Bye bye all

After a five year fight Lynda lost the last battle with the dreaded cancer she died at peace and in my arms at 7.25pm on December 13th.
So Amarantine which has been our haven for the last five years has had to go, we've laughed and cried on her, partied, got drunk, laid in bed and watch telly all day, but mainly we've done what the song says," we've been everywhere man never no trouble or care man we've been everywhere."
 Amarantine has always been a happy boat And i know her new owners are going to have as much fun and happiness as Lynda and I did and i wish them all the best.
 I will try and put some photos of Lynda up but as she always did the blog i may not manage it, anyway love to you all.

Ken.xx

Amarantine calls time!

For those of you who have been following my blog or Facebook you will know we have had a pretty rotten time of it recently.

The trip has now turned into an impossibility completely.  I have to go into hospital every day now for treatment, not compatible with boating.

I am home and Ken is now in the process of getting our boat back to Peterborough yacht club on our home mooring.

 We are planning on doing other things this year now.  We have a little Sportscar Z3 so will be able to make a bit more of her.  We're also toying with motorbikes.  

We won't be bored, I'm sure.

So on this sad note I am afraid I am calling time on Amarantine's Adventure for now.

Bye folks and thanks for following my blog. 

Plodding along

My apologies for not blogging more frequently just lately.  From my,previous post you may have gathered that we have both been very much not ourselves.

My last log was nearly three weeks ago.  Since then I have been back to Peterborough yet again and Ken has had more medication to try and fix his wheeziness.

I am pleased to report that Ken is now much improved, almost better than he was before.  Unfortunately not a lot has changed for me.  Still suffering with the shingles.  To add to this my regular treatment has now been scheduled for every week.  This has seriously messed up our holiday.  The plan is to now pootle around on the canals within about an hour and a half from home.  Please come and visit someone.  I am missing our travel buddies Brenda and Mick who have gone on to do the original trip.

I am also peed off because I cannot work it how to put photos onto this blog without chopping off people's heads!!

We will be home for a night on the 19th then every Tuesday after that.  If you want to visit contact me on Facebook or email at Lynda.freeman@btinternet.com.

We are moored at Rugely for tonight, tomorrow we are heading to one of our favourite places - Alrewas.  I hope to be able to post something more interesting in my next blog but at the moment we are not the ravers we usually are!!

Not part of the plan!!

Not part of the plan!

After months of planning, the plan went wrong!  We had no sooner waved Pete and Sharon off and the pain that had been nagging me increased to a crescendo!  We needed to get back to Peterborough.  With my history you never know what the problem might be.  Jon came collected us and dropped us off at A&E in Peterborough.  After five hours and some pain relief they sent me home with painkillers and a rather loose diagnosis of shingles.  I had this confirmed at my normal clinic appointment which had been due two days later.  I am probably the only person in history to be glad they only have shingles!!  Now we knew what was wrong we could get back to boating.  So we caught the bus back to Northampton and met up with Brenda and Mick who just arrived on their boat as we got back to ours, what perfect timing. 

Travelling with two boats does minimise the work involved at locks, so we have pushed on despite me feeling well under the weather.  I have had a couple of ok days, but if I just say, no alcohol has passed my lips you will know I am not myself at the moment.   Most days we have moored up and then collapsed into bed.  We are nearly at Coventry which I haven't been to before on the boat, so we will have a day cruising now with no locks.  Ken has been very wheezy the last few days, so I think it might be wise to call at a walk in centre before Ken ends up poorly and we are even further from home.

Well everything went to plan today.  Cruised to Coventry, moored up and hit the walk in centre.  Marvellous service.  Didn't wait long and very good attention paid to Kens ailments.  Chest infection diagnosed and anti-biotics dished out.  Ken has to go back in two days to double check that he is improving.  Plenty to do in Coventry so don't mind being here one bit, even though it wasn't part of the plan!

What a lovely start to our trip

What a lovely week!

Well it started out that way.

We have been travelling with Pete and Sharon in their boat Venice.  We started out at Peterborough Yacht Club with a right royal send off by Barney and Val Barnes.  The wine was cracked at eleven'ish and the snacks came out.  By twelve we were on our way in bright warm sunshine.  It was the best set off we have ever had.  We decided to moor at Elton for the night. 

As we have all done the Nene many times we settled into a natural rhythm.  We only had to tow Pete and Sharon off once, when he stopped paying attention and hit a shallow bit.  Well, it couldn't all go too smoothly now could it.

