Winter on the Shroppie

During our first winter as continuous cruisers, we have spent the last 38 days on the southern section of the Shropshire Union Canal. All 17 miles of it available to us because of winter closures. We have moved up and down, and up and down, stopping at Brewood (lovely butchers), Wheaton Aston,(sanitary station out of order most of the time), Gnosall (lovely butchers) and Norbury. We have also managed to find plentiful supplies of wood to feed the stove to keep us nice and warm. I would like to think that we have complied with the rules, and, more or less, I honestly beleive that we have. We have thoroughly enjoyed the villages, the local shops, and their inhabitants, and last night, we had the pleasure of looking at the Christmas lights displayed in Haughton. They were absolutely fantastic and raise a lot of money for charity. But, all good things must come to an end and we are now heading south on the Shroppie towards the Staffs and Worcs to Stafford. From there we will head over towards Tamworth and then who knows where? All in all, our first experience of continuous cruising is going well. Other continuous cruisers seem to be very friendly and willing to offer advice. What a lovely community and one I feel honoured to be part of! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all.

Winter maintenance...

One thing that I have noticed about the Shroppie is the standard of maintenance. I appreciate it was built later than some canals, but, most of the bridges seem to be in good condition and there is a reasonable depth of water in the canal. It has its problems with cuttings and embankments which will always cause problems... The main point of this latest blog though is that the Shroppie where I am cruising has just benefitted from the annual hedge to edge trim. I have first hand experience of this as one side of my boat IS COVERED IN A NICE SELECTION OF GRASS CUTTINGS, LEAVES AND MUD!!!

The Joys of Winter Cruising.....

The weather is mild, okay, there was a bit of a frost the other night and today was a little bit damp, but, the colours of the leaves on the trees up the Shroppie are a joy to behold. Add to this, no queues at the locks and plenty of space to moor even in the usually most popular places. If my memory serves me right, we only passed one boat on the move today. Every season has its moments and winter certainly has its fair share.

Winter is coming....

Well, the boat has been into a boatyard, the old Kabola Diesel heater has been removed and replaced by a brand new Morso Squirrel. And what a difference, the diesel heater was old and was not really controllable, the Squirrel is new and very controllable. We are now entering into our first 'real' winter afloat, we have lived on the boat for several years throughout the winter but always with a home mooring. We are now going to be genuine continuous cruisers. Currently, we are at Compton on the Staffs and Worcs. Been heer a couple of days and moving off tomorrow up the Shroppie. Probably go as far as Brewood, then on to Wheaton Aston and then Gnosall. So far so good. Presently having to rely mainly on coal for heating,apart from not having seen much 'free' wood,seen a bit on the non towpath side of the canal but who owns it? The chainsaw is still down south in the hands of my son and until I can get it back to the boat there is not a great deal I can do with fallen timber. Trying to cut it up with a bow saw just does not seem to be quite the same as using the chainsaw! Anyway, at the moment we are plenty warm enough and I have a long list of jobs that accumulated over the summer months that now need sorting over the winter months.... Speak to you soon...

Kingfishers....

It only seems a little while ago that we had a severe winter and the Kingfisher population was decimated as a result.... However, nature is a wonderful thing, and kingfishers seem to be thriving again. We see them every day now, sometimes several in a day, in such diverse places as Rugby, Nuneaton and Atherstone!! The difference though is that they seem to be much more people friendly, the other day one stayed on the branch as we passed by only 6 feet away, then there was the one that posed on the tiller of a moored boat as we passed, why oh why don't I have the camera ready for such shots....

A new beginning.....

The summer is now over, autumn is with us, it is the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. Soon it will be winter - where has this last year gone? After spending the summer in London doing voluntary work, we left Little Venice on the 10th September and cruised to Limehouse. Next day we exited Limehouse onto the tidal Thames at 0630 on a beautiful sunny morning and had a very nice cruise up to Teddington. After paying a small fortune for a Thames licence we set about cruising the non tidal river, hoping to go as far as Lechlade before going back onto the Oxford Canal an then back to the Midlands to spent the winter continuous cruising. We are now proper liveaboards again - our circumstances have changed and we have always wanted to do at least one winter continuous cruising. The weather had other ideas though..... we got as far as Abingdon and the Thames went into flood, red boards everywhere, we were stuck in Abingdon for five days. When we could eventually move again the lock keeper at Kings Lock advised that we get back onto the canal as soon as possible as more rain was forecast and he reckoned the red boards would be back the next weekend.... and he was right! So, we got back onto the canals..... and guess what, the River Cherwell went into flood as well and we had to stay put on the Oxford Canal for a couple of days! We are now past the river sections and are gently cruising northwards again without any worries. We have checked the winter stoppage lists and know roughly where and when we will be going. I shall not be writing my 'new' blog everyday, but, only on those days that I have something interesting to say or something to show you.

LONDON OLYMPICS 2012

This is Brownings Pool on the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal at Little Venice in London. This is to be my 'home' for the next ten weeks.  One of the houses in the background is valued at £5 million......!!!

I am here working voluntarily for the IWA on behalf of  C&RT to manage the western checkpoint on the exclusion zone imposed by the security services (note - imposed by the security services - not BW). It is our job to scrutinize all the boats that want to enter the exclusion zone to ensure that they have the right permits etc. before they proceed into the zone.  We have an 'office', kindly supplied by Black Prince Narrowboats.

At the end, which is 9th September, the IWA will benefit from a payment from C&RT similar to the  profits from recent 'Nationals'.  Other festival stalwarts are manning the eastern checkpoint and are mooring managers for the moorings let by C&RT for boaters attending the Olympics.

Whilst we have been in position for a few days (the exclusion zone came into force on 3rd July) our work starts tomorrow when several boats, moored on the transit moorings at Little Venice, check in at 0800 hrs, receive their paperwork, and then begin their journey from LV, down to Commercial Road Lock and into Limehouse Basin  for the night, before setting off up the Limehouse Cut at 0600 hrs onto the River Lee and then past the Olympic Stadium.  They may well be subjected to checks from armed police and sniffer dogs before starting their journey past the stadium..  They will not be able to stop on route until they have passed the eastern checkpoint situated at Lea Bridge on the River Lee.  Passacge past the Olympic site is only allowed between 0600 hrs and 0900 hrs, and 1900 hrs to 2100 hrs and is subject to immediate suspension dependant on the security state.

This system will continue for the next ten weeks to take in the Paralympics as well.   All passages have to be pre-booked, basically NO PERMIT - NO ENTRY.   If you do try and enter the exclusion zone without authority I have no doubt that you will receive a very quick visit from the local SWAT team!!!