tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41920158090010448152024-03-06T07:08:01.608+00:00NB Zindagi'Zindagi' is a colourful word for 'life', originally from ancient Persia and now used in many languages across the north of the Indian subcontinent. We met in North India in the early 1970s and have made several visits back there to visit old friends and make new ones. 'NB' just stands for 'narrowboat'!Dave and Val Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10915849948015217650noreply@blogger.comBlogger165125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192015809001044815.post-36612923311156563132023-08-16T00:40:00.003+01:002023-08-16T01:20:37.651+01:00De-Bugged? – We Hope So !<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: arial;">It has been a long time since we posted anything on this blog, so you may have thought that we have disappeared! Well, we are not living on board any more, but we do get out on <i>Zindagi</i> for short trips from time to time.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: arial;">Our most recent trip – just a few days in mid-July – was a most enjoyable time with Adam and Oli, with Dylan (3) and Erin (9 months), the youngest of our 4 grandchildren. Showery Staffordshire was quite a relief for them from the relentless heat of Madrid!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: arial;">But the recurring problem was that the engine kept losing power and cutting out, and then taking ages to re-start. We managed </span><span style="font-family: arial;">our planned itinerary</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> from Hatherton Marina to Tixall Wide and back, but it would have been even more enjoyable without the engine problems.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: arial;">Back in April 2022, when Jeremy, Laura and Nathan had used the boat, they had experienced the same problem. Jeremy changed the fuel filter and all had been OK for the rest of their trip. Since then, in July last year, we had done the 'Staffordshire / Black Country Ring' with our friends David and Mary with no fuel problems at all.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Diesel bug? Shouldn't have been, as we have always added the recommended dose of Marine 16's Diesel Bug T</span><span style="font-family: arial;">reatment</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> whenever we have filled up with diesel.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: arial;">But it seemed to be the likely problem, so I started looking online for remedies for 'water in the diesel' and 'diesel bug infection'. Lots of very helpful information on Canal World and quite a few ideas on YouTube. The best of these that I found was at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViJBAbDhhkI&t=128s">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViJBAbDhhkI&t=128s</a> , so I set out to copy Graham Keating's guidelines and build myself a simple DIY Diesel 'Polishing' system. Thank you, Graham!!</span></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-Wbk-2kgQ494z2vo23DAB-_Wcy-iOCwNt-4y9-DG9e1E7eWzzXJwnMcw0y22hvlI55pc_AXhG1qO26LCPfhhYStzBJwJ5KI6SNC4iuMXghkMb8TjUX8DR2hCrUkq6IpxjuZLjiMHbqhGV6qMovP36cg8VGDMprFPPesJ9SeOJ8KLbVb6Gc9N3ZN_v2ng/s3648/IMG_0225.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3648" data-original-width="2736" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-Wbk-2kgQ494z2vo23DAB-_Wcy-iOCwNt-4y9-DG9e1E7eWzzXJwnMcw0y22hvlI55pc_AXhG1qO26LCPfhhYStzBJwJ5KI6SNC4iuMXghkMb8TjUX8DR2hCrUkq6IpxjuZLjiMHbqhGV6qMovP36cg8VGDMprFPPesJ9SeOJ8KLbVb6Gc9N3ZN_v2ng/s320/IMG_0225.JPG" width="240" /></a></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: arial;">Instead of spending £260 - odd on a genuine Racor filter, I found a cheap Chinese copy on eBay, together with a 12 volt 'Facet' style pump. Then some flexible fuel line and various fittings to enable me to first draw off whatever watery sludge there might be lurking at the bottom of our fuel tank and then to connect to the Racor-style filter and pump.</span></div><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: arial;">Surprisingly little water came out. I had feared perhaps 10 litres or even more, but about 2½ litres emerged from about 130 litres of fuel in the tank. Time to connect the fuel polisher! You can see the Filter, with the clear polycarbonate bowl below and the metal filter housing above. The small black object is the Facet pump. I just connected the inlet to the bottom of the diesel tank, ran the outlet into a plastic jerrycan and hooked the pump up to the battery. The cut-off milk bottle underneath is to run off the collected water and sediment.</span></div><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8R8I45yXZjN0WEP1_2hPS31aR664Q-N6A7vvnrX7qYZ5WItUvkASQfbq0xCAyoYIEOIwPT1QbuaO8sKMPfCp-6CEaJ-MPgav_IKdwY57QVnBDCQ9PDg2L-xXskhRc2qWYO4Z_mcZ1rHgxCj3cschpvpIF775oRvp9j_CjrXgFTqEe3RbLKS7bLgUFE7I/s3648/IMG_0226.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3648" data-original-width="2736" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8R8I45yXZjN0WEP1_2hPS31aR664Q-N6A7vvnrX7qYZ5WItUvkASQfbq0xCAyoYIEOIwPT1QbuaO8sKMPfCp-6CEaJ-MPgav_IKdwY57QVnBDCQ9PDg2L-xXskhRc2qWYO4Z_mcZ1rHgxCj3cschpvpIF775oRvp9j_CjrXgFTqEe3RbLKS7bLgUFE7I/s320/IMG_0226.JPG" width="240" /></span></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: arial;">The pump started chugging away and it was gratifying (if a little worrying) to see a lot of water micro-droplets sinking to the bottom of the clear bowl and to find very nice clear diesel emerging from the filter. The second photo shows the light-coloured 'water' layer below the clearer orange ('red') diesel. It was even clearer after it had passed through the filter element above the bowl.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">This was going to be a slow process. The pump seemed to produce about one litre per minute and there were those 130 litres of diesel in the tank. I didn't actually need to run every single drop through the system, but I did want to try to get at least the worst out of the bottom of the tank. I did try gently rocking the boat to get the water layer to move around and get sucked up, and pouring the 'polished' diesel back into the tank will have helped to stir things up a bit. I lost count of the number of times that I drained off the water layer.</span></span></div><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: arial;">So, a few hours later, pump still running and the water droplets were even smaller and fewer in number, so perhaps this was the moment to stop the polishing and try running the engine. The idea was that any remaining gunge in the fuel pipework would get pulled through into the engine's fuel filter and then I could replace that and all should be well.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: arial;">The engine started and ran quite well for several minutes, so that should have been enough to draw through any contaminants and I stopped it and changed the fuel filter.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">But the engine would not re-start! I tried using the priming pump on the top of the Beta Marine's fuel filter housing, but it seemed unable to spring back up and draw in fuel. Did I now have a defective filter housing as well? So I removed the new filter and dismantled the filter housing to check: No, the priming pump was OK and the spring was working. So there must be a blockage in the fuel line.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I then tried using the Facet pump to pull through fuel to the fuel filter feed. No results! Checked the line back from the fuel filter to the water separator – all clear!<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: arial;">Then the line from the separator to the tank – not really clear, but it flowed a bit, releasing quite a lot of dark-coloured particles.</span></span></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: arial;"></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: arial;">Could there be a blockage in the water separator? As far as I could remember, this was simply a metal bowl in which water droplets sank to the bottom and could be drawn off. I had drawn off a little water from here in the very earliest part of my investigation. But it seemed logical that there must be a blockage, so I dismantled it . . .</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCQE-WVGkid7S3cpnMNtCIHQAgiNYfKB1j_vDPecfMiYwHfVkhBVqSDxAekebUEhgy92f1HYO97Or22JUmqd1mnFw3cHFPObWHL5upv9lAJnPuL2_Rks9JRRLAmCXQE2JlIRyFj9ZshPTT_wduFZortnnNJB7b7aoiz_jVfy4iZnUIM7QH94rCbw-6IG0/s3648/IMG_0227.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2736" data-original-width="3648" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCQE-WVGkid7S3cpnMNtCIHQAgiNYfKB1j_vDPecfMiYwHfVkhBVqSDxAekebUEhgy92f1HYO97Or22JUmqd1mnFw3cHFPObWHL5upv9lAJnPuL2_Rks9JRRLAmCXQE2JlIRyFj9ZshPTT_wduFZortnnNJB7b7aoiz_jVfy4iZnUIM7QH94rCbw-6IG0/s320/IMG_0227.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">. . . to reveal this grotesquely clogged filter! Hardly surprising that no fuel was getting through! How on earth had ANY fuel got through for the last few days / weeks / months ?</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">It looked like I had found the true culprit, so I reassembled the water trap without any filter. This was the first time that I had opened the water separator since the boat was built in 2007. I had forgotten (if I ever knew) that there was a filter inside. No doubt it said so in the small print – which I will have read 16 years ago!</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">So, after some more lengthy bleeding out of air in the fuel line, the engine re-started successfully and was its customary responsive self, accelerating and decelerating as normal. With no filter in the water separator, any gunge was going straight to the engine's fuel filter, but I had already reckoned on that new filter element getting clogged up quite fast with bits from the fuel line, so that was OK as a temporary solution. I had a few spare elements ready!<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: arial;"><b>PROBLEM SOLVED !!</b> Quite a saga, but our suspicions of a water / diesel bug problem were confirmed, quite a lot of watery stuff and general gunge had been extracted and I had made sure to add some more of Marine 16's Diesel Bug Treatment and some of their Diesel Fuel Complete as I had returned the polished fuel to the tank.</span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaVeeDZrKpQLx24FRI_xs_5rLpT4P41RkEUNqGMzszoajZDZc7OIFmpiJWL4dQiGpFF-As8ltTiLy9qwpPTZ8C68dSnyGKIHfVYUrbAIAFuc3q3V_TOR2JZLF8azhEN0Hc2ZEZOjQ03K8THCOV4gCRk78_Wqk5t-TyGfKamiqU-_45DR_ae8cbNFmCFZY/s3648/IMG_0228.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2736" data-original-width="3648" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaVeeDZrKpQLx24FRI_xs_5rLpT4P41RkEUNqGMzszoajZDZc7OIFmpiJWL4dQiGpFF-As8ltTiLy9qwpPTZ8C68dSnyGKIHfVYUrbAIAFuc3q3V_TOR2JZLF8azhEN0Hc2ZEZOjQ03K8THCOV4gCRk78_Wqk5t-TyGfKamiqU-_45DR_ae8cbNFmCFZY/s320/IMG_0228.JPG" width="320" /></a></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: arial;">. . . and there's a bonus to finish with! The only reason that I didn't throw away that ghastly clogged filter was that the marina's rubbish skips are only for domestic refuse, not for 'boaty' bits like used filters, so I took it home and emailed Beta Marine about buying a replacement. They responded nice and quickly, quoting a price and also saying "</span><span style="text-align: left;">These are serviceable, and can be reused by rinsing in clean Diesel.</span><span style="font-family: arial;">" Really? Could I really wash such a clogged-up filter and re-use it? Would a paper filter survive that? BUT IT WASN'T A PAPER FILTER ! Rinsing in clean diesel and then scrubbing with an old toothbrush revealed that this filter is made of a fine wire mesh which cleaned up very well. Not quite 'as new' but certainly undamaged and ready for several more years of service. Thank you, Beta Marine!<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">And, of course, we now have a simple fuel polishing setup that we can use to help eliminate water and gunge from <i>Zindagi's</i> fuel system for the future . . .</span></span></div><p></p>Dave and Val Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10915849948015217650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192015809001044815.post-27090680286360432012019-08-17T19:27:00.000+01:002019-08-17T19:27:20.136+01:00On VIC 32 North-East through the Great Glen<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Boating with a difference! No, we haven't taken <i>Zindagi</i> up to Scotland, but we <b>have</b> just had an amazing boat trip north-east from Fort William up to Inverness, via the Great Glen, including Loch Lochy, Loch Oich and Loch Ness – and out onto salt water at either end!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Here is the <a href="http://savethepuffer.co.uk/" target="_blank">VIC 32</a> at 9.45 on Sunday night, 11th August, at Corpach Basin near Fort William. We arrived in the afternoon and were welcomed on board, shown our cabin and given the first of a series of really excellent meals, as well as meeting the crew of 5 and our 7 fellow-passengers.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The boat is unique, so why not follow <a href="http://savethepuffer.co.uk/" target="_blank">this link</a> to find out more? We really can't do justice to it here !</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. . . with glass-like tranquility ahead</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguZ1_y2j4a88UW3HZx7TatZbWmL_XMcMtwWvJcTKIeWewuBlfrLsiagdkN93zUR8xOVVvG_GIq79WQ4x0BS3r3U3FhgxG0J_tOX4s_JQRJYQPc1nMntJxMJEg6qef6m3QJUlL9pTJygdQ/s1600/IMG_0653.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguZ1_y2j4a88UW3HZx7TatZbWmL_XMcMtwWvJcTKIeWewuBlfrLsiagdkN93zUR8xOVVvG_GIq79WQ4x0BS3r3U3FhgxG0J_tOX4s_JQRJYQPc1nMntJxMJEg6qef6m3QJUlL9pTJygdQ/s320/IMG_0653.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Heading back to Corpach and the summit of Ben Nevis makes a rare appearance!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6q8ILDznU8c08v4QezYkp6inYJtlI2YKaJy1wJdZP2dCpka2V51CCN16afTMVELM26drxZrLh9t1QittDXo6PQq1Ua1-5udHoSY9WMK2lou3iN3jnT6KRXBHNpbP0L6DTidDjKL8RkmQ/s1600/IMG_0660.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6q8ILDznU8c08v4QezYkp6inYJtlI2YKaJy1wJdZP2dCpka2V51CCN16afTMVELM26drxZrLh9t1QittDXo6PQq1Ua1-5udHoSY9WMK2lou3iN3jnT6KRXBHNpbP0L6DTidDjKL8RkmQ/s320/IMG_0660.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Into the first lock from Corpach, heading towards the Banavie locks – 'Neptune's Staircase'.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijVPCs-7cVD9XZt0RXl2oPacXws8J301SufRbRxHIfarhfFmPOaGY7dSQKla7hFoZWtmGRBJ4xxtCb8jPWak4U7JNnM067w4WI45NwklGjmP7NVabF9kuKMWBcp2_sHpmQ9L2QcIzgjBs/s1600/IMG_0662.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijVPCs-7cVD9XZt0RXl2oPacXws8J301SufRbRxHIfarhfFmPOaGY7dSQKla7hFoZWtmGRBJ4xxtCb8jPWak4U7JNnM067w4WI45NwklGjmP7NVabF9kuKMWBcp2_sHpmQ9L2QcIzgjBs/s320/IMG_0662.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Starting up the staircase . . .</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi7Ai_FqDoH0pymMwh_HXSmACK9w_5E669iAfvcCQmgCXaFMw38v14ovHykLcHU0XwpM0o5gQ3ITZUFAqBU9K2JQt6Cs7ukdYP-QnC_qCFV0rkQ5iariGrT_agsRcluOdVROzqpFw8vUk/s1600/IMG_0671.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi7Ai_FqDoH0pymMwh_HXSmACK9w_5E669iAfvcCQmgCXaFMw38v14ovHykLcHU0XwpM0o5gQ3ITZUFAqBU9K2JQt6Cs7ukdYP-QnC_qCFV0rkQ5iariGrT_agsRcluOdVROzqpFw8vUk/s320/IMG_0671.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. . . and moored at the top. Locks are still locks, just like on the English system, but these are big locks, thick ropes on the boat and every lock is manned.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivsBnWCpNLawYIxu8PkkLQoldctH8NcOMV2qGiivjpcin6JEg-wGwjMGaNWmpEvOARa-4XS7cQzQLwLkNPkEYR-PGcUNjlzFRgA9dLysKhVfrCRDA-ugyGAnzf_IvJDf6gVCKORm_QOG0/s1600/IMG_0664.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivsBnWCpNLawYIxu8PkkLQoldctH8NcOMV2qGiivjpcin6JEg-wGwjMGaNWmpEvOARa-4XS7cQzQLwLkNPkEYR-PGcUNjlzFRgA9dLysKhVfrCRDA-ugyGAnzf_IvJDf6gVCKORm_QOG0/s320/IMG_0664.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ed the engineer, enthusiastically introducing his beloved steam engine.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The saloon at night. The candles are still alight, but all seem to have gone to bed!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4s8d2SkBnu7AMUu0SWw9VqY5SSBvByQqmHwncZSy_vOyVlCORDp_DM_rW1GIHKmir4k_kr_GnO1pbTZS_dYMlPr_CGmBx16t0WB__gMTv6ZKv1Twi3RLDAOx6_imxzmnkXIVhx4OXDd8/s1600/IMG_0673.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4s8d2SkBnu7AMUu0SWw9VqY5SSBvByQqmHwncZSy_vOyVlCORDp_DM_rW1GIHKmir4k_kr_GnO1pbTZS_dYMlPr_CGmBx16t0WB__gMTv6ZKv1Twi3RLDAOx6_imxzmnkXIVhx4OXDd8/s320/IMG_0673.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">View for'ard from the wheelhouse . . .</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQUsEHXxgUU0frqYC39lnvl_H8fxzHg5rZKGghpBZ2dGpF9Ck3RwBZYFQdA1_8zdGveOlJGIfyElYqLCK1ylnSg2UWBuJixd3K3ycTGQt26X6nvh5WmL8BsuY5GErVBzppolMw3hjPLTk/s1600/IMG_0674.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQUsEHXxgUU0frqYC39lnvl_H8fxzHg5rZKGghpBZ2dGpF9Ck3RwBZYFQdA1_8zdGveOlJGIfyElYqLCK1ylnSg2UWBuJixd3K3ycTGQt26X6nvh5WmL8BsuY5GErVBzppolMw3hjPLTk/s320/IMG_0674.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. . . with Alan the skipper at the wheel. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We were all encouraged to have a go at the wheel,</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtjaGkx4RteOrskwB2c7FbGuWyYbUyOt-OthL_vUsclU_T4D3Quniegj8nCGrWsk_M0pTydfs-BW09Vx1n3eirw_khPdO0DcJnwWZEsYEOPLH0BbIgUMjCNYP26gJ8douOe6KLeeiXyYY/s1600/IMG_0683.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtjaGkx4RteOrskwB2c7FbGuWyYbUyOt-OthL_vUsclU_T4D3Quniegj8nCGrWsk_M0pTydfs-BW09Vx1n3eirw_khPdO0DcJnwWZEsYEOPLH0BbIgUMjCNYP26gJ8douOe6KLeeiXyYY/s320/IMG_0683.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">so here is Val having her turn on Loch Ness – concentrating!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9fSMBVEnkP-semYUYxM1gOcK4cc9LI81zqAihiPvcU2FS6h-n0IcYAVgGUyz-_lfQHP4pobmor4YSnaIB5c8WEhYJHjASVMEOmt_Xg2DbUtiD2AtMqMLjUloOmnBuJuYO6h25bS8dY8I/s1600/IMG_0688.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9fSMBVEnkP-semYUYxM1gOcK4cc9LI81zqAihiPvcU2FS6h-n0IcYAVgGUyz-_lfQHP4pobmor4YSnaIB5c8WEhYJHjASVMEOmt_Xg2DbUtiD2AtMqMLjUloOmnBuJuYO6h25bS8dY8I/s320/IMG_0688.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Buffet lunch just waiting to be eaten. Really fantastic food!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtCybFccyUNMcFU4dPGVcq2s1ucRB8jAcj9ImTtpizWcQHUij-fdtZv1OeLViekNm4A3cZUvs6aJWmlzHj3wgugHSl_m2PUQN0nZiwlrcemSnOmHR0IyFttorRPcjuPtfOk7Pl_dFbbfk/s1600/IMG_0691.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtCybFccyUNMcFU4dPGVcq2s1ucRB8jAcj9ImTtpizWcQHUij-fdtZv1OeLViekNm4A3cZUvs6aJWmlzHj3wgugHSl_m2PUQN0nZiwlrcemSnOmHR0IyFttorRPcjuPtfOk7Pl_dFbbfk/s320/IMG_0691.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Jim (first mate) eating on deck, while Colin and Alistair (cooks) prepare the next meal.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBjifUHVuirwAdnY2xTaI0L0x68a-Xru5otbnydKjLVGg7M-JBKCRPVwu2RKISmzaFb1jq5a_sYXmYtGqFP-DCL451L5yLJkZWOdP0FCabxtvfmDUgmA9xpfqr_IW6ek31jllFa302U4Y/s1600/IMG_0701.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBjifUHVuirwAdnY2xTaI0L0x68a-Xru5otbnydKjLVGg7M-JBKCRPVwu2RKISmzaFb1jq5a_sYXmYtGqFP-DCL451L5yLJkZWOdP0FCabxtvfmDUgmA9xpfqr_IW6ek31jllFa302U4Y/s320/IMG_0701.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Bridge of Oich. Interesting suspension bridge of unusual construction. </span><br />