Elton was beautiful and we moored next to some friendly people on NB Brass Buckle.  

Next day we cruised to Oundle.  Beautiful sunny and warm day.  Popped into Oundle and hit the pub.  Lovely afternoon had by all, followed by a few more drinks on the boat when we got back. 

We pressed on the next day and stopped at Thrapston.  The weather had changed by this time and the wind was horrendous.  That meant a day sitting it out.  I personally didn't mind as I was nursing a hangover from hell after Oundle.

With no sign of the weather changing we really put our backs into it and pressed on towards Wellingborough and then Northampton.  Cold, wet and uneventful cruising followed by some seriously early nights.

We had a farewell drink or two in the Malt  Shovel at Northampton on Saturday night and waved Pete and Sharon off early this morning.  They are eager to hit the canal and get off down to London.  We've had a lovely time with them and really do enjoy their company.

We are now settled in at Northampton until next Friday when Brenda and Mick on NB Ada Apple catch up with us ready to hit the canals and some serious cruising.

Suppose this gives me time to do all those little jobs like, cleaning windows etc. oh joy!!!

Sorry no pics haven't got to grips with pics and iPad on this blogs spot yet, bear with me.!

Eight days till we leave and counting!!

Well we are well and truly on the countdown to leaving.  We have been frantically getting the boat all spick and span and all those little jobs sorted that seem to get left year in year out.  Is been scrubbed and washed, painted and polished.  Not a square inch has been ignored.  Anyway, less of that and more of the interesting stuff.

We are going to be going rather a long way this year, over a thousand miles and 800 or 900 locks - we are gluttons!

These are the major places of interest in order on our route, starting off at Peterborough:

Northampton
Braunston
Birmingham
Wolverhampton
Llangollen
Chester
Northwich
Macclesfield
Marple
Huddersfield
Leeds
York
Lincoln
Nottingham
Leicester
Stoke Bruerne
Birkhamstead
Paddington Basin
Shepperton
Windsor
Reading
Oxford
Banbury
Braunston
Northampton
Peterborough

If anyone would like to visit us on our travels they are very welcome.  We can't always let you know where we are until we are nearly there, so it tends to be short notice, but if you can fall in with that, great.

We will be travelling Brenda and Mick on Ada Apple once again, its nice to have company.  Just want to get going now.

I'll be signing in again next week.  So don't forget to follow our blog.

Birmingham and Back - Our Short Trip 2012

 Brenda locking at Foxton

 For our 2012 trip we planned to go to Birmingham with Brenda and Mick on their narrowboat ‘Ada Apple’.  For anyone who doesn‘t know, Brenda is Ken’s sister.  This was always going to be a short trip and we planned to leave mid June and be back around the end of August.  This was also always going to be a challenging trip.  The day we set off I had my first cycle of my third round of chemotherapy.  We were going to have to return to Peterborough every three weeks for the duration of the trip for me to have my treatment.  Oh well, so be it, we will do it!

I should also tell you that sadly we no longer have our little Max.  He was such an adventurous little soul, but he adventured a little too far one day and had an argument with a car.  RIP Max.

 

RIP Max

The trips home were only the first of the problems.  We had a drought and there was not going to be enough water for us to get through to the canal system on the Northampton arm of the Grand Union canal.  The arm was only going to be open at certain times.  So we were on a tight schedule.  Then there was a chemical spill which held Brenda and Mick up at Stanground so they could not join us to set off as planned.  We waited at Peterborough Cruising Club for four days till they could join us.  It was a very lazy, laid back and frustrating wait.

Eventually they arrived on 27^th June and we set off at break neck speed up to Northampton to get up onto the canal during the open window.  We were only about a week behind our original plan.

 Drinks with friends

As we invariably do we stopped at Northampton Boat Club for the weekend.  Lucky us, our visit just happened to coincide with a party.  Met old mates and caught up on the gossip as usual.  The weather was still rather nice at this point.  However, the following day, by the time we hit the Northampton Arm of the Grand Union the heavens opened and it rained all the way up.

As I wasn’t quite as fit as I would have liked we decided that I should take the boat through the locks while Ken does all the hard work.  I was very nervous to start with, but after a few locks, I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge.  Brenda was adamant that she wasn’t going to take her boat through and continued to do the locks while Mick took the boat.  She soon decided she wasn’t going to be outdone by me so took the helm of her boat and followed us through the locks.

