Ditch crawling 20th to 23rd July

After a day trip over to C Fest at Gnosall on the Shropshire Union canal, helping out on the IWA stand, I was joined by my longest known friend, Sarah. She's a secondary school teacher and was still vibrating from the end of term, so we headed out into quiet countryside so she could decompress.

The plan was to head up the Ashby Canal. It's remote and peaceful, with no locks and only glancing contact with towns and villages.

But, it's notoriously shallow, and with the weather having been so hot and dry, the levels were low. We had to go quite slowly so that our wash didn't cause a wave.. it's called a breaking wash.

Sarah didn't like it. She didn't like it at all. I could tell her we were fine, we hadn't hit bottom once, we would continue to be fine, all I liked, she was certain of disaster. 

So at the next available turning point, we turned around.. and disaster struck! Plenty of water beneath us, but a big builder's bag, the type you deliver gravel in, was wrapped around our prop, so tightly that the engine cut out.  So the barge pole had to be deployed.. inevitably a boat arrived so we were holding them up.. then a second boat in the other direction.. they had a crew member on the bank who was able to help drag us round, through the bridge and onto a mooring. Phew!

I then had a go at tackling our obstruction. But it was just too heavy and thick so, having bruised both arms fairly thoroughly, recalled that the Waterways version of the AA, RCR, of which we are a member, will cover this problem, so I got on the phone. It was 5pm so we were fully expecting to wait until morning but, lo and behold, they turned up within the hour! The wonderful Jake got down to business with a number of dangerously jagged and sharp implements, and after 30 minutes or so had us sorted. Apologies but no photos.

Next morning we continued the retreat to the Coventry Canal. On our last evening we went to a pub called the Corner House.. adequate at best but decent chips. 

On 23rd, we rejoined the Coventry.

Sarah was leaving at the end of the day, so we had time to get to Hawkesbury Junction and lunch at the Greyhound Inn.

 A properly picturesque  locale so here come the pics. It's where the North Oxford and Coventry Canals meet.

Full of excellent refreshment, we then headed back to base. On the last stretch we were approaching a bridge when I could see lots of white water splashing around.  Clearly, a boat manoeuvring. Or a flock of swans breakdancing? So I stopped at the bridge and sure enough, there was a boat turning. They pulled over to let us past, pleasantries exchanged, very nice. At the marina, a short wait while another boat left the service wharf to moor up on the other side, so that I could get in.

Now marinas often have very small entrances and this one is no exception,  so that's tricky enough. Then once inside you have very little room to manoeuvre to reverse onto the mooring. Last time I messed up horribly so this time I dispatched Sarah to the bow to squeak if I was about to hit anything and if need be get the pole out to control the front end. Narrowboats really don't do well in reverse. Well, it all worked perfectly! No wind, no neighbour so a nice wide gap (relatively speaking) to fit in, Sarah impressed no end. And that boat that we had passed on the way csme straight behind us and the skipper was kind enough to say he felt under real pressure to match the perfection of my helming! Head immediately swollen..

Apologies again for the lack of pictures and thanks to Sarah for sharing hers.

A quiet night then back to Wales for a frantic set of events, hence the delay in posting.