“Hurrah!” we said, CRT (Canal and River Trust) had lifted the stoppage further up the Macclesfield Canal which meant that we could escape up on to the Peak Forest Canal and head to Whaley Bridge and a favourite mooring spot at Bugsworth Basin.

We got the Christmas decorations up, stocked up with provisions for about two weeks and set off to refill with water on the way to Bosley Locks. First problem was we were a bit late setting off, a boater going past us shouted that the water tap was frozen but when we got there it had defrosted … and someone else was already using it!
The sun was due to set around 4pm, so by the time we had topped up the water tank, there was only an hour of daylight left.

Recognising defeat, we decided to pull over on a long sweeping bend that gives a lovely view of the local hill called The Bosley Cloud, or The Cloud as my Dad always preferred to call it. (Cloud is from the old English for “clud” or rock). By now it was cold and overcast, time for a brew and a nice hot stew.

By the following morning our plans were completely scuppered, the canal had frozen. As a courtesy, boats don’t move when there’s ice across the canal. Just like on a road, ice on a canal is a hazard, it can make steering a nightmare and the edges of ice sheets can chip away at the blacking (the specialised black paint) on the hull leaving bare metal exposed to rust. The noise of the ice banging against the metal hull is horrendous.

Narrowboats are usually constructed of three different thicknesses of steel plate, as a general rule, the cabin roof is 4mm thick, the boat sides are

6 mm and the hull is 10mm. The hull is also protected from corrosion by having 4 anodes attached under the water line. Every 2 to 4 years the boats are pulled out of the water to be jet washed and re-blacked. The anodes are checked and replaced if needed. Heron was done about 2 years ago and it cost us about £700, so it’s not a cheap job, but very necessary. So if the canal is frozen we stay put to protect the hull, and hope that everyone else does too.

That first day a work boat came past. Thankfully, they were being careful by going fairly slow and using a plank to break up the ice sheets in front of their boat, but since then, the ice has got thicker, and no boats or ducks have been past.

When I see The Cloud, I can’t help but remember the disaster that happened in 2015 when the local wood treatment mill which is in the valley on the other side, had a series of explosions which killed four people. The mill and workers cottages are still fenced off and it’s a very sad sight to drive past the boarding. The criminal trial against the company and the managing director only concluded in June 2021. The company was fined £75,000 and the managing director was fined £12,000 and given a 9-month suspended sentence for breaches in Health and Safety. You can read the full story here 

We’ve been stuck in the ice for just over a week and it looks like we’ll be here until the thaw in about 4 days – we hope. As liveaboards, this presents a few challenges. Everything on board is limited, fuel, food and water being the essentials, and we only have what’s on board.

Even though we’re not moving, we still have to run the engine for several hours each day, this charges the leisure batteries to give us lighting and power for TV and also supplies our hot water. The solar panels aren’t much use in the winter as the sunshine is too weak to recharge the batteries. The bow of the boat has its cratch cover closed so that we can use it as a storage area for coal (smokeless) and wood (scavenged). We have a very efficient multifuel stove in the saloon. We have two gas bottles in the front bow locker, one is a reserve and as luck would have it, we had to start on the reserve bottle last night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our days are centred around keeping warm and keeping the boat functioning. If we weren’t on the boat, there is a distinct probability that the interior would freeze, and pipes could burst. The outside temperature has been as low as -8 C, whilst inside we’re roasting at 28C!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our ten bags of coal are now down to four, we go scavenging for wood every other day to help stretch out the coal. Ian has had to start bringing water to the boat in 10 litre water carriers. He had to walk back to his Mum’s house to get the car! Hopefully the thaw will also allow the local fuel boat to reach us so we can restock. 

This is beginning to sound like hard work, and it is, but it’s also a way of life and we love it. The scenery is stunning and watching the stars from your snug cabin bed is a dream come true.