So our trip began and continued uneventfully.  We hit the pubs and cruised leisurely for the next three days.  Then it started to rain.  We arrived at Kilby Bridge and moored up.  We couldn’t go any further.  A visit home was required and news was the Soar was flooded.  This was going to hamper our trip.

After a week and home visit done we managed to move on to Leicester.  Only to be delayed again.  Quite a few boats were moored at Leicester and it ended up like an impromptu boat rally.

 Boat Rally Leicester!!

Eventually we were able to move on.  We visited the Dudley Living Museum, which we loved.  Then onto Birmingham itself, which we absolutely loved.  We wanted to stay longer, but by this time we were on a tight schedule to get home.  Ironic!! Two reasons, the Northampton Arm was going to close and Brenda and Mick were booked to go abroad.  It really wasn’t going too well.

We did have a good time, but it is always better if you feel free to go at your own pace and not be dictated to.  So, we high tailed it back to Peterborough.  The weather was on and off as it had been throughout the trip.  We got back on 29^th August, a week before the arm was due to close.

 Loved this big fella in Birmingham

The plans for 2013 are in the making.  This will be a big trip starting on 5^th May 2013 and we plan to be back around end of August or September.  I will up-date you shortly on the route.  My plan is to blog once a week.

Apologies and an up-date

 I’d like to apologise to everyone for not finishing this blog in 2011 when I really should have done.  Several things got in the way and life thew us a curved ball.  My health didn’t seem quite right although we couldn’t put a finger on it at the time.  It was another two months before it became clear what was the matter.  Unfortunately I had to start chemotherapy for the second time.

But, back to the last thirty days of our round trip to London.

At this time we were experiencing some fantastic hot weather.  It was perfect for travelling so we decided we would head off down to Lechlade so we could say we had ‘done’ the whole of the navigable Thames.

Well, I have never come across such a wriggly river route, not to mention we had no guide book so didn’t know how far, where to stop or what facilities were available.  It turned out – not a lot!!  A very strange journey.  Unfortunately we found it neither relaxing nor picturesque.

 I tried a bit of bread making, but it didn't go to plan!!

We were pleasantly surprised by Lechlade itself with its profusion of antique shops.  The pub on the river, aptly named ‘Riverside’ does lovely food, best chips I’ve ever had.  We only stayed for a couple of nights here and looked forward to getting to Abingdon.

The plan was to moor at Abingdon for the best part of a week to wait for Brenda and Mick to catch up with us.  They had been on their own agenda but we were all meeting up to attend a surprise 50^th birthday party and then travel the rest of the way home together.  We had a brilliant party.

The weather was fantastic and Max made himself the talk of the towpath with his antics.  Mainly hiding behind a bush and jumping out to scare the passing dogs.  He also indulged himself trespassing on other people’s boats.  I’m glad to say no-one seemed to mind him being nosey.

 Max checking out the neighbours

We set off for Oxford in the blazing sun.  We couldn’t have wished for better weather.  My son Kam was meeting us in Oxford and travelling with us down to Banbury.  It was meant as a short relaxing break.  However, no sooner had we picked him up and the heavens opened for the next four days and his break turned into a washout.  It was his first proper introduction to boating – I’m sure he thought we were completely barking carrying on down through the locks to Banbury in torrential rain.

 One very brief dry spell

The sun came out at Banbury and Kam got on the bus home.  Typical!!

Our trip from Banbury all the way to Northampton boat club was disappointingly very uneventful.  The sun shone for the most part and we only stayed over night at each stop.

We stayed at Northampton boat club for the whole weekend and helped the club celebrate their 100^th anniversary.  Saw lots of old friends and caught up on the gossip.

From there we were anxious to get home.  I don’t know why but he nearer we get to home the quicker we want to get there when the time comes.  The Nene can be tiresome and when the weather changes and turns cold all of a sudden (which is what it did), home just can’t come quick enough.

 Strange colours in the sky

We arrived on our mooring at 17.30 on 31^st August 2011 after 100 days of travelling.

Thames again

One of the locks on the Caen Hill flight

At last we are back on the Thames. I must admit I really do like it, big water and lots going on. The moorings are a bit few and far between but a lot of them are perfect for Max and mousing!! He is bloody good, off the boat, mouse caught and back in the boat so quick and then I am bloody chasing after mousy. I wish he wouldn't bring us live presents!!!