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridge_of_Oich" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">More details.</a></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Moored below Cullochy Lock, overnight Tuesday / Wednesday.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Then down Fort Augustus locks . . .</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfEklIgemYlGAknhq5dRiZu4TajGJW-c9o0cA6uuF3MGXmStnZZ1p7Q1xdFuIRetWQivEABsOMGFEbuemuDGfkNomUIUksrMEpTdKzEjPgBlidvC0MHspMsQ9o6JLLXiEAyL92N5YV_28/s1600/IMG_0709.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfEklIgemYlGAknhq5dRiZu4TajGJW-c9o0cA6uuF3MGXmStnZZ1p7Q1xdFuIRetWQivEABsOMGFEbuemuDGfkNomUIUksrMEpTdKzEjPgBlidvC0MHspMsQ9o6JLLXiEAyL92N5YV_28/s320/IMG_0709.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">. . . and into Loch Ness, all 23 miles of it! But you can't see the other end because of the curvature of the earth!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmjPWFy3FSqZ4plEq803usYxXcqxFeBuKWmOp0BPAXVyQhBwu_nSGXZ4iPq7pSA6ObwsJ148LBPaxaPJZjU0kmBAwwkagp_ReiE21KV4pQTIA89m5mDYAg54cCZPKjR4yQ7ybFgeiJCck/s1600/IMG_0757.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmjPWFy3FSqZ4plEq803usYxXcqxFeBuKWmOp0BPAXVyQhBwu_nSGXZ4iPq7pSA6ObwsJ148LBPaxaPJZjU0kmBAwwkagp_ReiE21KV4pQTIA89m5mDYAg54cCZPKjR4yQ7ybFgeiJCck/s320/IMG_0757.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And so to the basin at Inverness on Thursday evening.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But that was not quite the end of our trip . . .</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMSIdP_NsoUuYPR0Rclni917bEnvSxvizc2gz0xoMNdQFNNkm4oGxZNdRqF5GFJozuNxVICpdWoWXcPzquYx0DOSNbWTuHJGr88KeN5Ch62KjZYKMUBWRkl6TN1ifNqdw3Q0JlOkiUvzw/s1600/IMG_0770.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMSIdP_NsoUuYPR0Rclni917bEnvSxvizc2gz0xoMNdQFNNkm4oGxZNdRqF5GFJozuNxVICpdWoWXcPzquYx0DOSNbWTuHJGr88KeN5Ch62KjZYKMUBWRkl6TN1ifNqdw3Q0JlOkiUvzw/s320/IMG_0770.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We steamed out from the Beauly Firth, under the A9 on the Kessock Bridge, and out into the Moray Firth, hoping to see some of their famous bottle-nosed dolphins.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_SI3DyHnLmNLfhyphenhyphenZgflB6bnJ4AmmPcF8NUEpFCzgHI90umb-qddC3XXPXN6qVL75rydUCUlxYd17BoPS9UsntQngZtLKKsfBzRhopZyeG_rzwoEK1KgTVbnSyM4ix7FCX5oYEOk-2CFg/s1600/IMG_0778.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_SI3DyHnLmNLfhyphenhyphenZgflB6bnJ4AmmPcF8NUEpFCzgHI90umb-qddC3XXPXN6qVL75rydUCUlxYd17BoPS9UsntQngZtLKKsfBzRhopZyeG_rzwoEK1KgTVbnSyM4ix7FCX5oYEOk-2CFg/s320/IMG_0778.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Yes, we did see some, as did these dolphin-watchers on Chanonry Point, but they were just a too quick for the camera !</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYswDeGHeqUUsG6dmT0OmrEi1jYvnHi-kFhp7AWHO2IAfDCQaqfafL4xzGSQGsWS_F93k_VYh3-Ro007gFwtY-xhKgoF3NOigspZCA3BdKDyCm09YXvv-cE_M7olSHbSXEBQJcIzuoTu4/s1600/IMG_0758.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYswDeGHeqUUsG6dmT0OmrEi1jYvnHi-kFhp7AWHO2IAfDCQaqfafL4xzGSQGsWS_F93k_VYh3-Ro007gFwtY-xhKgoF3NOigspZCA3BdKDyCm09YXvv-cE_M7olSHbSXEBQJcIzuoTu4/s320/IMG_0758.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, back to Inverness Basin in time for another excellent lunch, before boarding taxi and minibus to take us back to Corpach.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Farewell, VIC 32 and your wonderful crew, and all our fellow-passengers.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I wonder whether we may meet again?</span><br />
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Dave and Val Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10915849948015217650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192015809001044815.post-32773579007452787692017-12-05T22:15:00.000+00:002017-12-05T22:15:11.531+00:00First Trip from Hatherton<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Having moved <i>Zindagi</i> to Hatherton Marina in early October, we knew that we would need to get up there again soon to prepare the boat for the colder months. We also wanted to replace the old carpet, which had been down on the floor since the boat was built in early 2007!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKk7OVFqfglzteBbe5NdhyjUNKyMNVGO_pfEqHKi09WfFZQFI0sHPjD5gi5Y-l0APyEWLLhKbvTByyOORlJoFuheEmCEJgDMXBmbX8Ln-zzzpls51mRujj5o6YZwUGg9CU1PL_OwvEez4/s1600/Val_IMG_2360.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKk7OVFqfglzteBbe5NdhyjUNKyMNVGO_pfEqHKi09WfFZQFI0sHPjD5gi5Y-l0APyEWLLhKbvTByyOORlJoFuheEmCEJgDMXBmbX8Ln-zzzpls51mRujj5o6YZwUGg9CU1PL_OwvEez4/s320/Val_IMG_2360.JPG" width="320" /></a><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As we came towards the end of November, it looked like there might be a few days of dry and sunny (if cold!) weather coming in the West Midlands, so perhaps there might be the chance of snatching a few days travelling . . .</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First things first! Taking up the old carpet was very easy. Fitting the new one was a bit more tricky!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But the end result is not too bad! Still a little tidying up and re-tensioning to be done on a subsequent visit, but a definite improvement on the old carpet.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, what was the weather forecast like? Could we manage a few days' cruising? No rain in the West Midlands for about 4 days, pretty cold but bright and sunny. We decided to have a go!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">12 locks and about 15 miles in a generally northward direction would take us to Great Haywood, where the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal meets the Trent & Mersey Canal. We went through Great Haywood Junction several times during our canal travelling years, and it was in fact the place we started from on our first-ever canal holiday back in 1976.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0sN4tRNobjppuLdzmpsY5Vr3FBeXCejcm1BI6rZy0K5lWmof6A2ORP6z81xBGSRUkr-nFz5N_P7SMKd3IDiZiPZ9YTiETfUSbX_zREvUgkMtNZpitn02Lj6emtMmaG6OP8rgWIS-1gbs/s1600/IMG_0390.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="899" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0sN4tRNobjppuLdzmpsY5Vr3FBeXCejcm1BI6rZy0K5lWmof6A2ORP6z81xBGSRUkr-nFz5N_P7SMKd3IDiZiPZ9YTiETfUSbX_zREvUgkMtNZpitn02Lj6emtMmaG6OP8rgWIS-1gbs/s320/IMG_0390.JPG" width="179" /></a><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, Tuesday 28th November saw us getting back into our old travelling routine: Do the engine checks, take down the TV aerial and wind turbine, start the engine and cast off the moorings. Oh yes, and don't forget to disconnect the mains power hook-up – one of the little luxuries of marina mooring! </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">T</span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">hen a couple of miles of chugging to reach Gailey, with its lock-keeper's lookout tower right next to the A5, where the lock allows the canal to dive 8ft 6in under Watling Street. I know we went through one lock when we were taking <i>Zindagi</i> to Hatherton Marina, but that was Autherley Stop Lock, with a fall of only 6 inches. Gailey Lock was a real lock at last! We were beginning to feel more at home on the canals again.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here we are again, in what looks like (and really is) a remote rural lock. What you can't see or hear is the roar of the M6 just a few yards away! Not to worry; the canal and motorway soon parted company, leaving us in peace again. The contrast of old and new transport systems struck us when we first came this way 41 years ago. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We still enjoy the 'slow lane'!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Amazing to think that these peaceful canals were the 'motorways' of their time, always bustling with working boats carrying payloads of all descriptions, and yet the simple architecture of the locks and bridges has been there all the time, with a beauty of their own.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wednesday afternoon, and we reached Tixall Lock, the last on this short run, but the first lock we ever went through. One of the staff from the hire company at Great Haywood had been there to help all the newcomers to boating and explain how to work a lock. We have been through a few since then!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And so to the end of the outward journey, </span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tixall Wide. A lovely lake west of Great Haywood Junction and the canal just opens out into it. Was it widened to 'gentrify' the appearance of the working canal for the landed gentry in their nearby stately homes, or was it a natural lake which just happened to lie in the path of the canal? Nobody seems to know for sure.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The light was fading in late afternoon, so we just took a broad sweep round in the Wide (no 3-point turns needed here!) and moored up for the night, pointing back the way we had come.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thursday morning was crisp – and icy! The Wide itself was pretty clear, but an approaching boat had to cut a path through the thin ice. Very useful for us as we started on our return journey.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Still no rain and bright sun, but it <b>was</b> cold! We had to do a little ice-breaking in some places but most of the work had been done for us. More of a problem was steering into the brightness of the very low sun, especially as it was also reflecting off the water! Val needed to approach the locks with even more care than usual, at times almost driving 'blind'!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And so back to </span><i style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Zindagi's</i><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> new home at Hatherton by Friday lunchtime. The gamble on the weather had paid off, we had had 4 very enjoyable days together, back on the canals again and feeling very much like old times. Now we are looking forward to some more – and longer – explorations in 2018. We already have an '<a href="http://bcnsociety.com/about/explorer/explorerjune/" target="_blank">Explorer Cruise</a>' booked with the Birmingham Canal Navigations Society (BCNS) in June and hopefully we shall be out on <i>Zindagi </i> a few times before then.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you want to follow our route, you can click on 'Where Zindagi Is Now' and then zoom out to see the map of the whole area. Just follow the thin blue line of the canal as it snakes west and then vaguely northwards from Hatherton towards Great Haywood.</span></div>
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Dave and Val Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10915849948015217650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192015809001044815.post-9376384384591785192017-10-10T13:00:00.000+01:002017-10-10T13:00:00.166+01:00Zindagi Flies Again . . .<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. . . twice in one day!</span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWikKiuiQWbvrLYsyAOe3Pk4Ldx1C1MkXtfOZQfHcoojWuoZZ3dFp0q9wlXBRgohMmXIuhZxU6bsIRnFE33-fxQF8HAvHn6_W0F8ifvcNMurUkvpR-hyUbpJN6jLcrvenaWoZ_E72BKSc/s1600/IMG_0349.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWikKiuiQWbvrLYsyAOe3Pk4Ldx1C1MkXtfOZQfHcoojWuoZZ3dFp0q9wlXBRgohMmXIuhZxU6bsIRnFE33-fxQF8HAvHn6_W0F8ifvcNMurUkvpR-hyUbpJN6jLcrvenaWoZ_E72BKSc/s320/IMG_0349.JPG" style="cursor: move;" width="320" /></a><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yes, the time had come to move Zindagi back onto the main canal system, so we made arrangements for a lorry trip and a crane at each end of the journey.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We chugged away from our moorings at Orchard Farm on the afternoon of Monday 2nd October, and then moored a short distance away, at the Tiverton</span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Road Bridge, the same place where we had the boat craned </span><b style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">in</b><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> almost exactly 3 years ago.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A night on board (first one for a while), in readiness for an early start on Tuesday morning. We had Lottie, Adam's Rottweiler, staying with us while he was working overseas, so she came too.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The lift went smoothly. Same crane operator and same driver as last time, but a novel way of attaching the boat to the lorry – very neat!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then in the car and up to <a href="http://hathertonmarina.co.uk/" target="_blank">Hatherton Marina</a>, Zindagi's new home mooring, where we left the car and got a lift from Dawn to her base at <a href="https://en-gb.facebook.com/Industry-Narrowboats-1458848157690939/" target="_blank">Industry Narrowboats</a> near Stretton Aqueduct on the Shropshire Union, where we had arranged to have the boat craned in.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not quite such a smooth craning-in! It looked a bit scary at one point, when the boat was rocking around on the end of the chains, but in the end she was back in water, unscathed, and with only a few small things inside that had moved around!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Back on board with Lottie (though she fell in on the way!) and chugging southwards towards Autherley Junction, where the 'Shroppie' branches off the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal. We moored up for the night just a short distance from the junction and the 6 inch (!) stop lock.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wednesday morning saw us going through our first lock in three years, then onto the 'Staffs & Worcs' and northeastwards up to Hatherton. We have not been this way for several years, but it was amazing how familiar it seemed, as we often knew what was round the next corner!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Quite a tight fit to get Zindagi's 57 feet round to reverse into our mooring, especially as it was a fairly windy morning, but we managed OK, made it all secure and left her there in her new home, before taking Lottie back to Adam in Shrewsbury and setting off on our way.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No disrespects to the Grand Western Canal in Devon, but it was really great to be back on 'real canals' again. We both felt as if we were back on our watery travels again, like old times. No plans to do any long-term living on board, but we really hope to be able to get out for a few odd weeks, hopefully with a few friends to join us from time to time.</span></div>
