Guess Where?

BIG CLUE:- Long, leafy cuttings which look beautiful especially when the sun is shining.

BIG CLUE:- Very tall bridges.

BIG CLUE:- Views of The Wrekin.

AND, at last ……………… BIG CLUE:- The Anchor Inn which was open!

All the guides say that this drinking establishment is in a time warp – an original Public House where the bars are in the sitting rooms.  Every time we’ve passed we’ve stopped but Olive, the Landlady, has had the pub closed.  NOT THIS TIME!  And, yes, it is old fashioned and unspoilt.  The tiny bar is at the end of what I suppose is/was the hallway, the toilets are still outside and the garden is immaculate.

            

          

We’ve had a lovely couple of days based at Brewood where our friends Mick and Lynn joined us but are now back on the Staffs and Worcester heading towards Penkridge where we are to be joined by our next visitors.

xxoo

Blacking a BIG Bottom ……!

When we have to get Ellen’s bottom blacked it’s a significant event.  We’ve never done it ourselves but talking to those who have ……. it’s hard, messy work!

Well!  Consider the DIY blacking of a Dutch Barge – that’s the task son, Ben, has undertaken this week.  It’s actually a ship so …………… he has taken it to a shipyard ……………… at Chatham on the Medway.  A big boat needs a big dry dock!

Going through London – sights we have experienced ourselves on “Ellen” …………….

(* Little bits of factual info for those who like to know …….)

 

*The London Eye stands 137 metres above the city.  On a fine day you can apparently see as far as Heathrow Airport and Windsor Castle.

 

 

 

*HMS Belfast was in active service as a Royal Navy Cruiser.  She was commissioned on 5th August 1939 just before the outbreak of WW2 and finally decommissioned on 24th August 1963.  She was launched on St Patrick’s Day 1938.  She is now part of The National Historic Fleet and operated by The Imperial War Museum.  Each year she receives 1/4 million visitors.

*Tower Bridge was built by Sir John Barry & Sir Horace Jones between 1886 and 1894. 

and, going downstream, sights we haven’t …………………

*The Cutty Sark was built on the Clyde in 1869.  She was one of the last tea clippers and one of the fastest sailing ships of her time.  She too is on The National Historic Ships Register and is now kept permanently at Greenwich.

She is one of only three remaining other clipper ships built in C19th.  Of the others one is in Australia and the other in Chile.  In 2007 she was badly damaged by fire but she is now fully restored and once again open to the public.

 

 

*The O2 Arena.  We still haven’t been there!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

*The Thames Barrier.  520 metres wide and built as part of the effort to protect London from flooding due to rising water levels and tidal surges.  This design was chosen from amongst 41 different proposals.

 

 

 

*The Queen Elizabeth II Bridge.  It was opened by the Queen on 30/10/1991 and its construction cost £120 million.  It’s 137 metres high and, despite the toll, an average of 130,000 vehicles use it on a daily basis.

 

 

  At sea …..

 

Arriving at the dry dock at Chatham.

 

 

 

 

 

I  wish we had been able to accompany him either there or back but it was just not to be.

Adapting Lifestyle

For what seemed like my entire career I was told that I had to embrace and cope with change!  Considering the profession I was in, coping with the changes to our lives now should be a doddle!

We have been on a mission to get back to Dorset to check on the house and garden and then get back to “Ellen” to continue cruising.  We know of several other boaters who do this every year and they make it look so easy!  At he end of June our good friends, Jane and Ron, came to spend a few days cruising with us.  We put the boat into Swanley Marina and were driven all the way back!  Well, that was easy!

 

We were met by a jungle!  Originally we thought that all we wanted was a small courtyard garden but it didn’t quite work out that way.

We have spent the best part of the last three weeks gardening!  It’s now back under control and  ………………………. we’ve left it to it’s own devises yet again!  Gluttons for punishment or what!

We did manage a couple of trips to the coast and Megan came to stay for a few days too.  It was really good to see her.  She is looking so well.

 

I can now officially announce that the thing we thought was never going to happen for us …… is!  In November we are going to become grandparents!  We are going to have a grandson …. how brilliant is that!

