Now at last, we are back at home on Riccall in sunny southern France! but to get here first we had to get home to Castleford from Lechlade on the narrowboat.
We left Lechlade and spent two idyllic nights on the Thames, away from it all in the depths of the countryside on our way back to Oxford. There is a ‘short cut’ (is that the derivation of the expression I wonder?) north of Oxford called the Duke’s Cut, from the Thames to the Oxford Canal which we took, thus avoiding the rather busy moorings of the city itself. That night we moored up near Heyford just as a downpour started but got the ropes tied before we got too wet.
Next day we got to Banbury where we moored just below the town lock and Louise discovered a bus to Tesco for the following day which would start from a point just 50m from our moorings and drop us off actually in Tesco’s car park, then pick us up an hour and a half later – perfect.
We eventually set off again from Banbury and moored up for the night just north of Cropredy, which afficianados will know holds an annual music festival (following on from the farewell concert Fairport Convention held there many years ago). The whole canal through the town and for miles before and after was packed with boats, some moored two deep ready for the following weekend.
At this point we had learned that ‘Stan’ a close friend of Louise’s parents had recently died. So we looked at the map and realised that if we could get to a certain marina – Wheltondale Wharf – Steve (Alex’s sister Julia’s partner) might be able to pick us up and Louise could catch a train back to Co Durham for the funeral, which she was keen to attend.
Bit of a problem with lack of water and restricted locking times imposed by BW meant that, when we got to the Claydon flight of 5 locks up to the summit level, we were 6th in line and it took 2 hours to complete. After traversing the summit level we arrived at the Napton flight down, at about 3pm, and discovered we were 24th in the queue!! But by 4.30 when the locks closed we were now 11th in line to descend. Eventually we were through by 1.30pm the following day and found a lovely mooring at 4 o’clock that evening and in the evening sunshine painted the whole of one side of the boat.
The effect was slightly spoiled, we discovered the following morning, by the torrential downpour we had endured not just quite long enough after the paint had been applied! Still, it made for a good undercoat.
We got to our Wheltondale Marina mooring about midday: Steve picked us up and ferried us back to their home near Bedford. Louise left by train the next morning (Mon) and duly arrived back at 6pm on Tuesday.
It had all gone like clockwork until Louise, with her cousin Dorothy, arrived at the church only to eventually discover that they were a week early! The funeral was actually booked for the following Tuesday! Clearly there had been a misunderstanding somewhere along the line – but Louise had a nice lunch with her cousin before setting off back to Bedford.
So she returned to Julia and Steve’s, where of course everyone thought the whole thing was hilarious!!!! and we resumed our journey north, but felt that another attempt at attending the funeral the following week was perhaps a step too far.
We had problems with restriction on the Watford flight which took hours to climb, then had to moor within earshot of the dreadful M1. Not many people realise as they travel the M1 that the Grand Union canal runs right behind the northern carriageway services at Watford Gap and then runs under the motorway itself.
We diverted to Market Harborough after an easy descent of the famous Foxton Locks, where we spent the night and had a good meal at the Waterfront restaurant.
The next day we contacted Louise’s cousin Ruth and she and her granddaughter Rachel, Rachel’s husband Jason and their little daughter Harriet came down to the boat for a short trip. Harriet was enchanted with the whole business of being on a boat and it was great fun.
After a few days we arrived in Nottingham, but not without passage through some very shallow pounds, one of which a rather grumpy lockkeeper (a rare sight on British canals – the lockkeeper not the grumps!) had to fill for us before we could proceed at all. But from Leicester onwards we were on the river Soar and then the Trent, and there was no shortage of water there.
After a night in Newark, we decided to head for Cromwell Lock the next day and trust to luck on the tides, for the onward journey north (downstream).
The lockkeeper at Cromwell suggested we pen out at about 12.30pm to catch the tide and if we over-nighted half way down at Gainsborough, we should set off again at 12pm the following day. OK – we took his advice and penned out at 12.30 and started off down the Trent with about 1½ miles per hour of help from the river. Then after about 15 minutes, we noticed our SOG (speed over the ground) reduce and reduce until it was down to about 3mph.
What we then realised was that the lockkeeper had penned us out about 2 hours too soon and at first we had been travelling down with the normal flow of the river, then we had met the incoming tide!
So we punched on and eventually after a couple of hours we started to be helped by the ebb. We got to Gainsborough at about 5.30 and moored up on the floating pontoon.
The Cromwell lockkeeper had told us to set off again at 12pm the following day so to fill in the morning we re-painted the whole of the side of the boat which had been rain-spoiled. But as 12pm arrived we could see that the tide was still racing in, so we waited until 1.15 when it eventually turned before setting off down to Keadby.
I don’t think in all the times we have travelled up and down the tidal Trent we have ever been given accurate departure times by the local lockkeepers, who are supposed to know, and we think that is pretty poor.
We got into Keadby by about 4pm and Alex had a long chat with the guys working on a Humber keel called Onesimus. We had talked to the owner about 5 years ago but since then the inside had been completely stripped out. In fact, as well as renewing several plates and most of the ribs, and removing the old ‘doubled’ plates from the inside (dangerous stuff - with it still in the water!) the lads were next going to replace all the rivets (250,000!)
Eventually we got back to Methley Bridge moorings having painted the whole of the other side of the boat while moored overnight at the end of the New Cut – our last night aboard. Having got back we also managed to repaint the wood of all the windows, so hopefully she is all set to withstand the winter!!
During most of this trip on ‘The Boat’ Louise has been looking at the names of other boats (as you do) with a view to re-naming the narrowboat now that it belongs to her (sold to her by Alex for £1) Some of them are pretty bizarre like ‘Avdunna’; and endless Meanders, and of course Dunwurkin and Duncommutin etc. Alex’s contribution was ‘Less Cargo’ with a picture of a small snail but Louise didn’t like it much. Then she came up with the best yet - Dunbonkin which really had us laughing. (Fortunately we disproved it the next day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
We had about 5 days to go before we drove back to France so Alex decided (as only Alex could – Louise) that this would be a good time to build the decking where the patio used to be at the back of our pied-a-tèrre in Co Durham. So while Louise rushed around getting together all the things we needed to bring back to France, Alex grafted away laying a base, then the decking boards atop, followed by a handrail with diamond lattice infill to surround it. It is an enormous improvement on what was there before, and we even managed to have our morning cup of tea/coffee on it to christen it the day before we set off for France!
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