As a “new” blogger (not sure someone who has been doing this for a year can be called new – Ian), I’m perhaps a bit late to the party, but I’ve been genuinely  surprised by how many people there are out there who are blogging or vlogging their daily lives on the British Waterways (yes the irony of saying that has not escaped me!). We subscribed to a few of them on YouTube, whilst we were working and unable to follow our dream of being liveaboards. It was entertaining; from our own past experiences, we could recognise certain places and challenges that these boaters faced as they cruised the network in all weathers. We were completely at our leisure, it was just a passive pastime,  sitting in the luxury of a warm dry house, viewing it all through a TV screen.

A few years ago, we met one of the couples, Fran and Rich, from “Floating our Boat” on the Llangollen Canal. Fran has a loom on her boat and sells weavings whilst Rich paints impressionistic landscapes and produces the videos. At the time we were navigating the flight of locks near to Hurleston Junction and they filmed us going down the locks (fame at last!). During lockdown, we helped another couple from “Foxes Afloat” who were stranded at Etruria in Stoke-on-Trent, providing an alternative delivery service for them. 

But now we are liveaboards ourselves, part of this floating community, so watching the vlogs has taken on a different perspective. It’s not that unusual for us to see a boat go past with a GoPro camera mounted on the bow and or a tripod sitting on the cabin roof with a fluffy microphone attached to a larger camera. The big question is, do you pretend not to notice that they’re filming you or do you act like a grinning idiot and wave madly to someone’s YouTube channel!

Some of the boating vloggers that we follow on You Tube are of a similar age to us and have taken to boating as an alternative retirement lifestyle. Many are younger and still work. Often this is land based, some holding down full-time jobs others doing temping or seasonal jobs. Some of them run a business from their boat as licensed traders such as the young family on “Holly the Café Boat” and “Ben and Emily” who make miniature vegetable pets.

There’s also a very talented Blacksmith Artist called Brian Greaves,  travelling on a pair of boats called Emily & Bronte, we bought a toasting fork from him at Abingdon. 

If you see a sign for a “Floating Market” it’s worth a wander along the towpath to appreciate the diversity and colour of the trading boats. You can find out where and when these are happening by checking the Events page on the Roving Canal Traders Association’s website.

The couple with the café boat were trapped in the midlands area during lockdown and by various stoppages but have now escaped through the Harecastle Tunnel and were moored just a few yards from us on the Macclesfield Canal. Their latest vlog on YouTube is all about Congleton and it’s been fascinating to see our hometown through their eyes.

Whilst we know there are over 2,000 miles of navigable waterways, this community, both on the water and on the screen, seems a lot smaller and friendlier than we could ever have imagined. If anyone is in trouble, or a boat is off its moorings, people just stop and offer to help. It puts your faith back into humanity and everyone (well nearly everyone) waves and says hello, whether they are fishing, walking on the tow path, paddling a canoe or cruising on a Dutch barge. It’s such a friendly place on the Cut.

 

We’re still heading north aiming for home ground on the Macclesfield Canal for the winter. Heather now has a date for her knee operation and it’s the middle of November. The final deadline for stoppages that we needed to get past along the Trent and Mersey canal was 7th November. The last one was for relining the canal between a couple of the five locks at Stoke on Trent. This flight of locks skirt past the centre of the city, passing under the shadow of the Bet365 (Britannia) Stadium and then heads up to Etruria, where it meets the Caldon Canal from Leek and Froghall. Although there’s a lot of regeneration and redevelopment happening through Stoke, the signs of the original pottery and lime industries are still very visible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Built in the 1770s, this canal is one of the oldest It was the inspiration of Josiah Wedgewood, who wanted an inland waterway from the Mersey in Liverpool to the River Trent at Derby to improve the transportation of clay, flint and Cornwall stone as well as finished pottery. Wedgewood cut the first sod at Middleport but the designer and chief engineer was James Brindley. The canal embodies the resourcefulness of northern industry and the drive to progress, to fit things in and make them work.

Over the centuries, new roads and railway lines have been squeezed alongside the canal and around the locks. This makes for interesting viewpoints and constant reminders of the role that this canal played in moving raw materials and goods around the country during the previous 200 years.

