13th September 2016
This is what it is all about – waking up to a scene like this.
It was so warm this morning even the dude in front of us had his shirt off. Not sure what it is about Englishmen ripping their shirts off for all and sundry but someone needs to let them know that men boobs are not fashionable!
It was very quiet on the river this morning with only a few boats but then again we are normally never up this early to enjoy the quiet. We had on the agenda today a rendezvous at 2.00pm for scones with nb Waiouru. Some of you may have heard about Di following the blog of nb Waiouru and how she has been stalking it for several months gleaning as much information as she could in preparation for our own canal journey. Tom and Jan (who own nb Waiouru) have been an amazing wealth of information for us in preparation for our adventure on the inland waterways of England.
Back to our meeting in a moment but a few things to take note of on the way.
Better not forget the obligatory cuteness photo op of Toque. Hoping someone will spot her modelling opportunities so that we can retire in some level of comfort.
The River Avon (pronounced as “Avon calling“) is quintessential English with the reeds and weeping willows along with the rolling hills, magnificent aged trees and wonderful place names like Wyre Piddle. They even have a rugby field called Piddle Park which caused a few school girl giggles on nb Lucy but just to prove that we are not pulling your leg here is proof that this place does exist as someone has called their boat after the place.
You can`t say that the English do not have a sense of humour.
We passed under a few bridges which we felt the center arch was a good option to use but it seemed some boaters might think otherwise and need very obvious assistance with rather large directional arrows.
We did five broad beam locks today of which all of them had weir`s which we are not that familiar with. They can buffet you about a bit on entry into the lock but the scenery around them makes up for that minor inconvenience.
As we are getting closer to Stratford Upon Avon the size of the homes are becoming more substantial as are the land tax bills. It wouldn`t be that hard to handle it if you could afford it though.
Of course we passed the obligatory pub but alas we didn`t have time to stop and partake of their beverages. Though, having said that we did manage to get a glance at their opening hours and they were extremely limited. Something tells us that we probably couldn`t afford to drink their any how.
There was prolific wild life along the river and we were lucky enough to see another Kingfisher but once again were unable to capture it on film for proof. There of course were the usual bevy of swan and those pesky Canadian geese and we are now starting to spot cormorants which we have not seen a lot of in our past travels.
So back to Tom and Jan. So we pulled in five minutes before our ETA in front of nb Waiouru and went aknocking and invited ourselves with the pooches into their `lounge`. Six hours later, tea and scones consumed, waterways history discussed, boaters mishaps laughed about and world problems solved we returned to nb Lucy. Now you have all read about our fondness towards nb Lucy but she really does look quite the old lady next to nb Waiouru. We won`t trade her in just yet though as she still has to get us back to Stone in two weeks and we would prefer she stay afloat until then. She almost didn’t tonight though as when Fraser cooked the scones and took them to nb Waiouru he forgot to turn off the oven – hmmm, she was certainly a little warm when we got back to her and luckily wasn`t burnt to the water line. Not sure if the insurance would have covered for that one.
For those of you who would also like to stalk Tom and Jan, here is the link to their blog. http://www.narrowboat-waiouru.co.uk/ Tom writes a very informative, tongue in cheek and very readable blog.
Rowkin Rovings Blog 