Tag: canal

Traffic jam on the Llangollen Canal

It has been the quietist summer on British canals for many years. Volunteers from the Canal & River Trust tell me that boat numbers are down a third on last year. There are many reasons for this including a post Covid desire to go abroad, prices being too high from hire companies, and the very wet weather. However that has all changed since the beginning of September and this week on the Llangollen canal has been as busy as any I can remember,

The Llangollen is notoriously a very busy canal and we would not usually have chosen to travel it till later in the month. Often when the kids have gone back to school, retirees get their boats out of the marinas and busy the network. But we had the opportunity to travel with Mandy’s two brothers and their partners, who we’re hiring a boat for a week. It has been a lovely week. We have been down to the very end of the pretty Montgomery Canal, and then along to Llangollen, over the famous Pontcyscyllte aqueduct.

For some reason I don’t understand it is not just old folk like us on the canal this week. Every hire firm seems to have been fully booked for the first time this year, and the cut is full of holiday boaters., We have met groups from America, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden as well as English and Welsh. Why are they all travelling this week?

It has made some of the navigating a little tricky. There was one moment where I thought there would be a standoff between the queue of westbound boats who could not get into a single track tunnel because of boats coming the other way, and a queue of eastbound boats who could not leave the basin after the tunnel because of boats on the aqueduct coming the other way.

Having said that, it has been a really lovely week, full of beauty, adventure, engineering and family. Not a bad way to spend a week… and my life.

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I hate weed

There are certain jobs on a narrowboat that are not very nice. Pumping out the toilet tank is perhaps the worst. But pulling weed and rubbish from around the prop comes a close second. And this week’s canal from Chester to Ellesmere Port is one of the weediest in the country.

If you drive through the vegetation at normal speed, the propellor turns and pulls the weed around it. This causes the steering to fail, the boat to go much slower, and even the engine to stall. To avoid this, there are techniques we have learnt. Drive at speed up to the patch of weed, and then take it out of gear. The boat hopefully floats through the weed unscathed. Or if you do get some weed, try a hard reverse to “spin” it off again. But if neither of these works, you have to moor up the boat, lift the deck boards, climb into the engine bay, unscrew the weed hatch cover, reach down into the murky cold water and pull the weed off the prop and rudder. Fortunately this week I have only had to do that a few times.

It was worth the effort though, because we were able to moor for two nights in the middle of the National Waterways Museum at Ellesmere Port.

I have written in a previous blog about nights in the museum, but suffice to say it is one of our favourite moorings in the mornings and evenings when no-one is around and we have the place to ourselves. It is also a place full of history, where the Shropshire Union Canal joins the huge Manchester Ship Canal and the River Mersey. In times past it would have been a dirty, noisy dock with hundreds of workers and surrounded by heavy industry. A quiet place today, full of memories.

My son Rob says he loves most of my blogs but not the ones where I complain about something that has annoyed me this week. Sorry Rob but I don’t like weed.

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Is it autumn already?

It has been a lovely week on the cut (canals). After last week’s heatwave it has settled down to around 21°C each day which is very pleasant. At the same time we are beginning to notice it is not fully light first thing in the morning, and it is dark when we go to bed. There have been a few mornings where it is cold enough for a mist to rise from the canal when I take the dogs out. And some leaves are just beginning to turn brown at the edges.

August is too early for autumn. It is still the school summer holidays in England and many of the crops are still growing in the fields. But it is the end of summer, and there is a flavour in the air of what is to come.

I love days like these. Warm enough for shorts but not too warm. Sunrises and sunsets. When we set off in March it seemed as if this cruise would last forever, but we are already beginning to plan how we can get in everything we want before the end of this year’s adventure – our annual visit to the boat museum in Ellesmere Port, a week sharing a holiday on the Llangollen with Mandy’s brothers and partners, one last trip on the Shroppie and Staffs & Worcester.

The important thing for me, and not my natural instinct, is to put that planning aside and enjoy every day. Being retired is like being on a narrowboat. It is not about the destination, it is about loving the journey, whether in winter, spring, summer or autumn.

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Farewell to the Macc

This week we are back properly cruising the canals of the UK and have travelled down the beautiful Macclesfield Canal (the Macc) to rejoin the Trent and Mersey.

The Macc is quiet compared with the great canal & river thoroughfares such as the T&M, the Grand Union or the Thames. It has a reputation for being shallow, which is probably well deserved given closures in recent years, but this year we have had plenty of rain, and while some edges can be shallow, we did not find it too difficult to navigate. There is just one hire company and so most of our fellow boaters were either continuous cruisers like ourselves, or based in Lyme View marina, near Wilmslow.

After nearly six weeks with little movement it has been wonderful for us and the dogs to get back to what we love – pootling along and enjoying the journey. Sadly one of the reasons for our delay was vets tests for our dog Ziggy who it turns out has advanced cancer of the pancreas and bladder. There is nothing to be done so while as yet she is showing few symptoms, we have decided to make her last months as much fun as possible. That means cruising on the canals, cuddling and eating sausages.