Dave and Val Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10915849948015217650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192015809001044815.post-47659616004836106042015-08-19T01:30:00.002+01:002015-08-19T01:35:13.186+01:00Zindagi's First Trip on the Grand Westernl!<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When we moved 'Zindagi' to the Grand Western in October 2014, one of our main objectives was to be able to do some maintenance work without needing to travel 4 hours + each way to get to the boat. Well, we have managed to get some work done, but we have also enjoyed a little travelling on the canal.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just a few weeks after we arrived, we took two days out and went pretty much as far as we could! Well, there are only 11 navigable miles, and we can't even do all of that as there isn't room for us to turn at the end!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, leaving the moorings ...</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We chugged to 'Swing Bridge' (which isn't a swing bridge - I wonder how long ago it used to swing?) and walked into Halberton, knowing that the Barge Inn served meals - we had eaten there once before when exploring the canal on foot.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, no meal there this time, as they no longer had a chef, so it was back on board and chug on to the Globe at Sampford Peverell,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After a pleasant meal there, slowly on and past the little chapel at Ayshford Court,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and then we moored up for the night after Ebear Bridge but before we got too close to the railway line. Nice to enjoy the old routine of the evening, night and morning on Zindagi again!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dave's morning walk took him past Fossend and Fenacre Bridges, seeing this impressive brood of 8 cygnets, all apparently in fine fettle - as well as their parents!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And as far as Whipcott bridge, where a fallen tree would prevent even small craft going further. That was beyond our furthest turning point, in any case, so we were not expecting to take Zindagi that far.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We had been told that there was an inlet just north of Great Fossend Bridge, which would be OK for us to turn in, so we went through the bridge and were just beginning to turn into the inlet when we ran aground in mid-channel!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not a good sign, so we decided to reverse to just south of the bridge in the hope that we would be able to turn there. We did, but with just about 4 inches to spare! At 57 ft long, Zindagi is probably the longest boat on the canal . . .</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On our return journey, the swan family followed us some of the way.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Back to the Lift Bridge at Tiverton Road Car Park - where we had been craned in a few weeks earlier - ducks all lined up as a reception committee.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then past the moorings and on towards Tiverton, where we turned at Tidcombe Bridge. We probably need to look at the canal on foot before we venture any further into Tiverton on board - the information we have been given on winding holes (turning spaces) does NOT include the maximum length of boats that can turn!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then back to the moorings after an enjoyable 2-day trip.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>A pleasant introduction to Zindagi's new home!</b></span></div>
Dave and Val Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10915849948015217650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192015809001044815.post-13833893420584586822014-10-26T23:16:00.000+00:002014-10-26T23:16:51.218+00:00Grand Union to Grand Western - in a day!<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As we have become more and more involved with life back in Devon, having Zindagi moored at Blisworth has become more and more difficult to justify. 4 hours driving - exactly 200 miles - before we could start to do anything with the boat at all, whether that was maintenance (increasingly needed, 18 months after we stopped cruising) or even getting out for even a few days' cruising. Since moving back to Devon in January 2013, we had been out for precisely one week!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Time for decisions! We drove up to Bradford-on-Avon on the Kennet and Avon Canal and looked at possible moorings there. OK, but that would still make a 2-hour trip to get to the boat. Would we get to it any more often?</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How about having it transported down to Devon on a lorry and placed on a hardstanding in a friend's farmyard? Expensive for transport, but hopefully fairly cheap for hardstanding rental, and we would be able to get the maintenance done! We enquired, but unfortunately the friends we had in mind did not have enough spare space and other possibilities came to nothing, except for one very expensive option.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then Val thought of the Grand Western Canal at Tiverton. Only 20 miles from home, just 11 landlocked miles of navigable canal. We enquired and, yes, we could have a mooring. The mooring and the licence were quite a bit cheaper than leaving Zindagi at Blisworth, but of course we still had to pay for the craning out onto a lorry, transport down to Devon and then craning in - definitely NOT cheap! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Moving day was set for 17th October, but Shireen and Thor had a half-term break before that, so they joined us for just 2 days the weekend before, and we went for a sort 'there and back' trip.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then a few days to pack up the 'breakables' ready for the trip by road, and also to spend a little time with some of our Blisworth friends. Here we are in the 'Queen Eleanor', Val with Alan & Jan, Mary, Sally and Dianne. Thank you, Sally for arranging the get-together! A little sadness at the breaking of our obvious link with Blisworth by moving Zindagi, but we feel sure that this will be 'Auf Wiedersehen' and not 'Farewell' and that we will get back for the occasional visit - and maybe get some return visits in Lapford!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Friday 17th came, and we chugged the half mile round to Gayton marina to be craned out, as we have done twice before to get the bottom of the boat blacked, but this time it was onto a lorry!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All ready to go - once the lorry driver had got a buckled wheel replaced!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The driver told us he was taking a different route, so we had a surprise when we overtook the boat on the M4! Quite a bizarre experience . . .</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Shortly after 3 in the afternoon, and Zindagi was being craned into the Grand Western Canal near Halberton. All had gone remarkably smoothly.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just a short chug to our new moorings at Orchard Farm . . .</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. . . and Zindagi was in her new home!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span>Dave and Val Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10915849948015217650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192015809001044815.post-2799267644669813412013-11-06T23:01:00.000+00:002013-11-06T23:01:09.407+00:00Early Autumn on the South Oxford Canal<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">More than 10 months since we returned to Blisworth from our 2012 canal travels, we actually managed to get out on the boat for more than just a short chug to get the bottom blacked!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We drove up to the marina on 21st September and, after Adam had joined us the next day, we had just enough time to get to Weedon and moor up before darkness closed in. Red sky at night - perhaps we would have fine weather?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Climbing Napton locks - can you see the windmill on the hill?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course Lottie came with Adam and was soon very much at home on the boat. Lots of long towpath walks!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We only went as far as Cropredy, moored there for the night, ate at the Red Lion again, then turned around and started back up the locks. Here at Claydon Lock No 20, Dave on the paddle, Adam on the gate and Lottie supervising!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Back down Napton locks again the next day. This looks like the same lock, and the sun was still shining!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A lovely week, great weather, a good time was had by all.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hard to believe that we have only cruised for one week this year!</span></div>
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Dave and Val Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10915849948015217650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192015809001044815.post-59577187716653970232013-08-11T16:56:00.001+01:002013-08-11T17:02:29.480+01:00Spring and Summer Visits<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since we last 'blogged' in January, visits to Blisworth and Zindagi have been few and well-spaced!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> In the colder weather, we tried to visit roughly once a month, so that we could make sure that the heating (on a low thermostat setting) was keeping Zindagi frost-free. The Northampton Arm near Gayton Marina looked tranquil in its February ice-bound stillness.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Five weeks later, and the long cold spring continued. Snow on the Rothersthorpe flight as Dave took his morning walks. The only 'cruising' on these two visits was to the marina's diesel pump to fill up the tank for the heating system!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Late April, and Zindagi was booked in to Gayton Marina to be craned out for bottom blacking. On our way up from Devon, we had a phone call from the marina to say that their crane was out of action, but that they hoped to have it working in a day or two. As you can see, it was not just out of action, but still in pieces.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fortunately, we had already planned to be on the boat for a week, but any hopes of getting out for a few days' cruising already looked doomed!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Three days later, and the crane was repaired and working. First they had to lift out a boat that had been craned out weeks ago, before the repairs, and had been waiting to be returned to the water. You may remember that <a href="http://nbzindagi.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/preparations.html" target="_blank">we had exactly the same experience</a>, two years earlier!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Then it was our turn to be lifted in. The green algae would be pressure-washed off, and the 2-year-old bitumen coating was not too bad underneath.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Three days later, and Zindagi looked a lot better with two more coats of bitumen blacking and the blue paint along the gunwales tidied up a bit.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Although Gayton Marina is very close to Blisworth Marina, we needed to do a short (half-mile) chug to the top of Rothersthorpe locks in order to turn around - the nearest we got to doing any actual cruising! Our week was gone and we needed to drive back to Devon.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">FIFTEEN WEEKS LATER (!), we returned to Blisworth on 9th August and found Zindagi was fine. Batteries nicely charged from a short charge every day, diesel tank still quite full as Steve and John had kindly turned off our heating system in response to a phone call once Spring finally took hold - and still some electricity credit left in the meter!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Our visit was planned (at short notice) to coincide with Blisworth's Canal Festival, so we have had a good wander round and seen almost all the attractions, as well as meeting up with friends.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Maybe we shall manage a week's cruise in September?</span></div>
Dave and Val Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10915849948015217650noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192015809001044815.post-29109061288725617852013-01-19T21:58:00.000+00:002013-01-19T21:58:28.512+00:00Turning the Page . . .<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many of you know that we have now returned to rural mid-Devon.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After nearly six years living on board 'Zindagi', it is proving a real wrench to have moved most of our belongings out of the boat and return to Lapford. To be honest, it is worse when we think about it!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At the moment, we don't have much time to think about anything else apart from sorting out our bungalow, with the prospect of lots of work ahead, both indoors and out! Six years of occupation by tenants leave their mark!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Zindagi is still there, though, waiting for us to return for visits – of various sorts! Like all boats, ongoing maintenance will be needed. It would be nice to be able to make a proper job of repainting the roof! Though we started in 2012, it was not a good year for boat painting!!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If the bungalow cleaning, maintenance, repairs and improvements continue as anticipated, we shall NEED to return to Zindagi for our own sakes, and to sample again the unique waterways lifestyle which has become our own since 2007.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We know that the last 6 years have made us different people. We have met so many wonderful people, seen so many strange, beautiful and unusual sights – and enjoyed that glorious freedom of just moving on wherever and whenever we have wanted to. Thank you for your company as you have shared our travels.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When we get back on board for short or long cruises, we hope to update this blog with news of our travels again. So please continue to watch this space!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Meanwhile, we have started a new blog: <a href="http://wilanson.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">'Wilanson – back to the Land in Rural Mid-Devon'</a>, in which we expect to tell you some of our experiences as we try to pick up the strands of what feels like a former life. We hope that you will join us on a new sort of adventure . . .</span></div>
Dave and Val Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10915849948015217650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192015809001044815.post-91256429329025822822012-12-20T22:35:00.000+00:002012-12-20T22:35:43.403+00:00Through Leicester, up Foxton and down to Blisworth<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Having slipped unobtrusively through Leicester's northern suburbs, we came along the 'Mile Straight', as the canal and River Soar make their joint presence felt. Soon we would leave the river behind, but they are combined along this section, with the river seeming to join and leave as we travelled south through the rest of the city.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some windows of these old warehouses had lights burning – good to see that they were still being used!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Leaving the city behind, we enjoyed a steady climb up about a dozen locks through the countryside near Newton Harcourt.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was mid-October – autumn colours were everywhere!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After more dawdling, through Saddington Tunnel. You can just see the other end – it's just half a mile long.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then, when we had moored below Foxton locks, another boater said we had tied up in his favourite spot – and we soon saw why!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A misty morning on the Market Harborough arm,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> and Foxton Locks with the lock cottage looming on the skyline.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">David and Mary (on a short visit with Whisk and Jester) working up the locks –</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> though we had to wait halfway for an unscheduled stoppage as the lockgates were being pressure-washed. We were told there was an open day approaching!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Leaving Husbands Bosworth tunnel on the return to Foxton, taking David & Mary back to their car.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Colourful spindle tree fruits in the Crick Millennium Wood.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An old friend spotted at Crick! 'Charlton' was the narrowboat in which we had a share from 2004 to 2006. It was our holidays in Charlton which re-started our love of the waterways. Still in shared ownership, but now with a gleaming new paint job. Hardly believable that she was built about 20 years ago!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Looking back up Watford Locks – our last narrow locks of the year!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A bright November morning as we pass near Bugbrooke on our way to our winter mooring in Blisworth Marina.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ice on the water, frost in the trees – the view from Zindagi on a crisp December day . . . but, with both central heating and our woodburner, we're nice and cosy inside!</span></div>