Lola loved swimming in the sea and wasn’t fazed one bit by the waves.

Getting back to Swanley was much more of a mission!  We let the train ‘take the strain’ (and the bank account!) but, all told, it took us best part of eight hours!  The journey itself was very straightforward – to Salisbury, change to Newport (yes, in Wales!) and then via lots of other places to Nantwich.  We could have gone via London but we thought the scenic route would be much kinder for Lola.  She was superb – most of the time other passengers (and there were lots – train travel IS popular) didn’t even know she was there.   Nantwich to the marina via taxi and we were finally back on board by 5.30 pm.  Despite my best efforts to safeguard my flowers, most of them had perished.  Such a shame because they were looking glorious before we left.  After all these years John is going to get his wish – no pots on the roof!

Anyway, we are now heading back down the Shroppie and it feels like we’ve never been away! 

xxoo            

A Different Kind of Day

We are at Froncysllte.  The Trevor basin has been hijacked by Anglo Welsh!  We can’t go the final 4 miles into Llangollen because we are too deep drafted and, from past experience, we KNOW we would get stuck and shouted at!  In actual fact we’ve struggled to get from Chirk to here.  The bridge holes have been difficult to get through, we crept over the Chirk Aqueduct and thought we we going to come to a grinding halt in the Chirk Tunnel.  It was the closest I’ve come to legging!  John spoke to another boater who was very stressed as he said he started to go backwards in the tunnel!  He left his wife in charge of the tiller and pulled his boat through whilst being verbally abused by boaters behind!  Shame on them!  They should have got off and helped the poor man!  As a result he has refused to go any further.

So, we thought we would go into Llangollen by bus and have a day out on the steam train.  Yesterday we found the bus stop, studied the timetable and decided to make the supreme effort to get up the hill by 9am for the 9.04am bus.  We waited.  We waited patiently.  Time went by and still we waited.  After about 40 minutes a very lovely young local lady told us that they have cancelled that bus.  In fact, instead of buses going every hour as is on the timetable, they now only go every two hours – BUT no-one has changed the timetable displays!

Well, we got into Llangollen OK with plenty of time to organise our train tickets.  John couldn’t use his bus pass here in Wales but we were both given concessions.  OMG – it’s official.  I’m an OAP!  It was printed on my ticket!!  I’m going to campaign for the terminology ‘Senior Citizen’ to be used instead – it sounds so much more respectful!!!

The whole experience of going on the train was brilliant.  The atmosphere on the train and in and around the stations is wonderful.  The first carriage we were in just reminded me of Harry Potters first journey to Hogwarts.  AND ………………. the scenery of the Dee Valley!  Well, it’s just magnificent – the river, the hills ……………… fabulous.  There were lots of passengers – schoolchildren on a day out, members of Nantwich U3A on a day out and lots of others like us.

           

           

We got off at Carrog station and, at the recommendation of an obviously seasoned train traveller, we walked to The Grouse Inn for lunch.  What a location!

       

The Dee is a lovely river -

           

Lola was not the only dog on board – quite a few had paid their all day fare.  No other dog enjoyed the waters of The Dee as much as she did though.

According to the bus timetable and the driver who had brought us, the last number 64 bus back was 5.05pm.  We waited.  We waited patiently.  Time went by and still we waited!  Then we panicked and got on the bus to Wrexham which took a different route via Trevor.  I guess we’ll never know if the last 64 of the day had been cancelled like the first!

Despite the bus service, a good day out.

The Montgomery Canal 2014

If it ever does becomes possible, a trip by narrow boat from Frankton Junction on the Llangollen to Newtown in mid Wales – a distance of 35miles – will definitely be scenically stunning.  When we hired our first canal boat 30 years ago I had my heart set on one day being able to do just that.  At the time I thought it a realistic ‘wish-list’ entry but 30 years later it’s still only possible to cruise 7 miles from Frankton Junction.

           

Walking from Maesbury to Gronwen Wharf, this is a taste of the scenery.

