Railways 1, Motorways 0, no contest

Friday 24^th July; car shuffle day

We were up and about early, leaving the boat just after 8 to walk the couple of miles to Stone station.  It turned into a bit of a route march, being 2½ miles from our berth and having not quite enough time!  We could have crossed the canal at Lime Kiln lock but that way to the station entails using a very high footbridge above the power supply to the trains which our knees, in their current state, would not enjoy.  So we walked up the High Street, and I mean up - it’s quite a climb to get to the station and time was short!   But we arrived before Dave’s train, and Jess and I could walk back rather more sedately.

At the top end of the High Street

The street stall selling oatcakes had gone at least a couple of years ago, but today there was a small stall with freshly made Indian snacks – samosas, pakoras etc.  I love them so bought several for lunch.  I got back to the boat at 10.30, and after a round trip of 5 miles in hot weather I didn’t feel like doing a lot, so had coffee while the fridge defrosted.  At least I could have the side hatch open on the shady side.  Dave was back at 2.30, having had a straightforward train journey – although the first train was running late, the second was too, so he made the connection and could relax.  But the drive back – M40, M42, M6 – was awful, with miles of crawling traffic and a white van man desperate to get past and almost climbing up the exhaust before making a dangerous move to get by and eventually disappearing on his aggressive way.  We went for fish and chips in the restaurant later on.  It’s called No. 26, after Aston lock nearby.  We sat outside, at a table on the deck overlooking the marina.  The meal was good, plenty of mushy peas, good batter, nice fish and good chips.  Aston Marina has its own best bitter (brewed by Titanic brewery) but we found that very disappointing and wouldn’t have it again.

The view from our table

Saturday 25th July; Aston to home

On the Saturday we had no need to get up early – it would have been silly to leave the marina only to join crawling queues of holiday traffic heading for Devon.  We got on with a few jobs.  I managed to get the baffle plate out of the stove while Dave was polishing the brasses.  It is extremely awkward to get it free of its mounting when it’s time to clean the flue, because the peg which locates it at the back of the firebox is too long.  

Dave got the bolt croppers and chopped off part of the peg in the hope that it will be less of a pig to get in and out in the future.  I left the baffle plate in the grate - cleaning the flue is for the next trip.

We left for the drive back to Devon at 1.45, and apart from the usual crawl to get from the M6 onto the M5, and then another between Bristol and the main holiday turn-off to Weston-Super-Mare, it was fine and the slow bits didn’t add much to the journey time.  There were several cruisers in sight as the M5 crossed the  Warwickshire Avon at Bredon Hill, and for the first time ever we saw a boat cruising towards Bristol Floating Dock as we crossed the Bristol Avon.  No photos unfortunately, I was too surprised to get my phone out and it was rather far away anyway.

Trip stats

125 miles 3 furlongs and 95 locks.

This is made up of 53 miles, 5¼ furlongs of narrow canals; 42 miles, 1 furlong of broad canals; 29 miles, 4¾ furlongs of small rivers; 36 narrow locks; 59 broad locks.  (Thanks Canalplan).

Aqueducts big enough to notice; Smeeton (Leicester line), 2 or 3 over the Dove (between Willington and Burton on the T&M), Trent (after Brindley Bank, Rugeley).

Tunnels; Braunston, Crick, Husband’s Bosworth, Saddington.  3 miles ½ furlong underground.

 Waterways; Grand Union, N Oxford, Leicester Line, River Soar, River Trent, Trent and Mersey.