Dave and Val Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10915849948015217650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192015809001044815.post-89887840072359062582012-11-21T21:19:00.000+00:002012-11-21T21:19:10.175+00:00Down to the Trent – and up the Soar<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Back in late April, we had come through Great Haywood on our way northwards to Stoke-on-Trent, the Caldon Canal and points north. Now, at the end of September (yes, the blog is still out of date!), we were rejoining the T&M to head back south – but by a slightly different route!</span> </div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Signs of Autumn! Well, it was very nearly October!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Having travelled generally south-east from Stoke, the Trent & Mersey takes a right angle bend near Fradley and starts heading north-east. So, although we were travelling southwards, our route would take us northwards for quite a few miles!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fradley Junction and 'The Swan'. We had arrived here from the Coventry Canal in April, joining the 'T' junction from the left of the picture. Now we were following the T&M to where it joins the River Trent, so we passed straight on and down the locks.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was actually only about 2 miles before we had a brief 'brush' with the Trent. Near Alrewas, the canal is joined by the river (under the bridge to the left of the picture) for just a few hundred yards. Sometimes high river levels close this section, but we were OK.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After a two-mile noisy straight section of the canal, where it runs next to the old Roman Road known as Ryknild Street (now the A38), we enjoyed the pretty surroundings of Tatenhill Lock.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Through Burton-on-Trent and on to Shardlow. This is the old (18th century) Trent Mill, where boats used to enter to unload. Nicely restored more than 30 years ago, but not for commercial boat traffic, it is now a pub!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just a mile and one lock further on, the River Trent joined us from the south under this new bridge, built to replace the original 'Longhorse Bridge', which actually crossed the river from the point where the photo was taken! This is a real '4-way' junction, as the canal comes from the west, the (un-navigable) River Derwent joins it from the north (directly opposite the Trent) and then the waterway continues eastwards under the M1 towards . . .</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> . . . Sawley Marina, with the cooling towers of Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station beyond. This busy marina is on a 'cut' separated by flood locks from the main flow of the river.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">About a mile further on, we passed an even more complex junction – the 5-way junction at Trent Lock, where the Erewash Canal branches north, the River Soar joins from the south, and both the Cranfleet Cut to Nottingham and the River Trent head off eastwards. Again, this can be hazardous in high water conditions, especially as the flow of the two rivers tends to push boats towards the Trent, which immediately plunges over the large Thrumpton Weir! Water flow was OK as we went through, so no problems – apart from one crazy boat skipper who came down the Soar MUCH too fast, creating a potentially unsettling wash!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Entering the Soar Navigation, we were reminded again of its endearingly quirky character, almost as if we had stepped back in time, with simple rural boatyards and boats of all shapes and sizes.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A misty morning near Zouch (apparently pronounced 'Zoch'), with seagulls on the emergency moorings and the spire of Normanton-on-Soar on the skyline.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We were definitely in 'dawdling mode' now! We were due back in Blisworth in early November, and it was now early October – lots of time! We had allowed for possible delays caused by high river levels but so far had faced no problems. But we were still on a river and were reminded by the level indicators that the Soar WAS a little high – in the amber, not the green, and sometimes very close to being in the red!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Loughborough, though, sits on a 'canal' section. We needed to do some shopping, and so chugged into the Wharf (with the brightly painted Travelodge!), then turned around and moored up slightly further out of town.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Virginia Creeper climbing up a house with two ground floors – one at towpath level, the other level with the road as it crosses Nottingham Road Bridge.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Back on the river 'proper', and the Soar looking its tranquil self – but the weirs were still running well!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Looking back to Barrow Deep Lock. The green light confirms that the river section below is safe to navigate. Just as well – we had just come off it!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On to Mountsorrel and under its impressive brick 'conveyor' bridge (1860).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Junction Lock, near the junction of the Melton Mowbray Canal and Oakham Canal, closed in 1877 but with some recent talk of restoration.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We planned to travel through Leicester in one day, and so stopped north of the city, near Syston, at the Hope and Anchor pub. We enjoyed Sunday lunch after a walk in the nearby Watermead Country Park – with some very photogenic teasels!</span></div>
Dave and Val Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10915849948015217650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192015809001044815.post-21995072045272695752012-10-24T18:26:00.000+01:002012-10-24T18:26:35.844+01:00September on the Shroppie – and the Staffs & Worcs<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nantwich is just a couple of miles south of Hurleston Junction, where we had rejoined the Shropshire Union from the Llangollen, but we stopped here for a few days to get a replacement circulating pump for Zindagi's central heating.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Audlem is a few miles further on, with its narrow locks in pleasant surroundings,</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqiNI8xFOuZPzbWuTRh8zJR5BbGYcRVAZy2pHNQjfH6Mt6E9RedIE8DggRXcDp80QiZnjkZ2JltOc-frUU99w7bIN_3By1AP7wyxlHcdBfjGZ4-5N6JY4Y0r25u5B5UU6o_ZdnlhyphenhyphenKJhY/s1600/Val_IMG_1552.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqiNI8xFOuZPzbWuTRh8zJR5BbGYcRVAZy2pHNQjfH6Mt6E9RedIE8DggRXcDp80QiZnjkZ2JltOc-frUU99w7bIN_3By1AP7wyxlHcdBfjGZ4-5N6JY4Y0r25u5B5UU6o_ZdnlhyphenhyphenKJhY/s320/Val_IMG_1552.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> the 'Shroppie Fly' pub, an old wharf crane and the former Audlem Mill,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> before the rest of the flight really gets climbing up out of the Cheshire plain to the Shropshire heights – an overall climb of 93 feet in 15 locks.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik1i5d0N-WLp8SRCjbU3Kgkpuuvm4yaP2bkKzQs_7SGqUVFpMSgNkvcYGWLyhBVwBErj_s159azlmNDT5e2r2xV-dK7aNFX9b63Y_2eJtQZYdJ1eUeSLS-TUL9FetrrdKOpskrzJ11m7I/s1600/IMG_5835.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik1i5d0N-WLp8SRCjbU3Kgkpuuvm4yaP2bkKzQs_7SGqUVFpMSgNkvcYGWLyhBVwBErj_s159azlmNDT5e2r2xV-dK7aNFX9b63Y_2eJtQZYdJ1eUeSLS-TUL9FetrrdKOpskrzJ11m7I/s320/IMG_5835.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, who is this member of the Mafia driving our boat?? Oh, don't worry, it's only Val wearing her sunglasses and the hat that Shireen and Thor gave her!!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Up another 31 feet in the 5 Adderley locks . . .</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYkAZfPmRKSA7yzpXZ9v3Voi8fzp0aaemu6Md0wOkkhFVKNBH-eh4gHT3B2oYJNOWRLxq_SYhNSwyj0smCcfk52wfn7Zt1YaHtm7IC8WO-CKljs8vuMUtHHFw1g15HFK3POOw1Oe8jYTo/s1600/IMG_5840.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYkAZfPmRKSA7yzpXZ9v3Voi8fzp0aaemu6Md0wOkkhFVKNBH-eh4gHT3B2oYJNOWRLxq_SYhNSwyj0smCcfk52wfn7Zt1YaHtm7IC8WO-CKljs8vuMUtHHFw1g15HFK3POOw1Oe8jYTo/s320/IMG_5840.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> . . . and 33 feet more as 5 locks at Tyrley cut up through the red sandstone.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The High Bridge in Woodseaves cutting a mile or so later, typical of the Shropshire Union. Earlier canal engineers might have taken a detour round the hill – not Thomas Telford!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First signs of approaching autumn – the boat starts collecting leaves!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another deep cutting, another High Bridge! This one in Grub Street cutting with its iconic stub of a telegraph pole on the bracing arch. It used to carry phone wires, but not any more.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Norbury Junction near Stafford doesn't look much like a junction at the moment, but this little arm is the beginning of the Newport Branch which used to connect right through to Shrewsbury. There is talk of restoration, but when?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">More of Telford's engineering. The Stretton aqueduct over the A5 (Watling Street). The inscription labels this as the 'Birmingham and Liverpool Canal' with Thomas Telford as the engineer and dated 1832.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Getting further south and within earshot of the M54, heron and ducks enjoy the morning sunlight.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As we approached Autherley Junction and the 'Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal' (understandably abbreviated to 'Staffs & Worcs'), we needed to decide whether to turn right and head south to visit Stourport again, or simply turn left and head north-east to Great Haywood.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We turned left! A few miles up the Staffs & Worcs, we passed through Gailey, where the lock drops the canal down under Watling Street. Next to the unusual Round House, where the lock keeper used to live and was able to see boats arriving from either direction and prepare the lock accordingly.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just before Haywood Junction with the Trent and Mersey, we moored in Tixall Wide and were treated to this sunset! </span></div>
Dave and Val Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10915849948015217650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192015809001044815.post-63857032314619037092012-10-19T16:45:00.000+01:002012-10-19T16:45:25.650+01:00A Month on the Llangollen<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our first trip on the Llangollen Canal was just 10 days or so after we started our canal travels back in 2007. The boat still felt new, we were still getting used to it, and David & Mary had joined us for the only time they could make it – Easter school holiday week! We avoided the worst of the holiday crowds by starting a few days later than they did, and we still made it up to Llangollen and back in a week!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No such pressure of time on this occasion, but when were we going? Only in August – school holidays again!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Llangollen, of course, is known for its distinctive style of lift bridge. Here is one near Wrenbury which we didn't need to operate – it is left permanently open.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The hedgerows were responding to warm sunshine, at last! Hemp Agrimony near Wrenbury.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Val bringing Zindagi into Quoisley Lock, on the Cheshire/Shropshire border. This canal was originally known as the Ellesmere Canal and runs through several miles of Cheshire and Shropshire countryside before it get anywhere near Wales!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Near Ellesmere, we moored right next to Blake Mere. This was very nearly the view out of our bedroom window!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Down the short arm to Ellesmere itself, the stark emptiness of the wharf is relieved by the old crane and canal warehouse – neither in use for anything as far as we could see!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">New Marton Locks, just about the only significant congestion point we have found on the canal. This time, we only had to wait about half an hour to get into the lock – but look at the queue of boats behind us – I make it about 7 or 8!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then, an apparently sudden transition to the Welsh Hills as we crossed Chirk Aqueduct next to the railway viaduct. This aqueduct would probably be much more famous if it wasn't for the other one just 3½ miles away!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And here it is – the jaw-dropping view, looking straight down over the side of Zindagi's stern deck, to the River Dee, some 120 feet below the Pontcysyllte aqueduct.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">See what we mean? The nearest thing to flying in a narrowboat! And, amazingly, we had come up no more locks since New Marton in Shropshire. Perhaps not so much climbing into the Welsh Hills as soaring over the Welsh valleys!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We arrived in Llangollen 8 days after we joined the canal, and decided to stay 2 nights in the mooring basin. A moderate charge for a quiet location, with electrical hook-up included.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The canal from Trevor to Llangollen was originally designed only as a feeder, but was made navigable this far. Only the shallow-bottomed tourist trip boat can go any further . . .</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> . . . but we walked up to Horseshoe Falls, where the feeder comes off the River Dee, not only keeping the canal supplied but also feeding Hurleston reservoir at the junction with the Shropshire Union.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here is the Chain Bridge Hotel at Berwyn, perched on the banks of the Dee with the canal feeder hidden behind it and the old suspension ('chain') bridge still standing (but not in use!)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We walked over the road bridge and up the other side of the valley to little Berwyn station, to catch the Llangollen Railway back.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our train was pulled by a historic diesel, but we met a steam engine coming the other way,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> back to Llangollen station.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Castell Dinas Brân towers over Llangollen and is the remains of a medieval fort, as well as the site of an ancient Iron Age hill fort. A good morning climb for Dave, rewarded with stunning views! The canal basin is just to the right of the large white Eisteddfod marquee, but not really visible from up here!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As we made our way back, here is a different view of the Pontcysllte aqueduct, from the bridge over the Dee below. Yes, that IS someone walking over on the footpath!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just a few miles from the aqueduct, we turned off at Frankton Junction to spend a few days on the Montgomery Canal. Progress on restoration seems to be slow, but recently lottery funding has been going elsewhere, apparently!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Apart from simply enjoying another visit to the 'Monty', we had other motives for coming here! The Navigation Inn (a former canal warehouse in Maesbury Marsh) was the venue we had chosen for a family meal to celebrate our 40 years of marriage,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> . . . and not forgetting a cuppa and ice cream afterwards! Thanks to Adam for hosting us all. Another reason for choosing Maesbury Marsh – Shrewsbury is not very far away!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Shireen and Thor joined us for a few days afloat – over the Pontcysllte aqueduct again!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We left the Llangollen Canal on the 8th of September, exactly a month after we joined it. A most enjoyable month – now to head further south!</span></div>