The trip back to the Thames from Bath was largely uneventful. We had quite a lot of time without, TV, phone or a computer signal so felt bit out of it. When we did get a signal all sorts had happened in the world, unfortunately nothing good.

One of the more interesting stops was at a pub called 'The Barge' at Honeystreet. This area is famous for 'crop circles'. There are photos of all the local circles on the walls of the pub. It is also a meeting place for 'croppies', like train spotters but crop circles instead. Would you believe we actually sat next to some with their computers studying the latest circles.

Passed a couple of local boats from the Peterborough area. The Wee Fella, Rodgy Rodgy and one from Oundle with no name. Didn't get chance to chat which was a shame.

We also bumped into a hire boat with twelve teenagers!! What a nightmare, and it was, we locked with them, but not for long, they found a pub and stopped, lucky us!! We also bumped into the horse drawn trip boat at Hundgerford, that was quite a treat.

Glad we've got an engine, but it was nice to see how it used to be done

We moored in Reading, which was really nice. We happened to moor next to a boat called 'Lady Dawn'. We had heard of this boat as when going down the flight of 29 locks at Devizes we had heard of two boats getting stuck in lock 38 coming up the flight. Fairy liquid had been used to free the boats. It was nice to meet the lady who was at the tiller on the day, she had to laugh when I told her she was famous!!

Pixie with her owner 'the famous lady in lock 38'

This was probably Max's favourite mooring ever as he had a playmate 'Pixie' a seven month old female tortoishell kitten. They loved to hate each other!!

So back on the Thames and on our way home. We are moored and watching Formula 1, which of course is a must do!

Enjoying the hot, hot weather. So many people are enjoying the water, even swimming in the river, which I haven't seen adults doing in years.

Max eyeing up dinner!!

Mmmm not sure where these are supposed to be going???

Bristol and S.S. Great Britain

S.S. Great Britain

We have just spent the last few days in Bristol. What a really nice place it is. The weather wasn't kind to us and the wind, rain and cold did dampen our visit a little.

We wandered round the old town and found a pub with a Jazz band playing, which was quite unusual.

The hightlight was definitely a visit to see S.S. Great Britain. This ship is fantastic and has a really interesting story spanning 160 years since it was built. It is now back on the sight where it was built in a dry dock. You can walk round the ship and see what it was like to travel on her and the museum goes through all the history. It is the best visitor centre we have ever been to and well worth a visit. Very good value for money on the entrance and the cafe didn't rip us off either.

View from our mooring in Bristol Harbour

Its nice to sit and watch all the ships, boats and canoes etc in the harbour, you never get bored. There are even a few oddities like a galleon!!


We have turned around and are now heading back towards Reading and the Thames. Tonite we are back in Bath, moored in a quiet spot between locks. Well it is quiet as far as cars etc go but very lively with hire boats locking. I have a feeling we will be on the bottom of the canal if any more boats go through tonite and let any more water out!!

This could loosley be described as an oddity!!

Locks, Locks and more Locks

Since we left our mates on the other two boats at Reading we have had quite a different trip. The Kennet and Avon goes from Reading to Bristol and back, so, everyone on it is going basically there and back. This means that you get to meet people on different boats over and over again as they leapfrog you going in the same direction then turn around and come back. We have met so many people. The funny thing is you feel you have known them forever.

Locking with Mick, one of our new friends we feel like we've known 'forever'

The Kennet and Avon is famous for the 'Caen Hill' flight of locks at Devizes. There are 29 in total which have to be completed once started, this takes on average 5-6 hours. We did this flight on Sunday, we were going down. We bumped into Mick at the top of the flight who we had done some locking with a couple of days earlier so we paired up for this flight with him as it would make lighter work of it. Thank god we did, it was shattering. We tied our two boats together for some of the locks so that Ken and I could work together. We started the flight at 09.15 and finished it at 17.25, a long day. We moored, went to the pub for dinner and then sat outside the boat talking to neighbours on other boats. It was such a lovely evening.

Caen Hill Flight at Devizes

I must say we have been really blessed with the weather. The sun has shone on us almost every day. Since leavng home I thnk we have only had a week of bad weather in total. Ken is as brown as a berry.

We are getting closer to Bristol now. We have just been through Bradford-on-Avon. It is a beautiful, old and quaint village/town. However, it has to be the noisiest and busiest damn place I have ever been to. The traffic is horrible and getting across the road is impossible. But I still liked it.

