Friday 11 March 2011

A flippin' wonderful day!

6:15 pm Wednesday 9th March - Nick (engineer) has been to deliver new batteries to us ...
... so now we're ready to Rock n Roll again tomorrow!
 but ... the rear fender had been hanging over the central heating exhaust last night and had burnt through the rope resulting in a lost fender - George and Geoff had spent half an hour or so trying to fish it out to no avail - George would not listen seriously to Geoff's proposal to 'get in for it!' so ...
... it was nearly 10:45 when we eventually got moving.  We stopped at bridge 66 to collect water - the opposite bank is quite badly eroded.
Here comes Seyella - she is going round onto the Lapley flight to use facilities there
Tom O' the Wood public house ...
... with goats in the garden.
this is rather a strange craft!
We could not resist mooring here - we'd intended to go a mile or so further but this was idyllic! with ...
... views over Rowlington in the valley ...
... and superb countryside.
Not to waste a minute of this beautiful day, we set off for a walk - we'll take a path through the forestry on the way back.
Geoff is having a fight with the hedge row while George laughs - you can see that the hedge has been recently layered, but the smaller top branches have been cut away and just thrown over and around them and the wind has blown them all over the towpath.
An old motor and butty
see the deliberate (?) mistake?
different sediments in the bank
The northern entrance to Shrewley Tunnel with the smaller towpath tunnel on the right
"Come on Mum it's too dark for me to go in here on my own"
Looking down from the towpath you can see where the overflow of water from here runs into the canal
George and Geoff in the distance ....
... steps lead back out into the sunshine ...
... and it's a short walk to the southern end ...
... again you can see clearly the different sediments in the cutting - red sandstone at water level and much harder layers at the top on which lie the roots of the trees.
Walking back now through the forest - Silver Birches are interspersed with the faster growing pines.
The lower branches of the Silver Birches have been removed to encourage them to grow tall, straight and strong - a lovely sight.
past the busy M40.
A fantastic house down there with it's own red telephone box ...
... and a post box to match.
Rowlington - a peaceful scene opposite ...
... our mooring.  Wow, what a good day that was!
A very quiet night and another lovely morning - 07:25.
We've just discovered that Hatton Locks are now open and after a walk into Rowlington to look at the 13C church we shall up sticks and head off.

2 comments:

  1. Carol, you are moored at our most favourite site to date; we call it the picnic site due to the open space and views on the towpath side. My camera is getting dodgy - still loving your pics with your new camera. Please remind me what you have, Jill

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  2. Hi Jill and Graham,
    Yes it certainly is a place to keep 'secret!' Pleased that you like my pictures, ta. I use a Nikon Coolpix S8000.
    Regards, Carol

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