Dave and Val Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10915849948015217650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192015809001044815.post-32104956062207771132012-10-02T18:05:00.001+01:002012-10-02T18:05:37.092+01:00Summer Dawdlings<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just before we left the Bridgewater Canal, we took a small diversion. Back in Stockton Heath, when we filled up with diesel at Thorn Marine, we asked them what they thought of the Runcorn 'Arm' (once the main line of the canal down to the Mersey). 'Worth a visit' was their response, so we turned right at Preston Brook and chugged nearly 6 miles along to what is now the terminus. A much more pleasant trip than we had expected!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then, back on the Bridgewater 'main line' and into Preston Brook tunnel – emerging to the Trent & Mersey Canal –</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> where the canal rides along the side of gentle hills down to the River Weaver.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since we were here, there has been an <b>enormous</b> breach of the canal banks, and the Canal & River Trust have launched an <a href="http://canalrivertrust.org.uk/news-and-views/news/emergency-appeal-launched-for-the-trent-and-mersey-canal-breach" target="_blank">appeal</a> for the estimated repair cost of £1.5 million.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And so to Middlewich, where there is one final 'big lock' (next to the pub of the same name) before </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> three narrow ones took us up and round the town, where we turned off the Trent and Mersey onto the Middlewich branch of the Shropshire Union Canal.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Musk Mallow growing beside the canal.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When we joined the 'main line' of the Shropshire Union Canal at Barbridge, we turned right and northwards, towards Chester. Last time we came here was in 2008, so we thought it was time for a return visit!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Zindagi moored in the rolling countryside near Beeston.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Adam came and joined us and gave us a lift to visit Beeston Castle together. The weather was patchy, but we had some sunshine . . .</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> also enjoyed by a Small Copper butterfly . . .</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> and highlighting this stonecrop.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here is Beeston Castle again, seen from near the canal - quite some fortifications!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And so on to Chester - more towers and defences! This time, we did manage to walk all round the city walls. Well done, those bionic knees!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lots of historic buildings here. This one has its own message - click on the photo to look closely!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As we moved on northwards to Ellesmere Port, a Comma butterfly basking in the morning sun,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> and the old buildings of the Boat Museum.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cinnabar moth ('football jersey') caterpillars on ragwort near the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> and inches-thick layers of 'Fairy Moss' on our way back along the Shropshire Union. This is yet another foreign invading species (Azolla caroliniana) - this time an escape from aquariums and garden ponds.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, what next on our travels this year? The beginning of August - school holidays - surely better to avoid a 'touristy' canal? So where did we go? The Llangollen Canal! Well, you already knew we are crazy!!</span></div>
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Dave and Val Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10915849948015217650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192015809001044815.post-27635842147138774622012-09-07T21:53:00.000+01:002012-09-07T21:53:26.332+01:00Down to Wigan - and Beyond<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: justify;">The Yorkshire side may have scenic views over remote countryside but, coming down the Lancashire side, the Leeds & Liverpool presents more of its industrial heritage. In the 'Weavers Triangle' area of Burnley, many canal warehouses, weaving sheds and other buildings have been preserved and restored,</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> and the combination of 'Mills and Hills' has its own individual charm.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The village of Church, several miles west of Burnley, celebrates the fact that it lies exactly halfway between Leeds and Liverpool - 63⅝</span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> miles in each direction.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just a few miles on, more preserved canal wharves and warehouses at Eanam Wharf, now used by local businesses - and a pub.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Coming down Blackburn's 6 locks, tucked away from the modern town. Notice the rack-and-pinion arrangement to operate the lower lock gates - a road bridge is so close that there is no space for the usual long balance beam.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mooring at Riley Green, just within earshot of the M65, but peaceful nonetheless.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The next day, we passed Zindagi's 'birthplace', Classic Narrowboats at Wheelton. Sadly now closed and the site up for sale. Presumably, the current financial climate will have been at least partly to blame - who knows?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After the 7 locks there at Johnson's Hillock, we had about 10 miles of lock-free cruising before reaching the outskirts of Wigan - and its 21 locks! We allowed ourselves a fairly full day for those, stopping for lunch halfway down, and spotting this 'hanging garden' on a lock gate.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We weren't going to Liverpool, and so took the branch to Leigh, where the L&L joins the Bridgewater Canal. There used to be many collieries in this area, with resulting subsidence, and perhaps the reclamation favours traditional cornfield flowers such as Corn Cockle</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> and Cornflower. Our (1960s!) wild flower book says that these flowers are 'widespread but decreasing in Britain' and 'formerly common, now rare in Britain', so finding them alongside reclaimed colliery sites was great!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A much commoner sight along the Bridgewater are these old canalside cranes, still used for the 'stop-boards' needed when sections of canal need to be drained for repairs.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Over the amazing Barton Swing Aqueduct, with the Barton Swing Road Bridge also crossing the Manchester Ship Canal alongside. You may remember that <a href="http://nbzindagi.blogspot.co.uk/2008/09/down-bridgewater-stuck-on-weaver.html" target="_blank">we watched the aqueduct swing</a> last time we came this way.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Though the (lock-free) Bridgewater took us through quite a lot of Manchester's fringes, before too long we were out in the Cheshire countryside, with a Small Tortoiseshell butterfly seen near Bollington,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">this picturesque cottage in Lymm,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> and the late afternoon sky near Moore.</span></div>
Dave and Val Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10915849948015217650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192015809001044815.post-31217579232240761662012-08-10T12:51:00.000+01:002012-08-10T12:51:26.678+01:00Up From Leeds . . .<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjEXeXCIPjBHQvxXjrCOpm1Q0ebzGStcVrehCQgPWGVTuXKIoImsuNF8KE8zbTsocMEe9HuKd9ie-44iFJZEtDDmawMX1CVhzNE9hUGsTD3-qKlvAKXehYONCxqG_UMzkvVVZFcH-pWzU/s1600/IMG_5627.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjEXeXCIPjBHQvxXjrCOpm1Q0ebzGStcVrehCQgPWGVTuXKIoImsuNF8KE8zbTsocMEe9HuKd9ie-44iFJZEtDDmawMX1CVhzNE9hUGsTD3-qKlvAKXehYONCxqG_UMzkvVVZFcH-pWzU/s320/IMG_5627.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Having got off the River Aire just in time to avoid the late June floods, we sat in Leeds for a day and a half, at this very secure mooring site. It was so secure that we could only get to it by boat or by walking through the business premises behind it, but only during working hours, of course. We never did discover what the two towers had been - the buildings surrounding them are all being rebuilt or remodelled.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The received wisdom is not to stop overnight between Leeds and Rodley - there have been some incidents, apparently! But, just as when we came this way in 2008, we saw no-one except other boaters, the occasional walkers and cyclists, and the lock-keepers who are on hand to assist through the flights of 3 'staircase locks'. These are Forge Locks, near Kirkstall.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At Rodley, we walked over the old Calverley Packhorse Bridge and saw that the Aire had already calmed down a bit. This Grade II listed bridge was built in 1775 and used to be the only river crossing for many miles.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another rather different bridge over the Aire, near Apperley Bridge. This is a narrow pedestrian suspension bridge. Same principle as Brunel's famous one at Clifton - just rather smaller!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A fine modern replica of a type of working boat that used to ply the whole length of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. About the same length as our narrowboat, but about twice the width - an ideal fit in the locks on this canal.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can see the replica working boat waiting below Field Locks while two narrowboats work their way up. We followed two days later, when a long-awaited consignment of tools had arrived from Switzerland !</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The canal seems to slip through a (fairly) 'green corridor' between Leeds and Bradford for many miles, so we were still on the edges of the conurbation as we stopped briefly in Shipley . . .</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> . . . and as we chugged past Titus Salt's imposing mill buildings in Saltaire.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just a couple of miles further on, and we came to the Bingley 3-Rise staircase locks, which led us on the their more famous neighbours . . .</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> . . . the Bingley 5-Rise. The 3-Rise locks lift the canal by nearly 30 feet, but the 5-Rise (also staircase locks) take it up 60 feet. As the top gate of each lock is the bottom gate of the next one above, those are some massive gates.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Almost unbelievably, there are no more locks for more than 16 miles, just outside Gargrave. The canal follows the high contour along the side of Airedale as the level of the valley floor rises. The mighty River Aire which threatened to flood us in Leeds became smaller as we followed it back up towards its source, eventually crossing it for the last time soon after Gargrave.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Meanwhile, we were stuck! We had been warned that Micklethwaite swing bridge sometimes played up. It did, and we needed to call out British Waterways / Canal & River Trust to come and fix it. A longish wait, but they fixed it really quickly - Thanks, guys!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There may not be any locks between Bingley and Gargrave, but there are plenty of swing bridges- 21 in those 16 miles! This one rejoices in the name of Milking Hill Swing Bridge - hand operated, like most of them.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And so to Skipton! We really like this town, with its market street, its castle and its friendly welcome. Back in 2008, we stayed there longer and came back a couple of times, but Val's knees had restricted our exploration on foot. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This time, we could both walk up the 'Springs Branch' of the canal which follows the Eller Brook round the back of the town and below the castle,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> and then leads on into Skipton Woods, where we saw this heron beside the lake.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On to Gargrave and beyond, where we crossed Priest Holme Aqueduct over the young River Aire, seeing it flowing away south and east, back the way we had come.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Still climbing, up the Bank Newton Locks (6 locks, 56 ft rise), with the hills above Skipton now on the horizon.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Above Bank Newton, to one of our favourite spots on this section of canal. It feels like it should be the 'summit pound', as the canal twists and turns around the contours in open moor farmland, but there are still more locks to come.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here are some of the wild flowers we found here :-</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We remember the orchids from 2008!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Under the double arch road bridge at the isolated village of East Marton. Apparently the second 'layer' was built to raise the road, removing the dip so that traffic could flow more freely.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After the canal had wound its way through yet more wild and open country, we came to Greenberfield, the last three locks UP on this side of the Pennines, just on the edge of Barnoldswick ('Barlick' to the locals).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Surprisingly young cygnets for mid-July! We reckon the bizarre weather this year has significantly affected the breeding of many wild birds, some apparently starting again because earlier broods did not survive.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You'll probably need to click on the picture to read the welcome on this bridge, though the colour of the rose has faded a little! We were definitely on the top level now, with just one 'barrier' between us and the long descent on the western side . . . </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Foulridge Tunnel. There is a well-documented story of Buttercup the cow, who fell in the canal at the western end in 1912 and swam through to Foulridge, where she was revived with alcohol! The timed traffic lights let us through on the hour, and we were through in about 15 minutes.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's all downhill from here . . .</span></div>Dave and Val Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10915849948015217650noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192015809001044815.post-82874483422807168102012-07-02T18:26:00.000+01:002012-07-02T18:26:33.294+01:00Dodging the Floods!<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As soon as we heard that the River Calder was navigable again, we 'set sail' from Huddersfield, under this unique lifting bridge, the Turnbridge Loco Liftbridge (1865). If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you may see that the whole road section is lifted vertically by its own crane while the boat passes underneath. Nowadays it is electrically operated – it used to be wound by windlass. No wonder it's called a 'Turnbridge'!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just a few locks and miles out of Huddersfield, we moored up for the night on the Huddersfield Broad Canal. We had been through our last narrow locks for quite a while! We joined the River Calder (Calder & Hebble Navigation) at Cooper Bridge, and were glad to find the river level was comfortably down – no problems!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We had a little surprise near Battyeford, when a fluttering noise announce the arrival of a temporary passenger! This racing pigeon hitched a lift with us until Mirfield. He was hand tame and seemed uninjured – maybe just a little tired or disorientated?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ivy-leaved Toadflax in a lock wall near Wakefield.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Calder and Hebble joins the Aire & Calder at Wakefield's 'Fall Ing' Lock. (An 'ing' is a water-meadow). After quite a delay with an earlier boat coming up, we fitted three narrowboats in with no difficulty, though the nearest one lives up to its name – 'Dinky'.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We stopped for lunch and so had a later lock all to ourselves, but this gives you an idea of normal-sized locks on the Aire & Calder –</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> but no hard work is involved, just pressing buttons! They are all mechanised with electrically-operated hydraulics.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At Castleford, where the Calder joins the Aire, we passed 'Dinky' again as he was setting off after shopping. We waited for him at the gigantic Lemonroyd Lock and moored above for the night. Here we are at Woodlesford Lock the next morning – about the same length but only 7'6" deep instead of 13'6".