 

Museums and signposts pay homage to this era. The remaining brick-built warehouses, chimneys and bottle kilns provide stark contrasts to the sleek new call centres and distribution warehouses that are replacing them.

We have made it through the 1.6 mile long Harecastle Tunnel and will make our way up to Congleton this week. The frosts have started and the trees are looking stark against the grey skies. It seems very strange to be back here after spending so much time travelling to Bristol along the Kennet and Avon Canal. It’s always a treat to see the local landmarks and have the sense of coming home- and yes, I have started my Christmas shopping !!

If you’ve clicked on the location tab, you’ll see that we’ve suddenly moved north, why the dash? What’s the rush?

Back in September we were on the Kennet and Avon Canal and wondering where to spend the winter season with the boat. The original plan was to stay in the south and explore the smaller canals around London and along the Grand Union. Trouble is, this is the time of year that the Canal River Trust (CRT) make repairs to locks and stretches of canals that are either broken or leaking. So they announce their winter stoppages (closures of the navigation) and if you want to spend the winter months somewhere in particular, you need to ensure you’ve got past them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, in October, Heather had a pre-op appointment at her orthopaedic hospital for a knee replacement operation. If you know Heather, then you’ll be aware that she has had issues with her knees since she was in her late teens. She’s had several operations and replacement knees have been on the cards for many years. Now it is going to become a reality – except our home is currently at the wrong end of the country. We need to be in the north west before this knee operation happens, preferably back on the Macclesfield Canal, somewhere  near to Congleton in Cheshire.

We checked the CRT website for notices of stoppages and, to our horror, discovered that the Stoke-on-Trent two locks were being closed in early November and the end of the Coventry Canal had a breach and was going to be shut from the 31st October. We were about 330 lock/miles away from where we needed to be and the clock was already ticking. Time to move.

At this end of the summer, unexpected closures happen with greater frequency, especially when it’s been this dry. Water shortages have caused CRT to put daily time restrictions on passage through some locks in order to conserve water. Autumn storms cause trees to fall and the wear and tear of a busy summer means that lock paddles have been broken, making progress a lot slower.

The bonus of our dash north is that we are chasing the autumn colours. The North Oxford and the Coventry Canals have been quite stunning. We passed through Hawkesbury Junction where the water of these two canals meet at  Sutton Stop Lock. This lock is just over a foot deep but it’s one of my favourites both for it’s history and it’s character. It was built in 1802 and was managed by generations of the Sutton family (hence the name). Its purpose was to prevent the constant loss of water from the North Oxford Canal into the Coventry Canal. The coal barges that travelled this stretch were deep drafted and heavily laden,  so water was a precious commodity, ensuring they could move at a good pace and not drag on the bottom of the cut. Fradley Junction is at the end of the Coventry Canal and as usual there’s a popular pub where the gongoozlers can sit and watch boaters make the sharp turn onto the Trent and Mersey Canal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we approached Halloween, some of the boat decorations became even more extreme and colourful.

We are moored on Tixall Wide, (near to Shugborough Hall in Staffordshire) spending a few days recovering from the mad dash. It’s an old favourite that we visited earlier this year when Storm Eunice hit! Thankfully, it’s all been a lot calmer, although still a bit wet on the tow path, but the views are still pretty amazing.

 

 

September ran away from us while we were doing stuff! It started with a slight disaster.

At the beginning of September, we were heading for a marina in Newbury, where we had planned to leave the boat for three weeks. This idea was scuppered when a lock ahead of us was broken by another canal user between Kintbury and Newbury, Berkshire.

Whilst typing this we are actually moored on a beautiful meadow about five miles from Reading, Berkshire. And I’ve  just discovered how close we are to the Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) at Aldermaston – they’ve just been (hopefully) testing their warning sirens for fire and radiation. Not a pleasant thought as it sounds like it’s located just on the other side of the hedge! AWE Aldermaston was first operated in 1950 on a World War II airfield under the project name of “High Explosive Research”, being renamed Atomic Weapons Research Establishment (AWRE) in 1952 with William Penney appointed as the first director.
Aldermaston doesn’t have the best record for safety. In 2010 a fire broke out in the explosives processing area, resulting in the evacuation of nearby residents. Investigations by a local newspaper revealed that from April 2000 to August 2011, 158 fires broke out at AWE sites, with the fire brigade being called out to deal with alarms, on average, four times a week.

