It's been a while since...

It's been a while since I last updated mainly because we are having such an enjoyable time cruising due to the fabulous weather. And also the beautiful Oxford Canal meanders through such remote places that internet connections have been few and far between.

The Oxford Canal becomes the river Cherwell for a short distance.

Here's First Mate preparing to work a very deep lock.

And here is the last picture for now.

Sunset over Napton Marina.

Night Night.

Back on the Grand Union

Good Year Airship.

Haven't seen this for quite a while. Didn't realise it was still flying. Probably on a test run for the Olympics.

So having retraced our steps back up the Southern Section of the Stratford Canal to Kingswood Junction we entered the very short arm linking the Stratford to the Grand Union, turned right, sorry....to starboard, and headed south.

On our way we spotted this novel use of old Wellies:

It seems to work as I did catch a bird making use of it as we passed.

Having worked lots of locks yesterday we very soon pulled in for the night but discovered that there wasn't as much water in the GUC as we thought. Cruising in the middle lane, something I complain bitterly about when drivers do it on a motorway, was all well and good and usually the safest thing to do on any canal, but when we tried to edge close to the bank we started to touch the silt and whatever else was lurking below the waterline. I backed off and tried again a little further along. This time we got in but not without disturbing the silt and mud beneath us. Not sure what happened during the night but both Sue and I were awoken more than once by strange gurglings, and it wasn't my stomach for a change. We think it was the water level rising overnight lifting us off the silt. Though Sue did drag me outside at 2:15am to check we weren't sinking!!!

Tempranillo uses the water for ballast by taking it into a sort of colander system along the length of the hull. Hopefully it was just air escaping. It was perfectly OK later when we faced the 21 locks of The Hatton Flight.

Looking down on the Hatton Lock Flight with a Warwick Church Tower at the bottom.

You may remember not long after we left Crick Marina for the last time all those weeks ago and set sail for Birmingham, we rose up through Hatton locks together with the very helpful Nick and his old work boat who is a regular here. This time we met up with the crew of 'Jenella'. They were renters on the last leg of their holiday returning the boat to Warwick. Unusually for renters, in our experience, they were extremely considerate and could not have been more helpful, holding their 15 ton steel boat on ropes in each of the 21 locks so as not to damage our much lighter aluminium Tempranillo.

We are very grateful for their help which got us from top to bottom in three hours. Pretty good going. Not sure we would have got through before dark without them.

Having thanked them and said our goodbyes we rounded a bend and found a boat owner with a similar outlook on life as us:

CHEERS!

Stratford-Upon-Avon

Our journey down the Southern Section of the Stratford-Upon-Avon Canal was really enjoyable. It is a pretty canal with lots to see but vey challenging for a narrowboat captain. James Brindley built his bridges and locks only just wide enough for single beam boats. 

Tempranillo is 7 feet wide and there is nothing to spare on either side whilst passing through the locks, and especially one or two of the split bridges. Some of which, just to keep keep me interested, are not built exactly in-line with the canal.

That's the lock just visible immediately under the bridge.

Also on this canal are a few aqueducts which can be a bit scary. 

It is not natural to look straight down onto a road or railway line when in a boat.

We also got quite close to a bit of the local wildlife.

Think they were expecting a few crusts.

There are some very pretty Lengthman's cottages as mentioned in the previous blog.

This one in particular is available for holiday rental apparently.

And here is something you don't see everyday!!!

So eventually we arrived in the Bancroft Basin right in the middle of Stratford-Upon-Avon where the canal joins the river Avon.

Bancroft Basin.

The final lock that exits onto the River Avon.

Shakespeare's Birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon.

We took in as much of Stratford as we could in the time we had there, gleaning lots of information from the City Tour Bus. After 48 hours moored in the basin, the maximum time allowed by British Waterways, we started our return trip back up through the 35 locks of the southern section of the Stratford Canal. At Kingswood Junction we turned sharp right to join the Grand Union Main Line in order to begin our journey south. We will travel 21 miles on the GUC before we meet the Oxford Canal at Napton Junction. Tomorrow we face the 21 lock flight of Hatton, which we did in the reverse direction a few weeks ago on our way from Crick to Birmingham. At least these locks are wide enough for 2 narrowboats side by side and we might be able to share the work with some fellow boaters.

Bard Country

View from our Bathroom.

Since the last update we have been home to Devizes, down to Somerset for a family christening and 90th birthday, as well as visiting our son and family in London. Tempranillo was safely rested in Birmingham during that time. If any other boat owners need a safe refuge in the Midlands, we can highly recommend Sherborne Wharf right in the heart of the city with all the facilities a boater needs, and everyone there was extremely friendly and helpful.

Brindley Place...the place to eat in the city.

