnings we did spot lots of mooring opportunities on the way into London. It’s not always as bad as it sounds. When we cruise through towns and cities, we often see footballs floating around, the odd terrapin too, but coconuts were a bit of a surprise. These started to appear as we…