</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The few miles up to Leeds were a bit of a race against time, as it had been raining through the night and we knew that the River Aire gets fierce when rain falls in the Dales. Fortunately, all the river level indicators at the locks were 'on green', including this last one where the Leeds & Liverpool Canal turns off the Aire.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The next day, after more rain, the river was totally un-navigable, not quite a raging torrent but heading that way. With later news of floods in Yorkshire and on the Rochdale Canal (upstream on the Calder) we were very glad that 1) we had made it safely onto the L&L in time and 2) that we hadn't opted to cross back over the Pennines via the Rochdale this year – we had talked about it as a possibility!</span></div>Dave and Val Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10915849948015217650noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192015809001044815.post-73096223766337787142012-06-24T23:48:00.000+01:002012-06-24T23:48:26.605+01:00Through Standedge and Down Into Yorkshire<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Looking down from the hills above Dobcross, the mist obscures most of the valley through which we had travelled as Zindagi climbed up from Ashton-under-Lyne into the Pennine area of Saddleworth, once officially part of Yorkshire and still believed to be so by many diehards.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now it was our day to travel through Standedge Tunnel. We cleared Zindagi's roof of the usual garden and other stuff, removed the front cratch and were all ready to go as we waited at the Diggle portal for the westbound boats to emerge.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Back in 2008, Zindagi had to be towed through Standedge (pronounced 'Stanidge'), while we rode in the electrically-powered tug, hearing the bumps behind us as our boat and two others collided with various rocky projections. It did distract from the interesting commentary!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since 2011, boat owners have been allowed to drive their own boats through the tunnel, with the help of a British Waterways 'chaperone' who knows the tunnel well and can give advice as needed. Here is Terry, our very knowledgeable and helpful guide, when he had stepped off in an 'adit' to phone through our progress so far.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We arrived safely at the Marsden portal, having taken about 1¾ hours to travel through the 3-mile tunnel. It took more than 2½ hours in 2008, and this time we had no paintwork damage other than the usual scrapes below the gunwales.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We had climbed up 32 locks from Ashton-under-Lyne on the western side. 42 more awaited us as we made our way down to Huddersfield, but we were in no hurry and started dawdling down the scenic Colne valley (here near Marsden).</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ten locks down (in only one mile!) and we found this lovely spot - so we stayed overnight until the next afternoon –</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> and took just 2 hours to travel 1½ miles and another 8 locks down into Slaithwaite (pronounced 'Slawit'), with its unusual vertical steel guillotine lock-gate. Lots of windlass-winding required!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A few days later, we found we had a pirate at the helm of Zindagi! Yes, Shireen and Thor joined us for a few days, so we turned around and went part of the way back up to Marsden.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We walked up the rest of the way to Marsden village, and enjoyed our bagels at 'Crumbals-on-the-Corner'.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This helmsman certainly LOOKS like he knows what he's doing!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Back to Slaithwaite, Shireen & Thor back to Glasgow, and we continued our journey down the River Colne valley, passing the magnificent old Titanic Mill near Linthwaite, now restored and converted to 'Spa apartments'.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> . . . And so down to Huddersfield. Last time we were here, this was a gloomy tunnel under Sellars factory, now a brand-new section of canal with a new lock - with building work still going on next to it!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here we are, moored in Huddersfield, with the Victoria Tower on Castle Hill on the skyline. News was that the River Calder was too high to navigate, so we had to stay a little longer than expected!</span></div>Dave and Val Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10915849948015217650noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192015809001044815.post-9493210754023606882012-06-09T16:54:00.002+01:002012-06-09T16:54:58.201+01:00Tunnels, Hills and Lots of Locks!<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Coming down from the Caldon Canal and back into the edge of Stoke-on-Trent in the second week of May, we headed north-west on the Trent & Mersey and came to Harecastle Tunnel. Probably the first canal tunnel we ever went through, back in the late 70s, before the old half-sunken towpath had been removed, forcing us to scrape the roof of our hire boat – they were very understanding! No such problems now, despite the wildly varying headroom. Zindagi's chimney had to be detached but the rooftop garden was OK.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A Peacock butterfly near Kidsgrove, where we turned off up the Macclesfield Canal.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Val operating the 'stop lock' at Hall Green. Just a 1 ft rise, originally to stop one canal company 'stealing' water from another! All the other locks on the 'Macc' are grouped together at Bosley, 10 miles further on.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some beautiful stone bridges on this canal –</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. . . and a good parade of goslings!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of several 'snake' bridges on the Macc, this one at Congleton. How to get your towing horse to the towpath on the other side of the canal, but without disconnecting the rope!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A late traveller coming down Bosley locks as we went for an evening stroll,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and Zindagi getting near the top of the flight the next morning. 12 locks - 120 feet rise, then another 16 miles of lock-free cruising (and dawdling) before we reached Marple towards the end of May.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Beautiful countryside, beautiful weather - at last!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course, having climbed up 120 feet at Bosley, at Marple we now needed to go DOWN 214 feet! 16 locks this time, bringing us down to Ashton-under-Lyne and the junction with the Huddersfield Narrow Canal.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Between Ashton and Huddersfield there are 74 locks in just 20 miles. This is the second one, on the outskirts of Ashton, complete with old mill chimney and the Pennines looming beyond.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Eight locks behind us and the hills ahead. A beautiful canal, with its own special challenges – mainly shallow water and frequent running aground, apart from so many locks. Some people who travel this route say 'never again!'</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not us! We came this way in 2008 and thought we would sample it again this year. The little Scout Tunnel may be only 205 yards long, but you can clearly see the rough rock face. A foretaste of a tunnel to come!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Flag irises nearby – only just coming out at the end of May.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Climbing up this valley which used to be filled with mills and industry . . . Much of that has gone now, but there are growing and apparently thriving towns all the way, like here in the outskirts of Mossley.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Spring seemed to be reaching the pine trees, as we walked in the woods opposite our mooring near Roaches Lock.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But then the weather changed as we move further up the hills – lashing Pennine rain!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The railway line had been alongside us all the way from Ashton-under-Lyne, sharing the climb up towards Standedge. Here the Saddleworth Viaduct soars above the canal . . .</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> . . . but we had our own climbing to do! The flight of 9 locks at Diggle would take us right up to the highest level navigable canal in the UK, 645 feet above sea level.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Despite our studious dawdling, we had arrived early for our passage through Standedge Tunnel, but it was worth a brisk walk up to see other boats at the Diggle portal, waiting to go through that day. Dateline: 1st June. Our encounter with Standedge was booked for the 4th!</span></div>Dave and Val Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10915849948015217650noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192015809001044815.post-52928977040349331902012-05-14T11:48:00.000+01:002012-05-14T11:48:23.036+01:00Spring on the Caldon<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Shortly after joining the Trent & Mersey Canal at Fradley Junction, we came up Wood End Lock, beautifully remote in the Staffordshire countryside.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">More signs of a slowly emerging Spring at the end of April – Butterbur in flower near the canal . . . </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> . . . and Canada geese with their goslings (how about the contortions?!)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the distinctive 'Trent & Mersey' mileposts at Aston Lock, this one telling us that we were exactly at the mid-point of the Trent & Mersey as we approached the Potteries, just south of Stone.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Right at the heart of the pottery industry, Jesse Shirley's Bone and Flint Mill in Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent. The pottery industry's need for safe and speedy transport gave a major spur to canal building, with Josiah Wedgwood and others promoting the construction of the Trent & Mersey in 1766.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just round the corner, the first locks of the Caldon Canal, as it rises out of Stoke towards the Caldon Low limestone quarries near Froghall, 17 miles away.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The night after we arrived, and most of the next day, the wind and rain hammered down. We 'lay low' all day just outside Stoke, heard news of fallen trees on the Caldon and elsewhere, and even had to do a little tree surgery of our own in order to make progress the next day.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Up Stockton Brook locks and along the 'summit level' to </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hazlehurst Junction, where the 'main line' goes straight on under the iron bridge and down the locks towards Froghall, while the Leek branch bears right and then crosses the main line on an aqueduct –</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> where we moored for the night before chugging on towards Leek.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We moored in the 'Tunnel Pool' just before the short (130 yard) Leek Tunnel and enjoyed a circular walk down to the river, alongside the old railway, joining the canal main line and back along the Leek branch.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Through the tunnel to the edge of Leek for some shopping, then back to Hazlehurst and DOWN the locks, under the aqueduct and on down towards . . . </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cheddleton, with its old water-powered Flint Mill, another connection with the pottery industry.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Adam and Lottie joined us there - Lottie's first time on board Zindagi! She seemed to take to life on board very easily - she'll be back!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An almost timeless scene down at Froghall Wharf, where very few boats can go because of Froghall Tunnel's very low headroom.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Zindagi's rooftop garden flourishing in the (patchy) spring sunshine.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Adam, Val and Lottie on deck as Zindagi comes up a lock on the return journey,</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> and passing the overhanging platform of the station at Consall Forge. The Black Lion pub (ahead) had prepared an excellent Sunday lunch on our way down.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After taking Adam and Lottie back to the car, we started our own return to Stoke, leaving the quiet Caldon waters. Spring still seemed a little elusive, but at least we had no snow as we did in March 2008!</span></div>Dave and Val Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10915849948015217650noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192015809001044815.post-86990405609621750472012-04-25T12:14:00.001+01:002012-04-25T12:14:52.154+01:00Longest Blackthorn Winter?<br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We had never heard the phrase 'blackthorn winter' until we moved to Devon in 1987. The tradition (not just in Devon, apparently) is that there is usually a spell of cold and wintry weather just when the blackthorn is in blossom. That also explains why some years there are very few sloes on the bushes in autumn – very few pollinating insects fly in the 'winter'! This year, the blackthorn came into flower during March's warm spell, and is only now beginning to fade. Meanwhile, we seem to have had ALL the seasons' weather, not just winter!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">More signs of Spring! On our way back to Blisworth from the Leicester Arm, a duck with ducklings – I make it 15 of them!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oilseed rape in flower in a quiet canalside scene near Brinklow as we head north-westwards on the Oxford Canal . . .</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> . . . and swans nesting on the Coventry Canal near Bedworth.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Can you see the subtle flush of blue on the woodland floor here? (Click on the picture to enlarge it.) </span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lovely countryside where you might not expect it – between Nuneaton and Atherstone.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Val tackling one of the locks in the Atherstone flight.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Geometric patterns in the well-tilled soil near Grendon – and the hawthorn is nearly ready to blossom. "Ne'er cast a clout till the may be out" they say, so warmer weather must be on the way! Meanwhile, the weather seems to be trying to compensate for water shortages . . .</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> . . . and a grey squirrel in Hopwas Wood poses for his photo as 'Zindagi' chugs slowly below him.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are steadily heading north-west, hoping to be on the Caldon Canal near Stoke-on-Trent for some real Spring weather!</span></div>Dave and Val Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10915849948015217650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192015809001044815.post-16592837528121949452012-04-18T16:08:00.000+01:002012-04-18T16:08:34.828+01:00Family Gatherings<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">During the last few months, we have seen a little more of our family . . .</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Towards the end of 2011, we descended on Adam in Shrewsbury for a couple of days of not-doing-very-much-together, and very enjoyable it was! We did a bit of eating, though, as you can see! Here are Laura, Thor, Shireen, Jeremy, Val & Adam doing their best to clear the table . . .</span></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidpmb8A5OrWdw2GuGAeGtnskY1UQ8wLNs_IgAr2hiK7mgBkHoZTvKaFjqFjT9MKgQShl_FWXmv4BkBxEnxi1mjMhjyTvUOpklTR-UXq12Q50VDBwuqxPUdmuT26CBnJhikriDw69yiFuQ/s1600/Val_IMG_1167.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidpmb8A5OrWdw2GuGAeGtnskY1UQ8wLNs_IgAr2hiK7mgBkHoZTvKaFjqFjT9MKgQShl_FWXmv4BkBxEnxi1mjMhjyTvUOpklTR-UXq12Q50VDBwuqxPUdmuT26CBnJhikriDw69yiFuQ/s320/Val_IMG_1167.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> A brief visit to Glasgow in February included exploring the <a href="http://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/museums/our-museums/riverside-museum/about-riverside-museum/Pages/default.aspx" target="_blank">Transport Museum</a> with Thor –</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzdTe-VBNiuxp0i2l9llGlVmA5rJRceVZ2YthsHOo_4_IHP0OrcQJ7RQ_w9HVJHIu88ihIziuDmEpqMyFjshlHppSwkCyb4-x8cjNyDgXBUBpbocoRQo-OkjTVK1rxXDpjESKQPSj-foU/s1600/Val_IMG_1176.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzdTe-VBNiuxp0i2l9llGlVmA5rJRceVZ2YthsHOo_4_IHP0OrcQJ7RQ_w9HVJHIu88ihIziuDmEpqMyFjshlHppSwkCyb4-x8cjNyDgXBUBpbocoRQo-OkjTVK1rxXDpjESKQPSj-foU/s320/Val_IMG_1176.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> who took great delight in operating the 'sack loading' hoist on board the tall ship 'Glenlee', moored alongside in the Clyde.</span></div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiL3_iNaEQoeWcsQzBRUbX5uPpbhGaSymsfICDjSniwmk0hvAUiqKfQAjyrq9QCPKSoswuavMSHPuVaioXVgJ4iNuIh8QwdgkG3dwlST9eiQsIB4zOXpyiJ-1yJOyQf0X-Vv4ek8vXYvY/s1600/IMG_5395.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiL3_iNaEQoeWcsQzBRUbX5uPpbhGaSymsfICDjSniwmk0hvAUiqKfQAjyrq9QCPKSoswuavMSHPuVaioXVgJ4iNuIh8QwdgkG3dwlST9eiQsIB4zOXpyiJ-1yJOyQf0X-Vv4ek8vXYvY/s320/IMG_5395.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We also visited Balmaha on the eastern side of Loch Lomond,</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia_NhovwmBhUWHK6MUkExbSwTiWDjIjiEbe23DYscCYW6zbGxnFEKuFLPFG8-p4Rx5T3ELnvEGKtA7M2uJpHu2rE8uHsdr3F2KUSoLeV6_GWKCZR9dJ5iiETvB1Jj3wRfiy3IgE33ic0Y/s1600/Val_IMG_1202.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia_NhovwmBhUWHK6MUkExbSwTiWDjIjiEbe23DYscCYW6zbGxnFEKuFLPFG8-p4Rx5T3ELnvEGKtA7M2uJpHu2rE8uHsdr3F2KUSoLeV6_GWKCZR9dJ5iiETvB1Jj3wRfiy3IgE33ic0Y/s200/Val_IMG_1202.JPG" width="150" /></a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXqS9za8VL9H0SkYix2bLyX8HWXpN2BCnHts7WYKQLUae4Rr7gtA9DwZV1Uq3mqMgYiYoKSyGdA1K0tsjCLiHUGEZOO-FINCI6o8Un7W8aR_JIof0vs4p3_snImz-7hKXP7mJXOnkEXnA/s1600/Val_IMG_1203.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXqS9za8VL9H0SkYix2bLyX8HWXpN2BCnHts7WYKQLUae4Rr7gtA9DwZV1Uq3mqMgYiYoKSyGdA1K0tsjCLiHUGEZOO-FINCI6o8Un7W8aR_JIof0vs4p3_snImz-7hKXP7mJXOnkEXnA/s200/Val_IMG_1203.JPG" width="150" /></a><br />