We have just been to Bath. Not sure what I think of Bath atually. We went to see all the usual things like the Roman Baths and the Royal Crescent. There are a lot of shops, a little market and a lot of people. It grew on me as the day went on. The mooring was strangely a bit pongy. There are a lot of seaguls, which Max seemed to ignore really.

Bath Deep Lock - 19 Foot drop!

At the moment we are moored right out in the middle of no-where. Its a great place for Max - no bikes! We got here about tea-time and now it is nearly bed-time, so far we have seen, very strangely, three people, three dogs and three boats!!!!

Funny day today really!!!

Last supper

Its been a really funny day today, topped off with the most amazing dinner for two!! – but more about that later, bit of a catch up first.

We left Windsor and moved onto Marlow. We had a lovely mooring which was perfect for Max and the dogs. The evening was so warm we sat out till late with a beer and just chilled. Max caught a mouse, which he then played with for the next 24 hours before eating it!! We really have been blessed so far with the weather.

Our next trip took us through/past ‘Henley Regatta’. Well what can I say, what an amazing display of boats and people. ‘People watching’ moved into a whole new domain, it really was a sight to see. On our way we had stopped for water at Boveney Lock where we bumped into nb Poppy. We had a lovely chat and Max looked at Sid (Poppy’s cat) through the window and I think they would have liked to play.

Yes, it is really real!!

Henley

Nice boat, boater!!

Boats galore!

Plenty of bars, but plenty of people too

Our mooring for the night was in Sonning, which is a very old, quaint village. We were moored near to Uri Geller’s house. I was a bit worried about my spoons, but they survived the night!!!! The pub here ‘The Bull’ was really old and quite interesting. This was our last night with the others, John, Mary, Trish and Pete.

We headed off next morning for Tesco at Reading for a much needed re-stock of just about everything. All stocked and ready for the Kennet and Avon. We all set off and went through the first lock on the K and A together to gawp at all the big shops at ‘The Oracle’ shopping centre. Then we parted company with the others and waved bye bye.

One of the very last remaining turf locks on the Kennet and Avon

Don't ask!!

Our first night alone we moored outside ‘Cunning Man’ at Burghfield. Nice mooring, nice pub, but they did run out of real ale and Stella!!! We heard later they also ran out of most of the food they were serving. Bit strange when that is their business!

At one of the locks on this stretch we came across the first bit of bad behaviour. Two obnoxious young kids about age ten were misbehaving around the lock. Wasn’t nice at all.

Our next day was totally uneventful, we doubled up with another boat for the locks and moored up next to a big field for Max and chilled out, had a great dinner, cooked by me and fell asleep after watching a DVD.

Back to today!!! The funny day!!! Well it started with beautiful sunshine and a big bang and a cloud of dust!!! A vehicle had ended up on its side not far from the boat. An ambulance appeared very quickly and I am pleased to say there was only walked wounded. Don’t know what happened but it was soon sorted. On our way, and we got to the third lock, ambulance!!!! There was a community trip boat and one of the crew had fainted, fallen and split his head open. The ambulance carted him off and re-delivered him two locks further along, complete with stitches. Not bad service if you ask me. Back on our way, another couple of locks down and the heavens opened. We decided to call it a day and moor for the night at Thatcham. Off we went to check out the pub. Two for a tenner, that’s good we will have dinner here. So I went to order, two dinners, fill in a form, 50% off, £5 please – you could have knocked me over with a feather. This has got to be the cheapest we have eaten on any trip ever!! 10 out of 10 ‘The Swan’ at Thatcham.

Ok then, lets just ignore each other!!!!

Dinner!!

The Thames!!!!!!

Look what time we passed Big Ben - this was AM!!

Beautiful Tower Bridge

The most exciting and looked forward to part of our journey arrived Friday 24th June, the only bit not too welcome was the early start, 5.15am!! Our trip up the tidal river Thames from Limehouse to Teddington. Our friends Jennie and Ian came to stay with us the night before so we could do the trip together. We got up with no problem, Jennie and Ian hadn’t been to sleep, something about Ken’s snoring kept being bandied around. Anyway, we set off through the big lock at 5.15am, it was a bit fresh at this time in the morning as you can imagine. The river is huge and straight away you see the tower bridge, it is the first one you go under. Jennie and I sat at the front snapping away with our cameras, while Ken and Ian did the man thing at the back with the tiller and the radio. Ian did get to speak to London Vessel Traffic Service, which tickled him pink. We got into Teddington lock four hours after we set off. A very smooth, exciting enjoyable four hours with no hiccups or problems.