Back to the saga of the broken lock – some idiot  had decided to close a lock gate by roping it to their boat and using a lot of power, enough that the gate was pulled away from it’s collar (hinge) and was hanging off. These are double width locks and a gate weighs up to 2 and half tonnes. To repair them takes some serious kit and the Canal and River Trust (CRT) had to bring in a work barge

with a lifting crane capable of doing the job. This all caused delays and the navigation remained closed for several days. I dread to think what the cost is to them, but for us it meant we had to find a “safe” place to moor the boat up and hope it would still be there at the end of September. Obviously it was and you can’t imagine the relief we felt when we saw it was still there and hadn’t been broken into.

So what have we been doing? Firstly we went to the University Chichester to cheer and celebrate with Fynnegan Bell as they graduated from University after 4 years of hard work, 3 bouts of Covid, repeating year 2 and having a name change. Then we headed north to collect Ian’s mum to then come back down to Oxfordshire for a ten-day boat trip along the River Thames.

We had hired a 45ft floating yoghurt pot (a big plastic cruiser) and had planned to cruise it downstream to Windsor and back again. Sadly, Queen Elizabeth II had passed away the day before we set off and was due to be interned at Windsor on the day that we were driving home again. This meant that our arrival in Windsor coincided with people laying flowers at the Castle gates and a large presence of armed police conducting security checks throughout the town.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The boat we hired was not the palace I’d hoped it would be, but it did the job and we saw some beautiful places and wildlife too. The bird life was amazing with kingfishers zipping past and red kites screeching in circles overhead. We were stunned to catch sight of an Osprey diving for fish, these birds tend to reside in Scotland but during their migration periods in March and September they can be spotted by any large body of water. They have a wingspan of about 1.5 metres and from the UK are known to fly as far as Senegal in West Africa, directly over the Sahara Desert, a trip of around 3,000 miles.

Back on Narrowboat Heron and we are heading north again. The temperature is dropping to 7 degrees at night so the cratch cover at the bow of the boat is closed and the front deck has been loaded up with bags of coal. The multifuel stove has been continuously burning for the last week and we are as warm as toast. The trees are beginning to change and whilst I’m not a fan of cruising in wet weather, I am looking forward to seeing all the autumn colours.

 

We spent a few days on a stretch of the Kennet & Avon Canal, nicknamed the Long Pound in the Vale of Pewsey, Wiltshire. It passes the Barge Inn at Honey Street, recognisable because it has been featured in a few TV programmes such as Village SOS, The Haunted and Inspector Morse. This area is also famous for crop circles and the pub has a whole room dedicated to them. Unfortunately, we didn’t stop to see it and all the crop circle fields are now striped!

We did manage to find a mooring close to All Cannings and, at dawn the next morning, we went to see the Novolithic (new) Long Barrow for burials. This one was built in 2014 in the style of a traditional long barrow using natural materials. It has multiple internal chambers with niches and is used as a columbarium or place for keeping cremated remains in urns. It cost around £200,000 to build and initially charged from £1,200 for a niche.

There seems to be a demand for these across the UK. A further 5 Novolithic Barrows have been constructed, mainly in the south of England with a further 3 having planning approval and 2 being refused. The cost of a niche varies from £750 for a small niche for 1 year up to £7,000 for a large niche (holds 5+ urns) for 99 years. They are beautiful places and provide a resting place for anyone, of any belief or none, if you can afford it!

I’m a huge fan of West Kennet Long Barrow, there is something very thought provoking about places which provide evidence of our humanity from thousands of years ago. This barrow dates from around 3,000 BC, one of 15 left in the area of Avebury out of 500 recorded across England.

 

 

Due to the line of hills that stretches across Wiltshire, there are several iron-age hill forts and, much to the dog’s delight, we found another one near to All Cannings.