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<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Helping Shireen redecorate her <a href="http://www.thehiddennoise.info/" target="_blank">short-term art gallery</a>!</span></div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIY5jsExgrAGv8YnSj6U0VmUn0yZqezjy5u06ZVBgpjFBqd6rgXmlObfT35awDk5z5bzt4ziRSuml_ubbk-tjcRCHN9GzgTegHNcNxHCjfwXift_gHbYcm9auwZrPrJGloIF0d-bX5nkc/s1600/IMG_5414.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIY5jsExgrAGv8YnSj6U0VmUn0yZqezjy5u06ZVBgpjFBqd6rgXmlObfT35awDk5z5bzt4ziRSuml_ubbk-tjcRCHN9GzgTegHNcNxHCjfwXift_gHbYcm9auwZrPrJGloIF0d-bX5nkc/s320/IMG_5414.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">More recently, having checked out of the marina, we met Jeremy and Laura at Whilton Locks and then went up the Watford flight together,</span></div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzA8MNiZwsCRG0iGPUvlCDisaaUpMlOXApKGYPE29z7WUA9zZE0JaLQ9MUFwzKrLebvCsc6HUhoYI_71JGEhyphenhyphenWjtriA_Zf92niB-sK0qNHJdcMbf3sE6KZkUBtoGyFk0ZmcdWg1OAFwqM/s1600/Val_IMG_1206.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzA8MNiZwsCRG0iGPUvlCDisaaUpMlOXApKGYPE29z7WUA9zZE0JaLQ9MUFwzKrLebvCsc6HUhoYI_71JGEhyphenhyphenWjtriA_Zf92niB-sK0qNHJdcMbf3sE6KZkUBtoGyFk0ZmcdWg1OAFwqM/s320/Val_IMG_1206.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">– coincidentally marking 6 months since a certain wedding back in October –</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwIZuYtsd0luxyp_gvxCSZG00lB-RJoZ-YopPuTE-H0PLTlv_zYSiJqV1mYrB6muh3HUpTNDBxW9a9XP5uS6My11JBtXSmq2wwnCe4MoDGfrLtc5p-QlB0rsbRrHhCe72q1lMJf6IGVGM/s1600/Val_IMG_1208.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwIZuYtsd0luxyp_gvxCSZG00lB-RJoZ-YopPuTE-H0PLTlv_zYSiJqV1mYrB6muh3HUpTNDBxW9a9XP5uS6My11JBtXSmq2wwnCe4MoDGfrLtc5p-QlB0rsbRrHhCe72q1lMJf6IGVGM/s320/Val_IMG_1208.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> and then meeting Adam in Crick. We chugged on for a few miles together, then turned back to Crick, where J & L left us,</span></div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBFcSfkcDXO0gJiMwhyqrYu7OyANCwj5Bc8ysqH4rxJrOdv3lqS-eKK1BAzrt3kcF-4xEHvBSpTc5SSm2bB7BC-_0BWwkBsNOlZ84xd7FICzucbHTKZRck8T5sRPV_B2j46SitdQRKX6U/s1600/IMG_5418.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBFcSfkcDXO0gJiMwhyqrYu7OyANCwj5Bc8ysqH4rxJrOdv3lqS-eKK1BAzrt3kcF-4xEHvBSpTc5SSm2bB7BC-_0BWwkBsNOlZ84xd7FICzucbHTKZRck8T5sRPV_B2j46SitdQRKX6U/s320/IMG_5418.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> and Adam came DOWN Watford with us, collecting his car at Buckby. The logistics worked out fine in the end!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We then made our way back to Blisworth for a few more days, before setting out again last Saturday, 14th April.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By the way, on 27th March we celebrated 5 years since we first set out on Zindagi for our 'year afloat'. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was always likely to be two years, but FIVE ? !!!</span></div>Dave and Val Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10915849948015217650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192015809001044815.post-89626838643221288382012-04-18T14:28:00.000+01:002012-04-18T14:28:22.092+01:00Winter in Blisworth<span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We have actually set off on our travels now but, before we get you right up to date, let's share some of the images we gathered during the rest of our 'hibernation' in Blisworth Marina . . .</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiSgbIjufQSRCNDjECw_sr_42i3Grg_2KLgC5WvMnCFtvZxgHn6NclX1_SfACaqw8uCzNczPysgrSsYmADhtDBtspkpE1FugxjqKIBw7S3KQQCRZ7UhIBJ_t8u_j-HY4GkZZWaVPZwZNM/s1600/IMG_5358.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiSgbIjufQSRCNDjECw_sr_42i3Grg_2KLgC5WvMnCFtvZxgHn6NclX1_SfACaqw8uCzNczPysgrSsYmADhtDBtspkpE1FugxjqKIBw7S3KQQCRZ7UhIBJ_t8u_j-HY4GkZZWaVPZwZNM/s320/IMG_5358.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A hungry-looking heron on the ice at Rothersthorpe locks.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl89z-5JYH6IODDHQFJg5fLN6xuPgBXa0lvh9tL3EFXuixkHBm1MFq8btzh-ilitILuHinHkRIjoHHbB5G573N_KMy0T_Hh3phB-nG2NEJGwvjF3wwHwOzPxh99VNWcylY5nu_lYb0j3k/s1600/IMG_5367.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl89z-5JYH6IODDHQFJg5fLN6xuPgBXa0lvh9tL3EFXuixkHBm1MFq8btzh-ilitILuHinHkRIjoHHbB5G573N_KMy0T_Hh3phB-nG2NEJGwvjF3wwHwOzPxh99VNWcylY5nu_lYb0j3k/s320/IMG_5367.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Misty sunrise through thorn hedge and teasels.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn2CXmF50j0M71tvAfekX0Q-fA067jv7hJ6mzRz5M_aGNyUJbNWMJGttxCU0nw6aC3DGLTDWZ-iAc1D4wL1BtZkhdrWX-pbsCBqis21FiSVfQxVxYzAWT1ZgYaSQZ_2UvahLni0yCgIc8/s1600/Val_IMG_1158.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn2CXmF50j0M71tvAfekX0Q-fA067jv7hJ6mzRz5M_aGNyUJbNWMJGttxCU0nw6aC3DGLTDWZ-iAc1D4wL1BtZkhdrWX-pbsCBqis21FiSVfQxVxYzAWT1ZgYaSQZ_2UvahLni0yCgIc8/s320/Val_IMG_1158.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ice on the INside of one of Zindagi's portholes!</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifyKmzVV7ZO2fvau6XVAFl_CwxwtaLXYRse-1cwqyM8x3wvtLLzbJjguPAc7BHCsoGB62jGsBzsXcPOKROAB_7z-ELVSI-1i0FdIyA6VISZoe2m-3t3RzUUGeUSWGtAhJ5anb-EdiZDWs/s1600/IMG_5390.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifyKmzVV7ZO2fvau6XVAFl_CwxwtaLXYRse-1cwqyM8x3wvtLLzbJjguPAc7BHCsoGB62jGsBzsXcPOKROAB_7z-ELVSI-1i0FdIyA6VISZoe2m-3t3RzUUGeUSWGtAhJ5anb-EdiZDWs/s320/IMG_5390.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Zindagi in Blisworth Marina – iced-in, and with February's snow . . .</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8nWoKi3WYIg5voPYcHekIm2LRvT7y04n3QPJFk8k2z_ktkflFvY-LitU3klQIWiZrhOZrd0IKp34xb83VXcfimwq2j-DUpG_ODEJT3qk3wUjaIUyUyczL54uC3WuOXBF6Lkouwgl8tZE/s1600/IMG_5391.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8nWoKi3WYIg5voPYcHekIm2LRvT7y04n3QPJFk8k2z_ktkflFvY-LitU3klQIWiZrhOZrd0IKp34xb83VXcfimwq2j-DUpG_ODEJT3qk3wUjaIUyUyczL54uC3WuOXBF6Lkouwgl8tZE/s320/IMG_5391.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> . . . and this bridge got the same treatment!</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgg0IPStb2pD-OikKFJKcd0CiWbsVcjiz5u6mxQLwnUykPKhiaD_KDPcUEZj_5Un5DUZQQor5zrGu6__JyHrNodmC-v0LkP3kWz9HWrLLt46a75iyLS7uKElgKxqcu7DKOKnhpZXMOjTk/s1600/IMG_5407.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgg0IPStb2pD-OikKFJKcd0CiWbsVcjiz5u6mxQLwnUykPKhiaD_KDPcUEZj_5Un5DUZQQor5zrGu6__JyHrNodmC-v0LkP3kWz9HWrLLt46a75iyLS7uKElgKxqcu7DKOKnhpZXMOjTk/s320/IMG_5407.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After the snow and ice, the mist</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDDYU-i2PRtquKodckygIFm0n5JvC6Xg4r0sBxJBu-zU_goXEMHWb9ZH9eu-YH3uStisrFGfU7lPCquX7nXTPquJdPpwjU1Ew7IMjkTuHaTzOv14nQGf-0jV7EvVLj7SDco1DClRTHQ2w/s1600/IMG_5408.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDDYU-i2PRtquKodckygIFm0n5JvC6Xg4r0sBxJBu-zU_goXEMHWb9ZH9eu-YH3uStisrFGfU7lPCquX7nXTPquJdPpwjU1Ew7IMjkTuHaTzOv14nQGf-0jV7EvVLj7SDco1DClRTHQ2w/s320/IMG_5408.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The end of March brings the promise of Spring – ash buds opening </span>Dave and Val Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10915849948015217650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192015809001044815.post-8742801949881195652012-01-28T14:43:00.001+00:002012-01-28T14:44:38.013+00:00Lift Off at Last !<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Back in Blisworth at the beginning of November, our 'second home' as it has become, it was good to be able to meet up with friends in the village again and settle in to our 'winter routine'. Our little old Peugeot 205 had been sitting safely on our friends' driveway through the summer, so we parked it at the marina again and were more mobile in spite of being moored up – strange paradox! </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjElVClWS4f1jQJjDyCbOPeVzH0YHRnY-LjRJjkY4rhpwLRJn9IvrVEV-nUa3tv8ia-rqnA4aS1t8TmHiM0tsYlkDLr8vyq7WxWs4kxASJbzOlobpN-t5yTroGCINEHHQ52wzg80hqDlqQ/s1600/IMG_5316.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gda="true" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjElVClWS4f1jQJjDyCbOPeVzH0YHRnY-LjRJjkY4rhpwLRJn9IvrVEV-nUa3tv8ia-rqnA4aS1t8TmHiM0tsYlkDLr8vyq7WxWs4kxASJbzOlobpN-t5yTroGCINEHHQ52wzg80hqDlqQ/s320/IMG_5316.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Before we completely stopped, though, we had a short trip planned. David and Mary had hoped to come with us in September but had been prevented by illness, so we re-scheduled a short excursion for 3½ days, over to Braunston and back. Here's David at the helm with Mary and Whisk. A very pleasant few days with quite reasonable weather!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzxbeEaHXeEtVWEskOx4tMBz3QKS11qvTWSp_jkPVP6cju7YLj04IFMLPsndgsjnqjbaJ_QHad6nxBk2bi4Gq95X7Xid0k2vU7pYYmr4igpAw599oTQJUVvqkOSs0OvOIrDO3WPWHZoEM/s1600/IMG_5326.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" gda="true" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzxbeEaHXeEtVWEskOx4tMBz3QKS11qvTWSp_jkPVP6cju7YLj04IFMLPsndgsjnqjbaJ_QHad6nxBk2bi4Gq95X7Xid0k2vU7pYYmr4igpAw599oTQJUVvqkOSs0OvOIrDO3WPWHZoEM/s320/IMG_5326.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then, on 30th November we received another text message from <a href="http://www.wickersworld.co.uk/" target="_blank">Wickers World</a>, the ballooning company, telling us that there were some last-minute vacancies for a flight the next day. You may remember that we have been trying to book our flight since August 2010!! We booked, and drove up to Adam's the next day before he came with us to see us off. Here's the balloon being filled up with hot air.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhDR8RnT1fFOku8SfzF5QCGE8zJc0dqTQeiWJKZNTktAxtBqInls4hTumS5VAn_0GHMgwD7P13FRXDQ9LYug5zOAgSlvmYKRvlsv13bmU3WOBb2YRFxG5vCCTVA8412M1gDjJ_TVQOmgI/s1600/IMG_5329.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gda="true" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhDR8RnT1fFOku8SfzF5QCGE8zJc0dqTQeiWJKZNTktAxtBqInls4hTumS5VAn_0GHMgwD7P13FRXDQ9LYug5zOAgSlvmYKRvlsv13bmU3WOBb2YRFxG5vCCTVA8412M1gDjJ_TVQOmgI/s320/IMG_5329.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Filled up and ready for us to get on, but then a big surprise . . . </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZMWn7VitzByXYOpDUz2kkHpXgv-rGdi5DwQminXWrYJnsrs0TmtYf7REKvX4D6EPgLu4ipmKrkTFyIuA2mjlTIHPrfBXy0tDdH5t1g2nwBfyxbYl0f-3uwWjJprjX64hLXzYVphR6d2w/s1600/IMG_5330.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" gda="true" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZMWn7VitzByXYOpDUz2kkHpXgv-rGdi5DwQminXWrYJnsrs0TmtYf7REKvX4D6EPgLu4ipmKrkTFyIuA2mjlTIHPrfBXy0tDdH5t1g2nwBfyxbYl0f-3uwWjJprjX64hLXzYVphR6d2w/s320/IMG_5330.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> . . . especially for Adam! Not all the vacancies had been filled, so he was able to come with us, and away we went, with Val on her video camera.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9qqEb2bfN29HjYhzII6-mCdEfenupCLKDkS1yyM-3oRFKYxFalSB-b1X8ThpP7FgSQ6SUL86JqYVhiknFEw06MV6LUPlmH1GNeRvLGYV5n9-fT3otbEbR1vVdC-qnp1nbyeDN95rcsOM/s1600/IMG_5334.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gda="true" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9qqEb2bfN29HjYhzII6-mCdEfenupCLKDkS1yyM-3oRFKYxFalSB-b1X8ThpP7FgSQ6SUL86JqYVhiknFEw06MV6LUPlmH1GNeRvLGYV5n9-fT3otbEbR1vVdC-qnp1nbyeDN95rcsOM/s320/IMG_5334.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">High above Whitchurch (Shropshire) but amazingly with absolutely NO sense of vertigo. Apparently that's normal!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnGR4CWLCJ0l2a-vkkpyHWA9FHYPCe-sdivrtXvshOQPiaYoK0HRiMjxInJ-OnRRQ4s7Y6FLsQ7ufDPgKV51FDKPfjGoIh5s-IRajSLl4T63QO0zAmtZ90nBmoSjazVKN2LWCYBF1xCIQ/s1600/IMG_5338.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" gda="true" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnGR4CWLCJ0l2a-vkkpyHWA9FHYPCe-sdivrtXvshOQPiaYoK0HRiMjxInJ-OnRRQ4s7Y6FLsQ7ufDPgKV51FDKPfjGoIh5s-IRajSLl4T63QO0zAmtZ90nBmoSjazVKN2LWCYBF1xCIQ/s320/IMG_5338.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Firing up for a bit more lift. In between these occasional bursts, the flight was quiet and apparently windless, as we travelled with the breeze.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFUoDRgg8eOkjjx6noOOi55FYspAVs-cA0cy74mG3fpDIQBJDljbFrBToWmY_bZjkfbnSr5zu6zcdBTUr-2teZfpC_Z26yGTFnFU6U4VSGugdrRPR0cqooU6JIRkfSNssNlYpGFgYnHwA/s1600/IMG_5343.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gda="true" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFUoDRgg8eOkjjx6noOOi55FYspAVs-cA0cy74mG3fpDIQBJDljbFrBToWmY_bZjkfbnSr5zu6zcdBTUr-2teZfpC_Z26yGTFnFU6U4VSGugdrRPR0cqooU6JIRkfSNssNlYpGFgYnHwA/s320/IMG_5343.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Shropshire Union Canal at Audlem, as we have never seen it before. A fairly familiar length of canal from a very unfamiliar viewpoint!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8U-e68n3J4f8Xysh3la9LOQzOpqO9RSKOGvPadhyphenhyphenTENTV-4Tv2Ql36TCJCER-oJV7pFHX-h4_DtXnDRQUboZ3Zjdand2ZGl-NFfMcYw9jJEY2t89l2qrDdPoLaMz3xpyxtLO_udB5b5o/s1600/IMG_5346.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" gda="true" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8U-e68n3J4f8Xysh3la9LOQzOpqO9RSKOGvPadhyphenhyphenTENTV-4Tv2Ql36TCJCER-oJV7pFHX-h4_DtXnDRQUboZ3Zjdand2ZGl-NFfMcYw9jJEY2t89l2qrDdPoLaMz3xpyxtLO_udB5b5o/s320/IMG_5346.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jon, our pilot, made the whole trip most enjoyable. Confident, friendly and informative, he made us all feel very much at ease. There were 15 passengers altogether . . .</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2hua9kW5VneQCOJh-uFb-jFXGAMNhYFZEZbIg0JbOnlyMeLBcYeA-tHRtEH10mef_JMvuTfyXBoRhhQ3NMSjnGYdo5Q6sJasm3OFzw6Ba2c6OpaFte01Uciq5OIDxPqlzlP3A9pHXWv8/s1600/IMG_5348.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gda="true" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2hua9kW5VneQCOJh-uFb-jFXGAMNhYFZEZbIg0JbOnlyMeLBcYeA-tHRtEH10mef_JMvuTfyXBoRhhQ3NMSjnGYdo5Q6sJasm3OFzw6Ba2c6OpaFte01Uciq5OIDxPqlzlP3A9pHXWv8/s320/IMG_5348.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Looking for a landing spot brought us down a bit lower over the trees and then, after one aborted landing,</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-2nJRSBAcp_XAZcm9qDZz1OkBspAXWID_omBZEuH6fZ6pgAEGAsfv_SsANmV87z7AWZnm2KY6XTaIrmzqePbspYsJs9utcB5Lw-_7N02v3MDW2Svs7R6TfdsGf2N7i05utYmg5H6J0dI/s1600/IMG_5349.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" gda="true" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-2nJRSBAcp_XAZcm9qDZz1OkBspAXWID_omBZEuH6fZ6pgAEGAsfv_SsANmV87z7AWZnm2KY6XTaIrmzqePbspYsJs9utcB5Lw-_7N02v3MDW2Svs7R6TfdsGf2N7i05utYmg5H6J0dI/s320/IMG_5349.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> we touched down! Well, bumped down, really! A couple of sliding bumps before it stopped, then the basket teetered a little before finally flopping gently over – and we crawled rather than climbed out. A very good end to a great flight!</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwjw5LwWfzm3fdYy34D3RA8XDTK42aqD2M7vXZXubgP9jjLLMjZ8_4GHmt1bN7bnlFdCwLcubVvULMT7eYr4s6T6KAsGHULpiwnhNwpTtRRbQy_U_1rLYKWG9JebTXy-S7hlL8KdPEdDk/s1600/IMG_5352.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gda="true" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwjw5LwWfzm3fdYy34D3RA8XDTK42aqD2M7vXZXubgP9jjLLMjZ8_4GHmt1bN7bnlFdCwLcubVvULMT7eYr4s6T6KAsGHULpiwnhNwpTtRRbQy_U_1rLYKWG9JebTXy-S7hlL8KdPEdDk/s320/IMG_5352.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But we weren't finished yet! Jon got us all helping to squeeze the air out of the balloon before folding it up and packing it onto the trailer.