Floods Ferry to Gayton Junction

April 28th.

Well I hadn’t planned of starting the blog until we were on the way to Brum and pastures new, but a few funny things have happened, as usual.


On leaving P’boro , we were told by a boater travelling in the opposite direction to keep to the right on entering Alwalton lock. Hmmm, his right? or our right?, so Mick decides the best place is in the middle of the nene. NO> ! with a “schlursching” sound we ran onto a large bank of shale. ! A passing canoeist asked “ isn’t it marked on your map?” errr, if it had of been we wouldn’t be here, would we. Says I.
He said sorry and went on his way. A phone call to the Environement Agency, and within 30 mins, they opened the lock gates and flushed some water down to us, and they put us through the lock. Well done, blokes.

We cruised on the Ashton backwater and waited for J&M+2 to catch up with us, and enjoyed flying displays by 2 nesting Red Kites. Also there were members of a boat club, and they were in party mode, for sure.We were invited to join in the gossiping and slurping around the camp-fires, but we have a job staying awake after 10pm.!

Our chums soon caught up with us, as did Steph on Witchboy, with her elderly dog Bess and the new pup, Midge( 9 months old). Blimey, she is into everything, chasing the other dogs, nicking their sticks and toys and to top it all, she went sniffing along the party boats and came racing back with something shocking pink in hr mouth. On closer inspection they turned out to be a large pair of lady’s knickers belonging to the large lady on the boat in front. !!!!!!! We were howling with laughter, when we heard the folks coming back along the tow-path, so Steph was sent back to replace the pants. I think she threw them into a patch of nettles.

Bye Bye

Thats it until next year.


Next year proposed cruis will be Oxford Canal, Kennet and Avon and London then up the Grand Union.

Bye for now and thanks for following...........Is there anybody there ???????

Had a trundle down to Milton Keynes and managed to met up for a couple of hours with those busy people – Pete and Mel. Great to see you both. Sorry if you had a bad head the next day. Nothing to do with us. !!!! will see you in the fens.

Sadly didn’t manage a meet-up with Ricky and Val, this time. But I know for sure we will be seeing them over the autumn/winter.

Anyway we arrived at Cosgrove Lock on Monday. We ended up staying all day and night as sadly, a boater had been found in the lock. 2 boats moving down the lock on Monday morning, one had gone on his way, and unfortunately the other boat, got the man caught in their prop. It is thought that he had fallen into the lock on Sunday night and drowned. Shocking for the boat that caught him and very sad . Locks are so dangerous and some of the things you see being done at locks beggars belief, especially where children are concerned.

So, with that, we pushed off on Tuesday morning to met-up with Steph on Witchboy and the new pup, Midge . She still has dear old Bess ( 14yrs) and now has Midge( 13 weeks). All dogs got on fine. Midge had a great time annoying them all.Not really, her and Ben, had a great game of tag, making us howl with laughter.

Then we sort of lost her, but she had only fallen asleep in the hedge !.. come on, everybody aaaahhhhh. Finlay waited until I wasn’t looking and boggered off through the hedge( he didn’t fall asleep !). He found a bunny-filled field. BUT eventually came back via the road and hump-backed bridge. Just standing in middle of road. No sence.
Then that Midge tried to get on NB Barron, didn’t quite make it, and we heard her crying and hanging by one paw to the side. She had quite a soggy backside and it was the first time that she had fallen in, but she onl’y half fell in, anyway.

At the moment, she is small enough to sit in the life-ring, whilst on top of the boat, and she will be nearly as big as Finlay, when fully grown. Nice size.Well Steph is totally captivated by her, and that the way it should be

So we sat on the tow-path and had pre-dinner drinks as you do, and the next morning we set off with J&M+2, in the rain. Steph not ready to come home yet, so she is trundling off down to MK, as well.

Now we are back on the lovely Nene, and I have the laundry out in the cow-pat filled meadow. ( there you go, Scoob. A picture of the washing! Don’t think I have done another pic, this time, have I ?)

Sorry, keep losing signal. will put it on, later.

Trundle from Cracks Hill, Crick.

Trundle with candles lit. !

Well, since there was to be no meet-up with Scooby and RitaRose, we decided to really shift and got through Nottingham, Loughborough and up Foxton and down the Watford flights. This meant 2 x7hr – 8hr days. Unheard of for us. But quite normal for hire boats.