We have three weeks from today to get to Ellesmere on the Llangollen canal, where we will meet up with Mandy’s two brothers and their wives who have hired a boat to share a holiday with us. We are really looking forward to that. Three weeks should be plenty of time, hopefully enough to also allow us a side trip up to Chester.

We are of course somewhat subdued with Ziggy’s news, but we are still loving the boating life, as is she.

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Why are we not moving the narrowboat?

We have sold our house, visited our sons, sorted the packing. And now we are back at the boat. The plan was to be back on the move by now. So why are we still moored in Lyme View Marina?

It is all about Ziggy. We have two dogs – Lulu and Ziggy. Last week we took them to the vets to get their teeth cleaned. Lulu was fine but when the vets checked Ziggy’s blood, she was found to have really low sugar levels. Since then she has undergone a number of tests and the vets have ruled out the most common diseases. We have left Scotland because we no longer have a house, but the vet there has called us to say the most likely problem is an insulinoma, a growth on the pancreas.

So rather than setting off on our journeys we have registered with a local vet near Manchester and are waiting for a an ultrasound scan to see what is going on. Ziggy seems fine in herself so hopefully it is not too serious, although the prognosis for insulinoma is not great.

In all honesty I am finding it a little frustrating. I want to be back on “the cut”, cruising the canals. But Ziggy is family and family comes first.

At least this gives us time to do some house hunting and have some adventures. It was not my plan, but sometimes plans have to change. Apparently.

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Houseless not homeless

By the time this blog is published, we will be houseless. After nearly two years on the market our house in Scotland should complete its sale today and will have new owners – a lovely family who will get to enjoy the history of this nineteenth century farmhouse which became swallowed by a new town in the shale oil revolution around 1900.

I deliberately use the word “houseless” not “homeless” because we still have a home on our narrowboat. Dictionaries define “home” as simply the house where you live, but I think it means more. You know you are home when you sit down with a happy sigh. It is the place where you feel most comfortable and most safe. So much more than a house.

And when we arrived back at the boat last night we immediately felt at home. It just feels so right to be here. Putting all our stuff into storage this week has been pretty stressful. It has also reminded me how over the years we have collected things that we really don’t need. We are no happier in a house surrounded by chattels than we are in the boat where we have very little.

We do still want a house as a base for winters, and for the future when we can no longer operate locks or moveable bridges. Next week we will be staying with our eldest son and his fiancée near Brighton. We are looking forward to seeing them and their new home. And when we then return to the boat, we will properly start our house hunt.

But for now it is great to be home on Narrowboat Thuis. Entirely appropriately “Thuis” is Dutch for “home”.

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Is buying or selling a house more stressful?

Mandy and I have moved house twelve times since we have been together. It has become a joke amongst some of our friends who say they never know where to send the Christmas card. I often claimed that it had just become normal for us. People would ask me why I never wanted to put down roots. I would say that we are just good at setting up a new home anywhere we go.

But this time feels more stressful.

As you know we are retired and spend more than half the year on our narrowboat. That certainly feels like home when we are there. But we want to keep a house for the winter, when it is muddy. We want to keep a house for when we get bored of the boat or are too infirm to open locks. We want to keep a house so we have somewhere with a little more space for our stuff.

And this time, instead of moving for my work, we are moving closer to Mandy’s family and friends, from Scotland to Lancashire. This week we have been spending time in both as we look to sell and buy.

The sale process has been fraught. We have been “on the market” for two years and twice we have thought the sale was happening. The first time the buyer turned out not to have the money after several months. The second time, the chain of buyers fell apart at the last moment. We have waited and we hope that in two weeks we will be moved out. It has been stressful, and the solicitors are still throwing out last minute complications such as whether we can find some paperwork the council signed off when we did work on the house seven years ago. But the removal company is booked and we have begun things like cancelling utilities. We have not enjoyed selling the house at all.

We have tried to keep buying a house less stressful but we have failed. The idea was not to look at houses until we were sure the sale was happening. Our plan instead is to live on the boat while we look. But last time we were confident and found a lovely house. Of course that has gone after the failed sale, so this week we have been looking again, with our fingers crossed on the sale. This weekend we are driving round Lancashire viewing our shortlist of houses. This should be an enjoyable time. It should be exciting to find our new home. But for some reason we are not feeling excited. Perhaps it is the worry that the sale could still fail. Perhaps it is the worry that we will make a bad choice. We are not enjoying buying the house at all.

I am naturally a very positive person. I am confident it will all work out for the best. But I don’t this stress. Maybe it is because I no longer have the stress of work, so this seems like a bigger deal. Maybes it is because it is summer, and we would rather be back on the canals. But we just want to hide in our narrowboat.

First world problems eh?

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Narrowboating on the road to nowhere

This milestone is next to Marple locks on the Peak Forest Canal. I like it because it represents much of our life on a narrowboat. We travel. We see places. We plan our routes. But ultimately we have no destination. It is the journey we enjoy. That is so different to travelling in a car, where the destination is everything, and the journey is just about getting there.