So back at the boat we set off with the aim of visiting Stratford-Upon-Avon by leaving Birmingham via The Mailbox, for those who know Brum, along the Worcester and Birmingham Canal as far as Kings Norton Junction and then turning sharp left onto the Stratford-on-Avon Canal. Along the way we passed vey close to a very purple train station.

Perhaps the colour is a clue....Bourneville Station.

This is the stop for the Cadbury World Experience.

The Stratford-on-Avon Canal is 25.5miles long and has 56 locks. It has two sections. The Northern and the Southern sections which meet at Kingswood Junction. The Northern Section was completed in 1802 but the rest was not finished until 1816.  Unfortunately for us it is the Southern section that has most of the locks and we will have to pass through them all again in a few days to get back on to the Grand Union at Kingswood Junction in order to connect with the Oxford canal to head south. 

As we turned off the Worcs & Brum Canal we faced something we had not seen before.

The Guillotine Stop Lock.

In the days when the canals were built and owned by independent companies each of those companies was very possessive of its water. Obviously water shortage is not new and in order to sustain the levels at the start of each canal a Stop Lock was constructed where any boat passing from one canal to another could only continue if it paid a toll. The two in-line guillotine lock gates were kept shut and then opened one at a time to let one only boat through, thus preserving the water.

Unfortunately by the Second World War the southern part of the canal was virtually un-navigable but thanks to volunteers and with the support of The National Trust it has been restored for the pleasure of boaters like us. The work was carried out by Army personnel, Prisoner Groups and volunteers and was reopened by HM The Queen Mother in 1964. 

There are a couple of features that seem to be unique to this canal. Split Bridges and Barrel Roof Cottages.

There are also some lift bridges along the way.

The split bridges were built to allow the tow rope to drop through the centre so that the horse did not have to be unhitched each time.

It is believed that the cottages with barrelled roofs were built that way using the same technique as for the arches of bridges along the canal and were inhabited by Lengthmen. Each Lengthman responsible for the stretch of canal up to the next lock.

Some have been quite extensively and 'tastefully' modernised.

The next instalment should show the rest of our voyage into Stratford-Upon-Avon.

Spaghetti?...No Thanks.

A strange title to this chapter, you might think. It should become apparent why as you read on.

In order to attend a family christening over the MayDay Bank Holiday weekend, we made our way back to the safe haven of Sherborne Wharf in the centre of Birmingham where we knew we could safely leave Tempranillo, as we had previously. Our trip of about two weeks had been really enjoyable, despite the weather. The so called drought had soaked us at times but we were unable to move on only two occasions. Once in Penkridge where we met Hilary and again in the open countryside just after we turned onto the Coventry Canal and stopped by this amazing tree. 

  

It was mainly the wind that prevented us from cruising that day.

When we got going again we continued down the Coventry Canal and then joined the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal in order to get us back into the city centre. However, even though we had stopped I felt we could make a diversion to the north and take in more of the Birmingham Canal Navigation (BCN) and still be back in time for the christening. There were 24 locks between us and Sherborne Wharf. I had worked out that if we went the shorter route  we would have to do those locks in the space of 3 miles but making the diversion meant that, not only did we see more of the BCN, we could stretch out the lock working over a distance of 15 miles, for which Sue was very grateful.

Salford Junction

As soon as we passed the junction at Salford, where we had originally planned to turn for the city, we found ourselves in a concrete jungle.

This was Spaghetti Junction. Here it is as you have probably never seen it before. There was a lot of work going on down at ground level. Could it be that concrete fatigue has set in, much like that found in the Hammersmith Flyover at the end of the M4? Mmmm, mustn't start evil rumours! But our quiet, uncongested, though very wet journey under Spaghatti Junction was really quite pleasant in comparison.

It was difficult to accept that the hustle of motorway chaos was going on all around us as we slipped unnoticed underneath it.

We found a very quite cut to stop in that night where not one other boat came passed us all the time we were moored. I think we were the only ones brave, or stupid enough to endure the vicious 'drought' that was currently gripping the UK! Very soon after we set off the next morning, having been so far below the motorways the previous day, we suddenly found ourselves on the same level, and now and again actually looking down on the M42!

This is where Sue got so wet and she was convinced she had developed 'Trench Foot' as it was extremely damp underfoot. I couldn't help with the locks as it was too shallow for Tempranillo to get to the canal side and had to stay aboard and hover in the middle of the canal.

These are the 8 locks lined up at Ryders Green on the Walsall Canal.

We made our way back in towards Sherborne Wharf along Brindley's Canal but at the junction where his canal went up a few locks we decided, having already overdosed on locks, to take the straighter, level and newer branch.

Here Brindley's Canal on the right passes close to the new, straighter line below at Smethwick Pumping Station and Heritage Centre. Tempranillo can just be seen moored by the building.

We concluded our journey in time to get home as planned.