I had a bit of an accident at Mountsorrel lock. Lockside is quite high, so had my leg up in the air( so to speak) and was pushing off the boat with my other leg,and the mat slipped. ! ( I thought it was my small beer belly getting in the way, but Mick assures me it was the mat). Anyway I fell backward twixt side of lock and Trundle, but was grabbed by my hero( that would be Mick, not a part of my anatomy).I was just about to be squashed like a bug. Felt a bit of a twit, at the time. And now a few days later, I have some colourful bruises on knee, arm and bottom.


Came to Cracks Hill at Crick.This is a place where all NB’s want to moor up, then walk up the hill and take a pic of the boat. See pic. But the name is quite unusual , so I sent out some texts for anyone wanting to Crack a Joke. Out of 6, 3 replies. ! First one up was a phone call from Scooby, 5 mins after receiving the text asking “ are you cracking up “. Oooh my sides are aching –NOT. 2nd was a text from Yorky Chris saying “in view of micks age should be called crocks hill “ ! not bad, not bad. The 3rd was from Jim and Mar +2, saying “ as our minds are pure, we can;’t think of any jokes relating to cracks ! “.. Hooo Hooo. Yeah, right. !



Got as far as Norton Junction, to find chums Jim and Maralyn + 2( cairns) on NB Barron No 1, were at the bottom of the Buckby flight. ! Quel surpreese !

So after waiting for our shopping to be delivered by Mr Tesco, they kindly got the locks ready and helped us down the flight. This was to cost us in scotch, but fait price to pay. !!!!
After enquring as to what they were up to. They have decided to have a trundle down to Milton Keynes, with us.
We are hoping to see Mel and Pete.( becoming a bit of a tradition now, that when we finish our travels around canals, and before we go down to Northampton, we cruise to bridge 81, moor up and have a few winy old evenings with them. Handy as they live 2 mins from the bridge ).

Also attempting to meet up with Rick and Val( another tradition). However, if not to be I am sure they will come and visit us in The Fens, duck. !

Weather has turned a bit grim, but we are on a pretty tow-path, and its pre-dinner drinks on the boat behind tonight.

Oooh, while I remember and not sure if Richard is still looking at the blog, but “Have a good cruise to York. Hope the tidal Great Ouse treats thee kindly “.

Newark again.


A picture of a nice brewery building for Mikey !


We had fun and games on the BW mooring, but hopefully things may be addressed now. To cut a very long story short. We rolled up to the 48hr mooring
to find continous cruisers taking up space and all the electric, and they had been there for more then 48h rs. In my capacity as Menopausal Woman, I stormed into BW office and did a loooooonnnngggg email and a little ditty,to boot.

I received a fairly good response, so I have to accept that BW are going to keep an eye on these folks.They were rude to Mick and gave not a thought to the boaters who abide by the rules. Heyho.

Anyway Newark, what a gem of a town. Look at this little schoolhouse built in 1529. !


Well,, we had been moving along in the hope that we were going to be able to meet up with Scooby and Rita on FestinaLente. But the timings were off. We really needed to get some canal under our belt to bump up the batteries. So it was sad to know that our meet-up with them wasn’t going to happen. HOWEVER, it looks like they may be going the same place as us next year. So we will definitely see them. Whey hey. And they are coming to visit us during the winter ! Hey and NO MORE STITCH-UPS, YOU TWO!!!!

When we came through Cromwell Lock, we had moored up next to another boater, who just happened to be a lock-keeper there.He is also a chum of Scooby and Rita. Anyway, he came out of his boat and we started a bit of chit-chat . After a few moments he asked us the name of our boat “Trundle”. “ oh, I know this boat” says he.
I’m thinking , yeah, lots of folks know the Weed boats, she’s lovely isn’t she. “ this boats a stolen one, isn’t it ?”. “YER WHAT?” says I. (Mick, in the meantime has spotted his name tag, and knows exactly who he is, and is willing to keep it going. Most of you know how gullible, I am !!!!). “ I don’t bleddy think so”” she is an ex-hire boat!” My eyes are firing dasggers at this bloke. He takes note and then says “ sorry, I can’t keep this going, SCOOBY asked me to wind you up!” well, he did a very good job, and it still makes us laugh. We’ll getcha, Scoob !!!!! when you are least expecting it. !!!!