On the way back we saw a sign claiming to be the site of the original Moonraker’s Pond. This is a popular local fable of how not to underestimate a Wiltshire man. The exact date and location are not known, but it was around 17th-18th century when there was a tax on brandy. On hearing that a search was taking place, two men hid some brandy barrels in a pond. One night, when there was a full moon, the men went with hay rakes to retrieve the kegs but were caught in the act by Excisemen. When asked what they were doing, they claimed that they were raking the cheese (reflection of the full moon) from the water and the Taxmen laughed and left them to it. The tale of the smugglers is very popular and that’s possibly why there are so many pubs named after them.

Whatever the histories of this area, it is quite stunning and one we will continue to return to.

You know when you’ve previously lived near to some where for 13 years and think you know it- well think again. When you’re living a different style of life, you find yourself seeing a place in a new light, discovering features and hidden gems that were in plain sight.

We used to live in a village not far from Devizes, but the only way I used to see the town was when I was working, on blue lights and sirens negotiating the roundabouts and pedestrian crossings that skirt the town centre. A few weeks ago, when we were enroute to Bristol, I walked into Devizes marketplace and recognised a bus stop that I’d previously driven to from Swindon and, at the time, had a nightmare finding (there are quite a few bus stops in the town centre). When I first started working on ambulances, my colleagues would point out locations and describe incidents to me that they’d attended. At the time I hadn’t appreciated how long you retain the images of the places and jobs you attend, but I do now, and it can be quite a shock encounter!

My respect and attitude towards this little town has changed completely, it’s a lovely little place, bustling with people of all ages from all walks of life. The marketplace has weekly markets. We stayed for an extra day so we could stock up from the fresh fruit and veg stalls, the colourful sight of the stalls and the sounds of the traders calling out offers brought back a host of childhood memories.

But be warned and pay your dues, this place has history and an inscription on the market cross states:
“On Thursday the 25th of January 1753, Ruth Pierce of Potterne in this County, agreed with three other women to buy a sack of wheat in the market, each paying her due proportion towards the same. One of these women, in collecting the several quotas of money, discovered a deficiency, and demanded of Ruth Pierce the sum which was wanting to make good the amount. Ruth Pierce protested that she had paid her share, and said, ‘She wished she might drop down dead if she had not.’ She rashly repeated this awful wish; when to the consternation and terror of the surrounding multitude, she instantly fell down and expired, having the money concealed in her hand”
The coroner recorded that she had been “struck down dead by the vengeance of God.”

Devizes sits at one end of the Vale of Pewsey and Ian found Quakers Way, a gorgeous tree-lined avenue leading from the town up towards Roundway Down where you can see the Devizes White Horse and explore Oliver’s Castle. This iron aged fort was nick-named Oliver’s Castle after Cromwell’s troops had an encampment there during the Civil War. There are eight White Horses in Wiltshire and I was rather disappointed to discover that the majority were created in the 1800s. In contrast, the famous, and very uniquely stylised, Uffington Horse in Oxfordshire dates from the late Bronze Age or early Iron Agenda was created sometime between 1380 BC and 550 BC. The White Horse at Devizes was carved into the chalk hillside in 1999 to celebrate the new Millennium, but for some reason it is the only one of the Wilshire Horses that faces left to right.

The chalk landmarks in Wiltshire feature more than just horses, during World War l and ll this region was used as a major staging post for troops. There were multiple air fields and train lines criss-crossing the landscape. The waiting soldiers also left their mark on the nearby chalk hills. At the end of the First World War, some New Zealand troops were based at Bulford waiting for their ship home. When they threatened to riot, the commanders kept them busy by carving a Kiwi into Beacon Hill. At Fovant, near to Salisbury, there are nine regimental badges carved into the hillside below Chiselbury Camp (Iron Age Fort). it is believed that the original badges were created during World War l by soldiers garrisoned nearby, in honour of those who did not make it home. Others were added during World War II and up to the late 1940s.

It’s a fascinating place and I’m glad that I’ve seen it from a new perspective. Life is full of surprises.