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwPnEH6JaCCPI24z93DrBKvVCM-4MwkC96c9vWF9nPcZlb0QjGxKijplDQBadR4xlymMKnv6T70CKM2qs38oWuZDkN26mddAUdEOXXiKAvVO53SvozLsOczF4FZUnAzG6tOiDpDsAXTqo/s1600/IMG_5355.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" gda="true" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwPnEH6JaCCPI24z93DrBKvVCM-4MwkC96c9vWF9nPcZlb0QjGxKijplDQBadR4xlymMKnv6T70CKM2qs38oWuZDkN26mddAUdEOXXiKAvVO53SvozLsOczF4FZUnAzG6tOiDpDsAXTqo/s320/IMG_5355.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Back in the land crew's Land Rovers to the place we had started from, to retrieve the car – but not before a mug of hot chocolate in the nearby café!</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAen-qbLNUomrJxIyKvBAXr9XI0Ro6pgkehA9XxlMo8WrCYyb-0lFViYovC8l6iqoPT8hGCjv4rQ3K_cbB1BEYoVyjtLpc-Us1sYtIs37A14jRngPkmsW0Lx14jwHbJHt_jGfO69vgJ9w/s1600/DaveCert.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" gda="true" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAen-qbLNUomrJxIyKvBAXr9XI0Ro6pgkehA9XxlMo8WrCYyb-0lFViYovC8l6iqoPT8hGCjv4rQ3K_cbB1BEYoVyjtLpc-Us1sYtIs37A14jRngPkmsW0Lx14jwHbJHt_jGfO69vgJ9w/s200/DaveCert.JPG" width="143" /></a></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxmJvgfIfB2nUz_RcJSVvMDudr2SGqT_0mLluKdoVTn9uXBWIvgfN4HkyPjBChpAC3Rz1tKK4jDYTad7_M9T2iU1CWu3sjzG2yZfJVeWNd3J1unCpOvDHAKxKyxaicGW-3zjGmUGmkUzo/s1600/ValCert.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" gda="true" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxmJvgfIfB2nUz_RcJSVvMDudr2SGqT_0mLluKdoVTn9uXBWIvgfN4HkyPjBChpAC3Rz1tKK4jDYTad7_M9T2iU1CWu3sjzG2yZfJVeWNd3J1unCpOvDHAKxKyxaicGW-3zjGmUGmkUzo/s200/ValCert.JPG" width="143" /></a><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> – and we had the certificates to prove we had finally done it!</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"></span></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<span style="color: #cc0000;"></span></span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thanks to Adam, Jeremy and Shireen for our lovely joint birthday presents for 2010 – sorry it took so long to actually DO it !</span></div>Dave and Val Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10915849948015217650noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4192015809001044815.post-73787520529426418892012-01-18T20:59:00.006+00:002012-02-20T20:38:01.560+00:00Special Journey to London!<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Having arrived back in Blisworth at the end of August, we moored up on the towpath between Candle Bridge and Station Road. It's a little nearer to the village than the marina is, and we would soon be on our way back down the Grand Union – to London again!</span></div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial;"></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You 'travelled' down with us earlier in the year, so we will just pick out a few highlights of this journey for you . . .</span></div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial;"></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie44PRrHnP8kcYEUGbt8ubDzLumEkJEuEAcIzTQsGgCppbA1wehcuNcan0AzgsyTzY3QkcebyvyahyphenhyphenyyVgiKhiqd-0imklLAgXrh0G7Zqd3aKNt6IQPwI3W6k6FJXcySDZ_pUOaDzXDh0/s1600/IMG_5239.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" nfa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie44PRrHnP8kcYEUGbt8ubDzLumEkJEuEAcIzTQsGgCppbA1wehcuNcan0AzgsyTzY3QkcebyvyahyphenhyphenyyVgiKhiqd-0imklLAgXrh0G7Zqd3aKNt6IQPwI3W6k6FJXcySDZ_pUOaDzXDh0/s320/IMG_5239.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On our way up the first two locks at Marsworth, we teamed up with Anne and Keith on 'Tournesol' (French for 'Sunflower'). We often share locks with other boats, but this time found that we seemed to get on particularly well, so we decided to travel together for a while. It certainly helps having two people to operate wide locks and the company was most enjoyable!</span></div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm1oLz5Bnl1e2tLs8zxIma5x91QVN71Livv6KrI5dSPpc9x3zKH79LOirlE4HIoZtJXIRhr5gAPyFxB6cyphiyFXuFXmCtt1b7JItWnur7knsZFl3Aoo0gr8Uk2AUFwP-HmEfqqCYl_bQ/s1600/IMG_5229.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" nfa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm1oLz5Bnl1e2tLs8zxIma5x91QVN71Livv6KrI5dSPpc9x3zKH79LOirlE4HIoZtJXIRhr5gAPyFxB6cyphiyFXuFXmCtt1b7JItWnur7knsZFl3Aoo0gr8Uk2AUFwP-HmEfqqCYl_bQ/s320/IMG_5229.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The next day, we went up the main Marsworth flight, stopped for lunch near Cowroast and then down a couple of locks to Dudswell, where we stopped for the night. We took a walk round the little park near the canal and found this interestingly-carved log. Click on the picture to zoom in and see what the fox is chasing up the tree!</span></div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPl7_L3JZNtrapGpzJbK-oo_rVAsuLjtZ7P425_b14829LQ69nqBVLEVw3Z9B5vlHskq1ooUNbHLFYqx1KwrtwI0_NqNX51qdE3JVzORzIwROLnDeC-L84CxMrCwXyuJwCYteuNiAZcSE/s1600/IMG_5233.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" nfa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPl7_L3JZNtrapGpzJbK-oo_rVAsuLjtZ7P425_b14829LQ69nqBVLEVw3Z9B5vlHskq1ooUNbHLFYqx1KwrtwI0_NqNX51qdE3JVzORzIwROLnDeC-L84CxMrCwXyuJwCYteuNiAZcSE/s320/IMG_5233.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">'Tournesol' and 'Zindagi' sharing a lock at Berkhamsted . . .</span></div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWRuQEN9kyZgJOFik_PMdGZFeYVXhTN9BnUgkErBssSYzZ0gFAkbPU55LAalhbhoeNwL4ChlVCI9ufA6mf104bMfqEEfvKcS0Vp6sIldRaA0WymF1iAja_Ihbt0xai93RH45KHPqQ_NeI/s1600/IMG_5234.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" nfa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWRuQEN9kyZgJOFik_PMdGZFeYVXhTN9BnUgkErBssSYzZ0gFAkbPU55LAalhbhoeNwL4ChlVCI9ufA6mf104bMfqEEfvKcS0Vp6sIldRaA0WymF1iAja_Ihbt0xai93RH45KHPqQ_NeI/s320/IMG_5234.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> . . . and a Red Admiral getting a good feed on ivy blossom.</span></div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiczFZDJytjxVaJJ_Udur9Buh1Ahmj2QvOa16ION5CJTpZZWtlmcHqvYFg2E2y2kH49ZylqE9qngXHcpNMcMU0AFdUoNonee9xBBQu7ciZd95FxZpP07fBwbMheqRAzzUzGJ8Km6zwCni8/s1600/IMG_5240.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" nfa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiczFZDJytjxVaJJ_Udur9Buh1Ahmj2QvOa16ION5CJTpZZWtlmcHqvYFg2E2y2kH49ZylqE9qngXHcpNMcMU0AFdUoNonee9xBBQu7ciZd95FxZpP07fBwbMheqRAzzUzGJ8Km6zwCni8/s320/IMG_5240.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We were already running well ahead of schedule, so we stopped at Cowley while Keith and Anne went on – "See you in Paddington!" Here's a heron on a good fishing perch in the morning sunlight.</span></div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><object class="BLOGGER-picasa-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHP_v_kTJMFP_FDZAccRN__-5hFqK23ElEyjSVm34AzhWVYlSX5dlMiOXIqzFMJc5zeZncoltEHRtp0DicGLydryUB5UdAZaChrj5Pb4IIa2ZXu5gCqpju8Oz3YdDB-WfgdhqLJGDJMvQ/s1600/IMG_5245.avi" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?videoUrl=http://v9.nonxt2.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3D6ed03e51551fe5b2%26itag%3D5%26source%3Dpicasa%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1326939908%26sparams%3Did,itag,source,ip,ipbits,expire%26signature%3D409FE1BB03A0F2CD31BF7CC6D1A6495CEBFF61D3.584E3CC29FD6EE9C7F3B0274330F36EBCCA9719A%26key%3Dlh1" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?videoUrl=http://v9.nonxt2.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3D6ed03e51551fe5b2%26itag%3D5%26source%3Dpicasa%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1326939908%26sparams%3Did,itag,source,ip,ipbits,expire%26signature%3D409FE1BB03A0F2CD31BF7CC6D1A6495CEBFF61D3.584E3CC29FD6EE9C7F3B0274330F36EBCCA9719A%26key%3Dlh1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Five days (and a lot of dawdling) later, we DID meet up in Paddington Basin. On the following Friday, on the dot of 12 noon, we saw the 'Heatherwick Rolling Bridge' in action. We had walked over it several times when in Paddington before, but evidently we hadn't been there at 12 noon on a Friday! It is hydraulically operated with 7 rams on each side pushing up the handrails.</span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbCarqvy9QS_dacfNyrNFgJuYdBgdO5RdexrZE1JwydfZQ4mDXKi52Ez3p02ZYRK76Vsk1hyphenhyphenC-ItN-jBeaRiWAXnAN1b4hX0PAxDjl-8pdNsCBeGNsn-WowAjVB2c5dSyOh74SS4VnJM0/s1600/IMG_5249.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" nfa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbCarqvy9QS_dacfNyrNFgJuYdBgdO5RdexrZE1JwydfZQ4mDXKi52Ez3p02ZYRK76Vsk1hyphenhyphenC-ItN-jBeaRiWAXnAN1b4hX0PAxDjl-8pdNsCBeGNsn-WowAjVB2c5dSyOh74SS4VnJM0/s320/IMG_5249.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Shireen and Thor joined us for a walk along the towpath, because they were in London for the same reason as we were . . . </span></div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhExTrsAAwrYWUyvcnrOiW4XcwjcXCTRFRln1s17MGA3e-vPCme4qSjm1y3wZE0znJsYFVls4K6myLrlaw1JqBL5nN7GKtT7lt5C-PamtH6rBnnEkiIiC4Bp86Np5EQPWFzLQmv1KncaMM/s1600/Val_IMG_1107.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" nfa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhExTrsAAwrYWUyvcnrOiW4XcwjcXCTRFRln1s17MGA3e-vPCme4qSjm1y3wZE0znJsYFVls4K6myLrlaw1JqBL5nN7GKtT7lt5C-PamtH6rBnnEkiIiC4Bp86Np5EQPWFzLQmv1KncaMM/s320/Val_IMG_1107.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> . . . Jeremy and Laura's wedding! (October 8th) Val only took a few photos, leaving the official photographer to take his – all 509 of them!</span></div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEIDbv2_MtxtekFehpmd7IgD-TQH17bf2vsdHjjJvqZvUlkT5EYfGo3KkVxpWKspIt_exMtTC_x0R4PZ_KW3L-_rbc444M22GWiT79A8KzFNmcn0lxJ_SmAUyLzS2zidUOVdQsbc9uHIM/s1600/Val_IMG_1109.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" nfa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEIDbv2_MtxtekFehpmd7IgD-TQH17bf2vsdHjjJvqZvUlkT5EYfGo3KkVxpWKspIt_exMtTC_x0R4PZ_KW3L-_rbc444M22GWiT79A8KzFNmcn0lxJ_SmAUyLzS2zidUOVdQsbc9uHIM/s320/Val_IMG_1109.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And you may as well see this one, too – you have never seen us dressed up like this before!</span></div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7Kv8AW3RoNR6aQNmk0G89iduePIdchHAocOlRRuZBhVzBSBLNjiEhS-iJXY7o9qiei3JODckRdNBZwVsZy7QyiRHDGhyphenhyphenNh2D__TAN0XMIYTUalaGA_NuxxgRfJt8Q2pu1oafH2mC9vg8/s1600/Val_IMG_1114.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" nfa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7Kv8AW3RoNR6aQNmk0G89iduePIdchHAocOlRRuZBhVzBSBLNjiEhS-iJXY7o9qiei3JODckRdNBZwVsZy7QyiRHDGhyphenhyphenNh2D__TAN0XMIYTUalaGA_NuxxgRfJt8Q2pu1oafH2mC9vg8/s320/Val_IMG_1114.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thor on the boat near Islington as we headed on eastwards through London – not four yet and growing fast!</span></div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMZqubKc7vxdlUOcFTx4OHLXPuq3fUd9ufgY0l0k6pCmsjnGEdFNjaFBLF50FOoA_b5rJt14vBsDY9ERK5iRREY7YnWmY5l1-lws88_ETY4syXi7xHldusYMbRIEZYDPo8DKFGoepc5b8/s1600/IMG_5258.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" nfa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMZqubKc7vxdlUOcFTx4OHLXPuq3fUd9ufgY0l0k6pCmsjnGEdFNjaFBLF50FOoA_b5rJt14vBsDY9ERK5iRREY7YnWmY5l1-lws88_ETY4syXi7xHldusYMbRIEZYDPo8DKFGoepc5b8/s320/IMG_5258.JPG" width="240" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIKweWKBwOS1zquAjPYOOgHbfYBJwvtDh8rJcL94cVj42o_7xKwGoawAUalAHJLli_M6wuurgatNZtfu2x98WdEoaXaoHCriDJnbAPj8fm7H7vgcpzdItKFP2O05CEaeOldSkCwH4AQEU/s1600/IMG_5257.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" nfa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIKweWKBwOS1zquAjPYOOgHbfYBJwvtDh8rJcL94cVj42o_7xKwGoawAUalAHJLli_M6wuurgatNZtfu2x98WdEoaXaoHCriDJnbAPj8fm7H7vgcpzdItKFP2O05CEaeOldSkCwH4AQEU/s320/IMG_5257.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mid-October as we went up the River Lee: Spindle berries and Michaelmas daisies reminding us that autumn was just around the corner.</span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2Wd8JwEg0fxHQ7FFN1qZvIBMqzJE8a9mXBkYN81Z2dCyP29wn7NbC3JHTgzH9P_VUH5ddoBzsrsE3YWBN39AU9NLDKGF_mh46QZ9LrZSSI2Kax1dOy8KBbSCUAs5e0pIy5Htuc1TFhZI/s1600/IMG_5262.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" nfa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2Wd8JwEg0fxHQ7FFN1qZvIBMqzJE8a9mXBkYN81Z2dCyP29wn7NbC3JHTgzH9P_VUH5ddoBzsrsE3YWBN39AU9NLDKGF_mh46QZ9LrZSSI2Kax1dOy8KBbSCUAs5e0pIy5Htuc1TFhZI/s320/IMG_5262.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Season of mists . . . " morning on the river near Broxbourne.</span></div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigsy45gbZZuBGBWXwwH26J2_Ur_zv321piCYmuYoA8VdJbRG4Wv8hmMoTCt4pnSE65Hf2jTyO20zqxKS79qrnZBZkb4Yc9gN0n31_EnI8Ci7kn1c820lcL9J7yHCzdhc23_EPyWx8fV84/s1600/IMG_5263.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" nfa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigsy45gbZZuBGBWXwwH26J2_Ur_zv321piCYmuYoA8VdJbRG4Wv8hmMoTCt4pnSE65Hf2jTyO20zqxKS79qrnZBZkb4Yc9gN0n31_EnI8Ci7kn1c820lcL9J7yHCzdhc23_EPyWx8fV84/s320/IMG_5263.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Michael and Christine came and stayed with us again – with Faith this time, who had just moved near to the river at Cheshunt. They certainly enjoyed themselves, so we look forward to seeing them on board again before too long..</span></div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbyfuHWvoN3nZFqcTFF9ZT6st5DLtxmZfziBNqJ5mu7TIAa26o6zKL-w4x2zzdwsTnzbh43krTsSDhyphenhyphenBExVceX9VeIIOEz0Qmf3ZE1jkKlxc2z5B8l8DUZwEGtRRAEpt6p1NmOzm86GI8/s1600/IMG_5271.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" nfa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbyfuHWvoN3nZFqcTFF9ZT6st5DLtxmZfziBNqJ5mu7TIAa26o6zKL-w4x2zzdwsTnzbh43krTsSDhyphenhyphenBExVceX9VeIIOEz0Qmf3ZE1jkKlxc2z5B8l8DUZwEGtRRAEpt6p1NmOzm86GI8/s320/IMG_5271.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Back through London in glorious late October sunshine. This is the Hertford Union Canal, just over a mile long, with 3 locks, running beside Victoria Park and linking the Regent's Canal with the River Lee.</span></div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMShFox9RWz3u5SyhVCeeqpOIh9cgAu6S9DT4EMDHdgcB7WPTBKG0LaqCPBswQnRqKPh32MQsAx7kH9dA4NbJc-QQys9-ddEaJP2rgUtxBjoszJdBwqSx3dLW-2wA64hGMhl7Cdmdj8zY/s1600/IMG_5281.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" nfa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMShFox9RWz3u5SyhVCeeqpOIh9cgAu6S9DT4EMDHdgcB7WPTBKG0LaqCPBswQnRqKPh32MQsAx7kH9dA4NbJc-QQys9-ddEaJP2rgUtxBjoszJdBwqSx3dLW-2wA64hGMhl7Cdmdj8zY/s320/IMG_5281.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After another couple of nights in Paddington Basin, we set off back north. Dan joined us at Croxley (near Rickmansworth) and came as far as Berkhamsted. Great having him (and Raffa!) on board again, if only for a couple of days.</span></div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2JuFozp18x97t05tyamIH7d6Ortu8L2FUPKfkG4hKJ3nnRrYTR7ytBtkwuYohiFNmFZMQhnineUhziyWSFoQEdOkMjwNQ5VcCJfzPPaa88Pddp2v5IlXcXdzImbaKZnBnGEpR0UMHLsE/s1600/Val_IMG_1136.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" nfa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2JuFozp18x97t05tyamIH7d6Ortu8L2FUPKfkG4hKJ3nnRrYTR7ytBtkwuYohiFNmFZMQhnineUhziyWSFoQEdOkMjwNQ5VcCJfzPPaa88Pddp2v5IlXcXdzImbaKZnBnGEpR0UMHLsE/s320/Val_IMG_1136.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was late October now but the autumn colours were only just starting to show.</span></div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_9Pqk0ir0PGJQz6n8w8Xa0zJa0ezQYfgGGCvqVWjN2jAO6D95JcYa2gKkw8EnlgVrJn_H7CS9TZfQw3GgQfIDymkBqoXU-YBm2vma85uTJGxD-5J7-wAFjVE4NryqOJydo9R3aGiy9Mc/s1600/IMG_5289.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" nfa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_9Pqk0ir0PGJQz6n8w8Xa0zJa0ezQYfgGGCvqVWjN2jAO6D95JcYa2gKkw8EnlgVrJn_H7CS9TZfQw3GgQfIDymkBqoXU-YBm2vma85uTJGxD-5J7-wAFjVE4NryqOJydo9R3aGiy9Mc/s320/IMG_5289.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's that same cottage at Marsworth again - Virginia Creeper at its best!</span></div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-e_qo54aJv0OvTkwJxkxM6KTaAljbnjMkAQMAsl2cXsfthHsJHAGJfcaoI590r3xaOsGABSlnevB53Fl_dVkTrbD7mwjmMn_jz-dpuak4-uThEw2S3IbMho3BoJ_wxMyWj3MCbdn9Ycs/s1600/IMG_5296.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" nfa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-e_qo54aJv0OvTkwJxkxM6KTaAljbnjMkAQMAsl2cXsfthHsJHAGJfcaoI590r3xaOsGABSlnevB53Fl_dVkTrbD7mwjmMn_jz-dpuak4-uThEw2S3IbMho3BoJ_wxMyWj3MCbdn9Ycs/s320/IMG_5296.JPG" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Misty morning sunshine near Old Linslade.</span></div><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgglhAWjHSBKM_6pQfNXNXysH3fNEaIKlvuQFSShd-Pza014GQIXeA_uZCcbfdrMbT8ACIy1HYe6_ZSIE9bIsBirHXtbjfF9FH_WYZmeDCtd66dF0Y6_oDLXBP-9Fx7DHztkZN9X0Yyc8M/s1600/IMG_5305.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" nfa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgglhAWjHSBKM_6pQfNXNXysH3fNEaIKlvuQFSShd-Pza014GQIXeA_uZCcbfdrMbT8ACIy1HYe6_ZSIE9bIsBirHXtbjfF9FH_WYZmeDCtd66dF0Y6_oDLXBP-9Fx7DHztkZN9X0Yyc8M/s320/IMG_5305.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, back to Blisworth, mooring by the towpath for a couple of nights before checking back into Blisworth marina for the winter! If you look carefully, you can see Zindagi's wind turbine!</span></div></div></div>Dave and Val Taylorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10915849948015217650noreply@blogger.com2