When we were last here, 3 years ago, restoration had reached Gronwen Wharf and things were well underway with the section from Redwith to Pryces Bridge.  That has now very recently been filled with water but if you chose to go to the end you would have to reverse back as there is no winding hole.

               

The section of canal that has just been filled with water.  I think it took about 4 years to complete.

The next section to be restored goes as far as Crickheath where a winding hole is to be reinstated.  A development grant of £160,000 has been awarded for this and an application for a much larger amount of funding has been submitted.  That will leave another 2 miles before reaching the Welsh Border at Llanymynech and, according to the lock keeper, when that happens the Welsh Government has promised funding.  I think that’s what she said! 

                   

The next section to be restored – Pyres Bridge to Crickheath.  It looks daunting!

Below -Lots of volunteer support is in evidence from a variety of waterway groups – motivation remains high.

         

Talking to ‘those-in-the-know’, the major obstacles to progress are:-

• Funding.  No surprise there then – isn’t it always?
• Conservation issues.  A lot of the canal has been designated SSSI status due to rare aquatic plants, insects and amphibians.  A great crested newt was caught in a bottle trap in the next section to be restored and, according to a local, that newt, for one reason and another, has cost the project £20,000!
• Construction issues.  Some locks still need to be rebuilt (many have already been done) and there are several road crossings blocking navigation.  I think I read somewhere that the Vyrnwy Aqueduct is in good structural order.

There’s also the need to maintain the section that is navigable!  Talking to other boaters the consensus is that it’s too shallow in places (we’ve had a few ‘sticky’ moments!), very overgrown in places (we’ve had a couple of serious arguments with over-enthusiastic willows!) and there is a serious lack of places to moor.  Several boaters we talked to said they wouldn’t bother coming back and that’s a shame because it’s true when they say ‘use it or lose it’.  This time we’ve seen many more hire boats down here – they don’t tend to stay more than a night but at least they are utilising the navigable section and sampling the culinary delights of The Navigation Inn at Maesbury!  There is an 11 mile landlocked section between Ardleen and Berriew but apparently this is now badly affected by lack of boats, inadequate dredging and weed growth – ‘use it or lose it’!

So, for now the best way to explore the full length of the canal is to don walking boots and ruck sacks.  They say that, for walking enthusiasts, this is a perfect 3 day trip – a challenge then for my friends Rosa and Richard who are said enthusiasts.  Something to think about you two!!

Other ways to enjoy it is by canoe or going for a ride on the horse-drawn boat ‘Countess’.

           

Me?  Like many others I’m sad that progress has been so slow but remain optimistic that I might just be awarded a very special 80th birthday present!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Ben and Megan will just have to hire a boat!  Ben can be Skipper for his old mum and dad and Meg can be chief lock wheeler.  They can recruit any other crew members they feel necessary!  xxoo

As Time Goes By ………

Just a few snippets of the last week:-

 

The making of the new boarding plank.

We now have one surplus to requirements!

 

 

 

 

Walking in the countryside:-

Sometimes you see sights that just amuse:-

           

Other times you come across things that cause anger and frustration!!

               

And when friends come to visit, it’s just perfect!  We had a lovely few days at Audlem whilst the music festival was going on.  During the festival in excess of 70 different musical acts performed in the pubs, church and scout hall.  Yes, we ate too much and definitely drank too much but we tried to balance it with a bit of exercise too!

                   

Nantwich is a lovely old town. In Medieval times it was apparently the chief salt producing town in Cheshire. This is where Mick & Lynn stayed (we think?) – Rosie & Molly’s accommodation was much more modest - on board with us – but they seemed happy enough.

Walking around Nantwich yesterday we came across a little bit of yesteryear and thought this very special and very precious:-

You will be pleased to know, Lynn, that John managed to get himself a new pair of shoes quite painlessly so no more wet socks or dangers of tripping up!  We also managed to find a Screwfix to get another TV aerial but it felt like we had walked half way to Crewe!   So, market day in Nantwich today – I do love mooching around a good market.  A legacy from my mum I think.  Fed up now with all the rain but ……………………. what can you do?!  Should be on the Llangollen by the weekend.

xxoo