Having spent a long weekend in Bristol we’ve now found a peaceful spot on the River Avon to try out our new boarding ladder. We’ve got it hung over the gunwale (upper side edge of boat) in the bow and it has given us easy access into the river for refreshing cool swims. Quite wonderful after the heatwave last weekend.

It was quite an experience moored on the Arnolfini Wharf pontoon in the Floating Harbour of Bristol. We were right in the city centre, so we got free discos and the usual sounds and smells of city life; coffee, foods and spliffs!

The harbour area has been regenerated over the last couple of decades and is largely residential with bars and restaurants around the wharves. It was completed in 1809 to provide a stable water level for ships to moor whilst they loaded/off-loaded cargo. It diverts the tidal waters from the Avon gorge along the river to above Netham Lock. This does mean that the harbour gets locked down when the tide is up, as the locks and weirs also protect the city centre from flooding especially when it’s a Spring tide.

We had a lovely view of Pero’s bridge, named after a slave (Pero Jones 1753-1798) who was transported from the Caribbean in 1783. The bridge was named in honour of Pero to draw attention to Bristol’s past reliance on the transatlantic slave trade and the city’s challenges in coming to terms with its past. The distinctive horns of the bridge are counterweights for the lifting section, but they’re earned the bridge nick names of Horned or Shrek’s Bridge! The bridge has hundreds of padlocks attached to it. As a sign of affection to each other, couples add names, dates and messages to the “lovelocks” and, after locking them on to the bridge, throw the keys into the harbour. There are so many of them that the council must thin them out to stop the bridge from buckling under the weight!

Being in a city gives an opportunity to restock the boat, but the shops can be a bit of a distance from the waterway. Both Bath and Bristol have electric scooters available for public use. We decided to be brave and get on a scooter for the first time in probably 40+years! I really don’t like going over cobbles with solid tyres – I felt shaken all over! I’m also much happier riding in the cycle lanes than the main roads. But overall, I think we’d recommend the scooters to anyone who knows their highway code. They certainly make travelling easier on a hot sticky day.

As we headed out of Bristol on the last day of this heatwave, the river was crowded with swimmers, paddle boarders and canoeists. Not much fun when you’re trying to steer a 57 foot, 15-ton boat around bends. Thankfully we made it to a quiet spot and plan to spend a few days recovering from all the heat and excitement of city life!

We’re now on to the Kennet & Avon Canal (K & A). It’s 87 miles long, stretching from Reading to the Floating Harbour at Bristol. They started building it in 1718, but it took just over 90 years to complete. By the 1960s, parts of the canal had fallen into disrepair and were closed. It was fully reopened in 1990 following restoration by the volunteers of the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust.

We are very familiar with it as our boat was originally based in Newbury. It’s a challenging waterway to navigate, not because it’s hard to find your way, but because of the nature of the canal. It’s wide and a mix of river and canal. The locks are big, about 14ft wide and the beams on the gates are heavy to operate. The 105 locks are easier to manage if you have a wide-beam boat or two narrowboats paired up together. Wide-beam boats are between 10-12ft ( 3-3.6m) wide whereas narrowboats are usually no more than 6ft 10inches (2.05m). The locks are long enough to accomodate a 72ft (22m) boat, so you can imagine that you could fit a small bungalow into some of them and they take a lot of water to fill them.

Mooring is often a challenge due to shallow margins and the need to get ropes secured on mooring pins and gangplanks placed to give access to the towpath. For these reasons, people find this canal too difficult to manage and it’s common to hear that a boater has turned around and given up. We love the natural margins of the banks and the diversity of the flora and fauna. Ian is making good use of the scythe that he got from Santa to clear the nettles and brambles on the banks when we need to put out the gangplank.