NEWARK and Great Beer

So, after saying Hasta Luego( bye but see you again) to Richard, we trundled back to Keadby for our Sunday crossing to Cromwell Lock. We were only doing this in one go,as it was a very high tide and that would move us along quickly before it turned. So, little Trundle, instead of moseying along at 3/4mph, was fair galloping at 6/7 mph.

There was a Lincoln chapter of Harley Davidson riders out for a jaunt, and they had stopped at Keadby to see what was going on, so they gave us a send-off, as we shot out of the lock. Whey hey. I am putting a picture on here for Brian Hight in Spain.come on then Brian, get yerself a jacket like this. ! dump that one you got from Lidl. !!!!

So all uneventful, got to Cromwell and managed to get on a pontoon, so no probs getting Finlay on and off. Cromwell lock is great for boaters and anyone who likes the water, there are bbq tables, and its lovely and clean. Great place for a party. !

Next day, Newark on Trent. Wow, what a great town.
Full of history, castle ruins on the river bank, hanging baskets and tubs of flowers everywhere. A square that is so big,it reminded us of a Spanish plaza. And the icing on the cake was………

Just Beers – micropub. I will explain. As we had come through the lock, the lock-keeper had given us a postcard about this place, and said we should try it, he had never been in anything like it before etc etc. So moored up,and went in search of this place.. After a while and after asking a few folks, we arrived at the door, poked in our heads ………………and decided to try just one beer, before our return later that evening.

Let me try and give you a clear picture. A long room,benches along the sides, so that no-one has their back to anyone else, a selection of 7 real ales and 1 cider..NO spirits, NO alcopops, no coffee.

Just real beer, and conversation. As soon as we walked in, (I had thought we might have to walk out again as we had FINLAY, bleddy dog always ruins our fun !!! only joking, finno, ), we were talking to strangers. Mick was quite animated, and then he mentioned Gordon Brown, and everyone glazed over and we all said that we didn’t want to talk politics. Anyway it was a good crack, and as I said we had to take Finlay back for his dinner, so we only had the one.

But we would return………………….about 1 hour later actually !!! We had a great night, and would be returning the following evening.We did and had another lovely evening. Only wished we could have stopped for another pint. Boy , that beer was something.

So here is the website, and I urge anyone passing near or through Newark to pay them a visit.
and have a look at the website anyway, we like their ethics. !

http://www.justbeermicropub.biz/

We would like to wish Phil and his team every success. Such a great idea.

Next Post= Newark and BWW( British Waterways Wallies),

In the next flight of locks there are 23 in about 1.25 miles.
Each and every one really pretty, Each and every one walkable. Each and every one with a Trevor.

The world could do with a few more Trevors. This lovely man has been involved with the Chesterfield Canal for about 30 odd years. He has helped to clear it, dredge it and now he looks after it and helps everyone through the locks.

After our pump-out, sorry to keep mentioning this, but we realised that we did not have any Elsan Blue( this is needed , as it sort of looks after the holding tank, by keeping it sweet smelling, well not really, but it stops it from smelling, if you know what I mean). We had asked the other BW guys, and they said that there was a caravan park nearby, So Mick and I thought we might hop on a bus and go get some.

Trevor at some point got to hear of this.( that could have been via moi !)

Anyway, the weather was glorious, and the 2 boats and Trevor made a steady progress up the flight. And what a pretty flight of locks.

At the end its was a bit of an anti-climax, as there is a filled-in tunnel, and a winding hole and you have to turn around, moor up, and happily get yourself off t’pub.
We did. and as there is only one pub ( slightly dodgy), it wasn’t hard for Trevor to find us. He had got in his vehicle and gone to the caravan site and got us our Elsan Blue, and I , received a lovely bunch of wild mint. Mmmmmmm.
By the time we negotiated our way from t’pub and t’boat.after a LOT of BEER. It had become all scrumpled up, but it went into the freeze box, and I made some mint sauce. So that was it.
Just a case of coming all the way down again, and with Trevors help. Great weather yet again. Are we righteous ? or what ?. !!!

Richard came back part of the way with us and we had the “ last nights pre-dinner drinkies” at Osberton Hall, where we had moored on the way up. Not actually "at the Hall". but on our lovely bit of tow-path, amongst the reeds and flowery stuff, that Richard/Botanist knew all the names of. !!!