NB Bonjour: End of year round-up Part 2

August to October

At last in August we made the much-anticipated visit to the Nene, after our previous effort was scuppered because of a two-week stoppage. The descent of the dreaded Rothersthorpe flight down the Northampton arm was easy peasy for the first 13 locks ….

Dave chose the solar panels so that there was room to walk safely past them

…. then our pace slowed to a crawl as we crept through the weed. But the arm was much much worse than anything we encountered on the river.


Submarine tumbleweed on the Northampton Arm

We were excited to get onto the river and see the guillotine gates which are a feature of the river Nene. Most of the guillotines are electrically operated, so they are not physically arduous, but they do take a lot of time! The local ‘rules of the road’ say they must be left open when you leave the lock – which means that when you are going downstream you need to close the guillotine before you can fill the lock to use it, and if you are going upstream then the skipper must wait for the crew to go back and open the guillotine again before you can leave. At least all the locks have a robust bridge for crossing over.

Leaving the guillotine open as we leave Wadenhoe lock. The man is EA.

There are four different kinds of lock gate on the Nene – mitre gates, known as ‘pointing gates’ on the Nene, which are what we would consider normal on the canals; electrically operated guillotines; wheel-operated guillotines and a single example of a radial gate at Ditchford.

Wheel-operated guillotines were hard work

Thumb-ache holding in the button on the electric locks - this one at Ditchford

Radial gate at Ditchford lock, left open of course after we had gone up

Some of the locks were very deep, and I soon got used to climbing the ladders, which were all in good repair although some had slippery weed on the lower rungs.

Irthlingborough lock was particularly deep

Bonjour serenely followed the river's course as we wound our way across the flood plain, watching the guillotines appearing to move across the fields as we travelled. Beautiful churches shone gold in the sun.

Wadenhoe church (golden when the sun is out!)

Parts of the river are fabulously beautiful, particularly the stretch below White Mills lock, although we found some parts rather … not boring, just rather less interesting. Some stretches closer to Northampton, such as round the mobile home and caravan parks, we weren’t terribly keen on. But the water is mostly clear, and I loved just looking at the weed and watching out for fish.

Proper river weed - no problem if you kept to the channel

In common with other rivers, the banks are often boggy, high, overgrown or wooded and you can’t just stop where you fancy. Like the Avon, you can only moor at designated spots and you have to plan your cruising with this in mind. We had been advised to join the Friends of the River Nene to be able to use their moorings and we were very glad we did.

The lovely FOTRN Pear Tree Farm mooring at 7 am

Because of the distances between many of the moorings we found our cruising days tended to be rather long – 6 to 8 hours, unlike the 4 or fewer we favour on the canal! Lunch was taken on the move many a time, and although we were blessed with some wonderful weather, when it rained there wasn’t the option to tie up till it passed. We found ourselves getting fed up with the relentless need to keep moving on – we had two weeks on the river this trip, rather than the three we would have had if the stoppage hadn’t spoiled our plans last time. So we spent less time visiting places than anticipated, though we did enjoy our two visits to Fotheringhay. The owners are very quick to arrive for their £5 mooring fee, but the area is beautiful and we were fascinated by the history (Richard III was born in the castle, Mary Queen of Scots was executed there). All that is visible now on the site of the castle is a bit of stone –

All that is left on the original site

And of course we climbed the mound on both our visits.

Bonjour from the castle mound

The river was quiet, with few boats (mostly cruisers) on the move except at weekends, and we missed the friendly chatter of the canals. The facilities are few and far between too, unless you go into a marina. We were thankful to be back on the ditches, in spite of the muddy water!

Our September trip was to take us from Gayton north to Great Haywood, where we haven’t been for years. Our first night was on a quiet canal bank (we don’t mind trains), and in spite of the chilly misty start the next day, it was lovely.

Misty September morning

We took time to visit the Royal Ordnance Depot at Weedon Bec, which was fascinating. We pottered along through Braunston and along the North Oxford on familiar waters in mostly lovely weather although the weather was getting more autumnal by the day. Onto the Coventry where we stayed in our usual places.

Meg led us straight to her favourite walk in Hartshill

Moored at Pooley Woods

It was good to get to Fradley Junction and the T&M where we haven’t cruised for years. As usual at Shugborough we walked to the park across Essex bridge and Meg chased sticks in the river.

Fun in the Trent

Our last cruise of the year took us down the Staffs and Worcester on our way ‘home’ to Droitwich Spa marina. We spent the first night on the lovely Tixall Wide where we were surprised to see the towpath has been upgraded.