As the railway from Bristol to London parallels the canal, there are a lot of permanent residential moorings and liveaboards along the K & A. Liveaboards are people who permanently live on their boat but continue to move around the waterways. There are more wide-beam boats then we’ve seen before, and some very unusual boats too, like old offshore lifeboats which were previously used on oil rigs. They sell for between £3,500 and £8,500. Just as a comparison, a used narrowboat in good condition could be anything from £35,000 to £120,000+ dependant on length and age, whereas wide-beams would start at around £100,000+.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

People do the strangest displays on their boats too, just in the last week we’ve seen two contrasting manikins, a Lara Croft and a Golden Lady and some rather bizarre sculptures made from canoes and various bits and pieces. I’ve seen smaller pieces too like a small stone face in a tree hollow and a post-box positioned in the wall of a railway embankment on the wrong side of a river section! Raising the never-ending debate of what is art!

For a few days we were moored close to the Claverton Pumping station. It’s nestled in the valley close to the River Avon and was built to pump water up the hillside to the K & A. There is a very pretty weir nearby that creates a reservoir for it and this has become a very popular spot for wild swimming. It is rather cold first thing in the morning, but a treat to have it all to yourself.

We’ve now reached Bath, restocked the larder and collected Amazon parcels from a local shop. So, in preparation for the hot weather to come, we are heading on into the countryside again.

We’re back home on the boat after an epic trip to Criccieth. And after a rather challenging train journey to Oxford on nearly the hottest day on record!

 

 

The Llyn Peninsula (North Wales) is a favourite family destination and tends to have a bit of a microclimate. This means that the weather is changeable but often better than inland. We had an epic time exploring some old haunts including Aberdaron and going up to Blaenau Ffestiniog on the Ffestiniog Steam Railway. Our train journey home on the national network didn’t go quite as well!

The forecast was for the hottest day on record and some trains had already been cancelled. Our train ended up with standing room only and someone collapsed from heat stroke in the vestibule section. They were fine, but this area of the carriages is not air conditioned and gets up to 40+ degrees. We were then held up at Banbury for nearly 2 hours as the rails had buckled. I tried to take the dog for a walk in the shade, but the platform thermometer said 42, so we quickly returned to our seats! The boatyard in Jericho, that was “boat-sitting” Heron for us, was due to close at 4pm, we made it with 15 minutes to spare. The 3 hour journey had taken over 6 hours. So, after sending Ian to fetch some groceries, we untied and headed out of the city to the cool of the countryside.

That evening we moored above Sandford Lock and enjoyed the cool breeze in the pub garden! As the next day was due to be another scorcher, we made an early start and found a little island to moor up to. We hid in the boat in some shade and, like the rest of the UK, watched the thermometer rise, which eventually topped 40 degrees.

The following morning, we were treated to a spectacle called the Swan Upping. It’s an annual event on the River Thames that dates back to around 12th century when birds were claimed and marked by the Crown and anyone else who had the rights to them. Cygnets were a source of food and collected to be fattened for the banquet table. These days the focus is on conservation and education, the Swan Uppers check the health and numbers of swans and cygnets along the River Thames from Sunbury to Abingdon, originally it was from London to Henley. The Uppers take about five days to do the 79 miles in traditional wooden skiffs dressed in the livery of the Crown or their Company.

On locating a family of swans, they shout “All-Up!” and the boats converge on the brood and surround it, gradually closing in until the birds can be lifted from the water. The swans are then examined, marked and released. Originally, the two Companies, the Vintners and the Dyers, made their own marks on the birds’ beaks, but today they use their own rings and the Crown’s swans are left unmarked.

 

 

 

After this excitement we headed on into Reading to shop at Tesco’s. Yes, there is free mooring by the entrance, so we stocked up the cupboards (please notice the beer on the top of the trolley!) and turned onto the link for the Kennet and Avon Canal. This is our route to Bristol, but first we had to get through the city centre and the only traffic lights that I know of on the system- over the years we have perfected the method of creeping the bow of the boat up to the button so that I can press it without falling in or being left stranded on the fence!

 

 

Cruising through the centre of a city is fascinating; are the gongoozlers (boater’s name for people watching them) watching us or are we watching them? The architecture of the city makes an interesting contrast to the softness of the countryside. But the closeness can get a little claustrophobic and I find it a relief, like a breathe of fresh air, to get back into the open landscapes again.