We saw Jennie and Ian off on the bus at Teddington, then got back on the boat and cruised to Hampton, past Hampton Court Palace. I missed getting any pictures as was making a drink at the time.

We had to make arrangements to go home for a couple of days. So that our boat was safe and we could get good connections we cruised up to Shepperton. This so far was one of the nicest moorings we have had. It was a shame we were actually not going to be there with the boat. Turned out to be the hottest two days of the year as well. On the Sunday we set off early for the train station, which was a two and a half mile walk. Then we waited an hour for the train, which took an hour. Then went for the tube, oh bloody hell, the tube was closed for the day!!!!! We ended up having to get two buses across London, what a nightmare. We missed our connection and had to get a slow train which took forever. Eventually after over 5 hours we landed in Peterborough and got a lift home. We had been invited to a BBQ in the afternoon, so went along there and had a lovely afternoon in the blazing sun with our friends and some of their family who were visiting from Australia.

Monday an even hotter day we traveled to Barnsley to lay our friend to rest. Everything went as well as could be expected but a very, very sad day. We then had to travel back to Shepperton to collect our boat and carry on with our holiday. I am pleased to say the trains, tube and connections all worked fantastically and we even got back to the boat three hours earlier than expected. We were completely worn out, but happy to be back.

Max was very pleased to see us. He had been spoiled rotten by our friends while we were away, thank you John, Mary, Trisha and Pete.

We were chomping at the bit to move off again. We got as far as Staines and the heavens opened and there was a huge thunder storm. We just got inside before the rain fell.

Yesterday we moved on and are now at Windsor, next to Queenie’s house, the castle. Its really nice here, so I think we will stay a couple of days. We saw the changing of the guard this morning, but, I didn’t have my camera and forgot to press record on my phone video, what a plonker I am.

I had been told to seek out the famous fish and chip shop in Windsor, however, there are about a hundred fish and chips shops here. Anyway, we have had chips with loads of salt and vinegar and a wooden fork, only thing missing was the newspaper, they just don’t taste the same nowadays.

I apologise for the lack of pictures, but the signal is so dodgy here that they wouldn't upload. I will put lots of pictures on as soon as I get a signal. Don't know how Queenie puts up with it, she must want fast broadband for her Facebook!!!

London town

Paddington Basin - our home for a few days

And so our journey continues, but, not without the usual ups and downs. The weather has been on and off, when it rains it really does, then the sun comes out and burns us to a frazzle.

One of the rainy days happened to be when Pete broke down in the middle of the canal. Ken ended up head down in the engine bay and eventually got Pete going again. Some more maintenance and repairs were required when we eventually moored up in London.

The morning of the day we were to set off into London didn’t start too well. I woke at 4.00am in the morning and the cat was wowing to go out. Well I was not going to take him for a walk at that time but for some reason the door didn’t look right and I touched it, it flew open and the cat escaped!!!!! Ken and I were running round like headless chickens with the ’Dreamies’ (cat treats) trying to get him to come back. Anyway, Ken decided to get dressed and while he was inside Max came bounding up from about half a mile down the towpath. What a relief, but I am paranoid now about the door. Max is just like a teenager and can’t wait to leave home, but we don’t want him to!!!

Back to bed and up again early to set off. It took seven hours, but thankfully only one lock. We arrived in Paddington Basin, West London at around 4.00pm. We were in the middle of sorting out moorings and a security guard came and set upon Ken and told us ‘NO MOORING’, wrong move. Big argument, misunderstanding, almost fisticuffs, threats of police and British Waterways man!! Anyway, after another couple of hours we were told, ‘yes you can stay’. We knew that because the security guard had given us a letter to say so, but he thought he had given us a letter to say we couldn’t, what a c**k up!

That evening, we all went to Wetherspoons for dinner over in Shepherds Bush.

To get to Paddington Basin from Peterborough Yacht Club takes around 93 hours and there are 130 locks – just thought you might like to know.

We have not TV here but as you would expect excellent dongle reception.