Tixall Wide

The weather had turned - it was October, after all - and we had a muddy trip, very damp at times. We walked to see the Stafford Riverway Link project in the rain but the next morning, although it was cold, the sun was shining brightly on the flooded water-meadows. We had originally hoped to cruise back to Droitwich via Stourport and the Severn, but with all the rain we had been having it was rather too much of a gamble. So up the Wolverhampton 21 we went instead, and continued to Birmingham via the Wolverhampton level, the Gower branch and the Main Line.

A patch of sun in Birmingham

We know the route from Birmingham to Droitwich very well now, and had our mooring spots all lined up.

As usual we moored at King’s Norton for Meg

The forecast for the next few days was dire, but time was a little limited, so in spite of the rain we needed to be moving down to Tardebigge. It was drier in the tunnels! The only boats we passed were a share and two hire boats returning to base. The hirers didn't seem to have a waterproof between them, but they seemed cheerful enough, even once the rain was really hammering down. At least we were moored up by then, below the first lock of the Tardebigge flight. It was lucky we had made the decision to move when we did – the next morning there was a landslide by Shortwood tunnel and the canal was closed for weeks while the bank was stabilised and the canal could be dredged. Our descent of Tardebigge that day was interrupted by an emergency closure of the flight – there was the risk of towpaths and cottages lower down being flooded if there was lock water coming down as well as the bywashes.

Flooding bywash

So we had an enforced 2-hour wait tied up in a lock, listening to the bywash thundering down beside us. At least we weren’t stuck the other side of Shortwood! After lunch, when we could finally get going again, the weather wasn't exactly good but it wasn't too wet, and not too cold either. There were no boats of course, and very few walkers because of the rain, and the water was bright brown because of the run-off from the fields. It got too dark to complete the flight safely and we moored on the armco 5 locks from the bottom, ropes loose in case water levels changed.

Setting sun catches the cratch glass

Over the next two days the weather stayed damp and chilly, with quite a lot of rain, but we were on the home straight now. Below the Astwood flight we had two hours of sun after we moored the next day, and got on with cleaning and polishing. We are thrilled with the solar panels which have been performing well even in dull weather. It will be interesting to see how they cope with the low light levels of winter, but even after the final two short cruising days we didn’t need shore power to top them up once we got to the marina.

Cold misty morning below Astwood locks

We have no plans as yet for 2024. Sadly we had to say goodbye to Meg just before Christmas, which was a blow as she had been so fit and active (for an older lady) till her final two weeks. She was the perfect boat dog - just like her predecessor Tess.

Patient as ever

Stats for 2023

We finally cruised the Nene, which we have wanted to do for years, and (along with the Northampton Arm) it was the only new water for us this year. Most of the waterways were very familiar to us, with just a few (parts of the GU, Coventry and T&M) which we were visiting after a gap of some years.

Waterways; Droitwich Junction and Barge canals, River Severn, Staffs and Worcester. BCN; Stourbridge canal, Stourbridge Extension/Fens Branch, Dudley nos 1&2, Netherton Tunnel branch and Main Line, Wolverhampton Level and Gower branch. Worcester and Birmingham, North Stratford, Grand Union, Leicester Line with Market Harborough and Welford branches, North Stratford, Grand Union Northampton branch, River Nene. North Oxford, Coventry, Trent and Mersey.

Narrow canals: 253 miles, 1¼ furlongs; 240 narrow locks.

Broad canals: 134 miles 6¾ furlongs; 183 broad locks (including those on the Nene).

Rivers: 131 miles 4 furlongs; 2 wide river locks (on the Severn).

Totals: 83 nights aboard; 519 miles 4¼ furlongs travelled; 425 locks

Moveable bridges; 10 probably, maybe more, I tend to forget about them.

Aqueducts; 7 – Weedon x 2, Iron Trunk x 2, Grafton St x 2, Tividale

Tunnels; 26 - M5, Impney Way and A449 on the Droitwich canals; Cookley, Dunsley on Staffs & Worcester; Netherton, Galton, Edgbaston, Brandwood, Shrewley (BCN, N Stratford and GU); Braunston x2, Blisworth x2 on the GU; Newbold (North Oxford); Wolverhampton, Coseley, Galton (again), Edgbaston (again), Wast Hills, Shortwood and Tardebigge (W&B). In 2024 I will try to record the distance travelled underground, which CanalPlan kindly gives.

I tried to include only photos with Meg in, but now we realise she had been slowing down all year and tended to stay on the boat a lot more than usual. So to finish with, here is a photo from her first trip on Chuffed.