And by enjoying the journey, we discover more. This week we have found wonderful moorings, just avoided big delays from closures, and been on adventures.

Starting with the adventures, I walked along a long old tramway that used to carry limestone from the Peak District down to the canal. I had a day out in Buxton, the highest town in England with history back to the Romans. And I walked to the foot of the Marple Aqueduct, the highest stone aqueduct in the UK.

The canal stoppages included a whole stretch of the Macclesfield canal which is currently closed due to the canal leaking. This is extremely serious because not only could it cause flooding of nearby land, but it could also lead to the whole of the canal draining and leaving us boaters marooned. We also found ourselves stopped halfway up the Marple lock flight, when a “pound” between two locks had drained due to a paddle being left up. And when the lock keepers let more water down to help us, the water flooded a brand new house that has been built next to the flight while it has been closed for the past ten months. Someone will need a word with that surveyor!

And we stayed at two of my most favourite moorings on the whole canal network. Bugsworth basin is like a dock at the end of the Peak Forest Canal, near Whaley Bridge, with space for up to forty narrowboats. Originally it would have been used to transship the limestone from the tramway onto boats to carry around the country. These days it is full of wild flowers and geese. So it has a dramatic mixture of old ruins and nature. Also a very good pub.

My other favourite mooring is further up that canal on an isolated stretch, with an incredible view down into the valley at a village called Strines. Apart from the occasional hiker or cyclist we have the place to ourselves, and it is just so very chilled. A beautiful midpoint on our journey to nowhere.

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Ten reasons to love and hate the Rochdale and Ashton Canals

We completed the Rochdale and Ashton canals this week. Both have pretty terrible reputations as they go through some of the most deprived areas of Manchester. But what is the truth? Let’s consider some of the stories you hear.

1. They are really hard work. True. The Ashton out of Manchester is just lock after lock. The Rochdale has very heavy lock gates and some of the paddles require super human strength. Some of the pounds between the locks drain all too easily, leaving the boat grounded. Everything is doable but it is hard work.

2. They are very beautiful. True. I was not expecting quite how beautiful considering the canals travel through areas that once were heavy industry. Calderdale between Sowerby Bridge and the summit is particularly lovely, as is the top end of the Ashton as it joins the Peak Forest.

3. They are full of junk. Sadly true. We lots count of shopping trolleys, items of clothing, plastic bottles in the canals. The trick is to keep the boat in the middle of the canal, but even then we found ourselves stuck on silt banks and with a coat wrapped around our propellor.

4. There are lots of dodgy characters. Partly true. As with all city centre canals there are occasional drug users and inquisitive kids, but we found that if we engaged with them as human beings there was no trouble,

5. The canals are hard to navigate. Mostly false. So long as you don’t try to go too fast, stay away from the junk, and fill up empty pounds, it is not so difficult.

6. They keep getting blocked. True. Failing locks and falling trees caused five or six blockages while we were on these canals. One or two of them looked as if they might delay us for weeks. The fact is that the Canal and River Trust no longer do preventative maintenance. They just fix things when they break. I understand they have no money but I think that is a mistake.

7. You can’t find somewhere to moor. True. The canals are very silted so it is not possible to moor by most towpaths. There are numerous locks with no mooring between them. The good news however is that we found some fantastic moorings. Hats off to the Hopwood Arms for fantastic fresh pizza and allowing me to use their water tap to fill my boat.

8. They are low on water. False right now. By reputation these canals can run out of water because the locks leak so badly, and we did experience this a little but in general it has been a very wet year. Bad for our moods but good for keeping the canals filled.

9. No one uses these canals. True for the Rochdale. The Ashton Canal forms part of the “Cheshire Ring” and so gets a fair few boats, but the Rochdale was very very quiet. We saw a few hire boats between Sowerby Bridge and Hebden Bridge, but between Todmorden and Central Manchester no more than six or seven boats travelling like us.

10. They are good to do once but that’s all. False. I must admit when we had finished the long final day into Manchester on the Rochdale I did say “never again”. But I think the pluses make it worth it. Lovely dramatic canals with a great mix of countryside and old industry. We will be back…. one day.

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Going over the top

This week we have been travelling on the Rochdale Canal, from Sowerby Bridge over the Pennines to Littleborough and then next week to Manchester. I have avoided doing “the Rochdale” on our travels because it has a negative reputation of being very very hard work. But the plus side is the very dramatic countryside, especially when you go over the top to an aptly named village called “Summit”.

The reputation for being hard work has been borne out, with low water levels, heavy lock gates and sticky paddles, as well as a tree across the canal. And we have not done the hardest bit yet, the run down to Manchester Piccadilly. But we have had a good week, visiting an area where we used to live – Calderdale, home to the “Happy Valley” TV series – in real life with fewer murders.

We have had an evening and a day with Mandy’s brother Stephen, helping manage the locks, and our son Tin has popped by to bring us various post from home. So it has been a week of scenery, family and aching muscles. A good week.

Next week through Manchester. Wish me luck!

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