My sister, Caroline, came to visit us Sunday as she was in the area. Due to closures on the tube it took her 3 hours, she wasn’t best pleased, so we fed here and sent her back where she came from. Was really nice to see her. Thank you for visiting sis.

Eying up London

Monday was fine and sunny, so we set off for the London eye and some sight seeing. We did the eye by 12.30. It made me feel a bit dizzy in the big glass pod. Then we walked down the Embankment had chips and ice cream on the way and went to the London Bridge experience, which was hilarious, but you’d have to be there, can’t explain. We walked all the way down to Tower Bridge and walked round the Tower of London. On the way we spied two narrowboats doing the trip down the Thames that we will be doing on Friday, bloody hell, the waves looked a bit big, but we are brave. Called into another Wetherspoons for dinner and caught train back to the boat. I was in bed and fast asleep by 7.30, amazing.

Did the builder lose his plumb bob????

We had quite a quiet day yesterday, doing a few chores and mending Pete’s engine. Went for a drink last night, nothing flash.

Today the idea is to go to Camden market, however, the rain and wind is slightly off putting, so maybe later.

Tomorrow we will travel to Limehouse Basin ready for going on the tidal Thames on Friday.

We are due to go up the Thames on Friday morning at 5.15am. Our friends Jennie and Ian are coming with us for the experience. We are really looking forward to it.

This is what we will be doing on Friday!!!

You don't get waves like that on a canal!!!!!

Back soon to tell you how we get on.

Seems Elvis is alive and well living in a penthouse in the middle of London!!!

Not our best week!!!

Do you like our back garden???

I apologise for the big gap I my blogging but we have had quite a traumatic week. You will understand by the time I finish this blog.

First of all everything started fine and off we cruised down to Leighton Buzzard for a wander round the shops and get a ‘civilization’ fix’. The canal was right in the middle of the town, which is always nice, as carrying shopping can be quite a pain.

Anyway, here things started to go a bit wrong. I sat down to do my last blog and by the time I finished my arm was feeling really painful. Then I started to feel cold and sick. The arm got bigger, hotter and more painful. I spent the next two days virtually asleep while the rest of our mates did all the locks and carried on life as normal. Then I emerged feeling a lot better and suffering cabin fever so couldn’t wait to see people and have a drink. By this time we were moored at Cowroast which has a pub famed for its Thai cuisine. Ken and I sampled this famous grub and boy they were right it was delicious. Just the thing to build my strength back up. I am happy to say I am feeling quite well again. We have no idea what caused the problem, but I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

Thai food and 'Side Pocket for a Toad'!!!

We woke next day to constant rain, so donned our waterproofs and wellies ready for the ensuing 10 locks. It was hard and miserable work. We are three boats traveling which is not ideal, but we have quite a good routine going on. Anyhow, the routine got messed up somehow and Ken and I ended up in a lock on our own trailing behind the others. I was on the boat in the lock and Ken was doing the gates, which I cannot do at the moment because of the arm. All went t**ts up and the boat got caught and started to go down!! I screamed at Ken who closed the bottom paddles and opened the top ones quick enough to re-float the boat, but not before it had tipped nearly 45 degrees to one side. The inside of the boat looked like we had been burgled!! I only lost the lid to one coffee canister, amazing! The experience has left us both very shaken.

The day unfortunately only got worse. We had a message to say Dave Mason, Ken’s best friend had died, no detail or anything. As he had not been ill we were speculating all night what might have happened. All was confirmed the following day with details. Ken went on a bender! I think eight or nine pints later we carried him back to the boat and he thankfully slept till next morning.

The water gypsies!!

The next couple of days had been pretty hard work, lots and lots of locks and long days. At least the sun has been shining, which it is not today. The rain is pouring and we don’t plan to move anywhere.


We are moored now on the outskirts of London at a little place called Croxley (Watford suburb). There is a good pub if we get too bored which we ate at last night, seemed wrong not to when they were doing two meals for £8.95. The food was really good too.

Under the M25!!

M25 from the lock!!

There have been some lovely stretches of canal here, beautiful green tunnels of trees, pretty lock cottages and a lot of houses as we are now getting nearer to highly populated areas.


We have had some laughs. Ken left a paddle up which meant the lock would not empty, duh!!!!! John caught his centre rope in his prop, which stopped his engine dead and he had to sort that out, duh!!! And bless her Trish thought she had a launderette all lined up, got all her washing ready, and guess what, went past the bloomin thing!! You can’t turn round in a canal!!!