90.5 miles,
56 locks and 3 tunnels from Dunham Massey
Tuesday 5th June
Decided to stay put.
Not a very exiting day weather wise, looked like rain all day but didn't
come to anything until about half three.
Mac is doing our heads in and we didn't sleep too well. He is now firmly in love with Mabel and we
are having to keep them apart!! Not sure
how much longer she is going to be so interesting but I hope it is not too
long! Ziggy moved on mid morning and I
polished the starboard side of the boat.
The rain has already washed it down for me.
Monday 4th June
A bit brighter start to the day with sun in evidence and no
rain so made an early(ish) start down the lock in front of us followed by two
more. Made slow progress through a fishing match but they were a friendly enough
bunch. Soon enough we arrived at the Bratch.
Here we had time for a brew and sit out on a bench with the dogs waiting
for a boat to come up the staircase of three locks. No other boats arrived in the opposite
direction so the lock keeper let us descend earlier than he had predicted, and
the on to Bumble Hole lock with memories of getting drenched here twice a
couple of years ago, once on the boat and once when walking the dogs. Just to remind us we had a few spots of rain
shortly after passing through the lock. We cruised on to Greensforge
lock, filled with water and went for a late lunch at The
Navigation. We were going to stay the
night but on returning to the boat found someone moored next to us with a
generator running so they could watch TV.
Peace shattered we decided to move on down the lock, and two more, to
moor just beyond Gothersley lock at the site of the old roundhouse dating from
the year of Trafalgar and marking the site of an old wharf serving an ironworks
which existed here until the 1880's. Now
it is an official 5day mooring for about two boats and we have used it
before. Just as Bridie was preparing
dinner a boat called Ziggy from Rufford arrived and I took the rope to help
them moor up desperately trying to remember the chap steering. To those at Iggesund (if you are reading
this) it was Jim Fenwick, enjoying his retirement and now living all year round
on Ziggy, heading down to Sharpness.
Sunday 3rd June
Rained
heavily in the night and still raining all day. We have chickened out
and stayed put. Bridie did not have a very good nights sleep
and we decided we might as well enjoy the peace on the mooring we have -
no
road noise, no houses, only boats and walkers.
Put TV ariel up but Digital TV as bad as ever really do not know why we
pay a TV license fee giving the
pathetic coverage terrestial tv has, Digital means you get total picture
break
up and sound loss whereas we used to just get a fuzzy picture but ok
sound. However we did manage to watch
the Diamond Jubilee boat parade on the Thames
Saturday 2nd June
Cloudy and not very warm at all today. It rained a bit in the night so was rather
damp this morning and was threatening rain all day, then finally started to
rain again in the evening. We decided to stay on our rather nice mooring and go
off for a walk with the dogs. Retraced
our path back up the towpath to last bridge and took Greyhound Lane up to the old railway
bridge to join the trackbed of the Kingswinford railway line. We walked as far as Wombourne station which
closed in 1932. The station building and
platform survive as a cafe and we would have stopped for coffee but all the
tables (3) on the platform were in use, one occupied by a couple with very
noisy dogs that were not going to let us and our two have any peace. Another family arriving with dogs at the same
time turned and left as well. We walked
down the lane to the Bratch and then followed the towpath back past the
staircase and next three locks to our mooring.
No comments:
Post a Comment