Photography at Norbury Junction

20th & 21st January

After another cold night, we weren't surprised to find that it was very misty in the morning. In fact, it must have been a freezing fog, because every twig on every tree, along with pretty well everything else in sight, was covered in white rime. It was a magical sight, and lasted for a good part of the morning.

Sheila was steering as we set off for the run to Norbury Junction, and after a while complained that she kept thinking it was starting to rain, when in fact it was the rime slowly beginning to melt and run off the trees above.

We passed Knighton depot, from where boatloads of chocolate crumb used to be taken to the Cadbury's factory at Bourneville. The approach from the north means that you see from some distance away the canopy of the loading shed over the ends of the pair of carrying boats that are always tied there, very atmospheric on such a morning.

Then it was the chug across Shebdon embankment, looking very smart after some good work by BW on the offside. It just shows what can be done with adequate funding. After the Anchor pub, there followed a truly incredible length of offside linear mooring. On and on it went for miles, virtually the whole way to the start of Grub Street cutting, with its double arched High Bridge. Emerging from the cutting, the towpath side long term mooring on the approach to Norbury follows immediately. It meant that what should have been about two hours boating, max, took us from 9.45 to 12.15, and we were well ready for lunch when we got there.

At Norbury there is this stretch of LT mooring, then a good chunk of 48 hour visitor mooring, which at the moment is full of winter moorers (either that or some people are giving a good but cheeky impression of same – in the absence of BW issuing any standard means of showing that you've paid for a winter mooring, it's impossible to tell.)

We finally found a bit of free mooring in front of the pub, and dropped onto it whilst we got some lunch. Afterwards, I explored forward, and found that the VM that runs from the services block towards Shelmore embankment was still available, and had plenty of spaces. (By the way, does anyone else have trouble remembering which is Shebdon and which Shelmore?)

So we stopped on the water point to top up, and then tied in one of these spaces, in a very pleasant spot with views across the fields below the level of the canal. A trip to the shop and chandlery yielded a tub of stern tube grease, 5 litres of oil ready for the next oil change, a copy of Waterways World and an Independent.

During the morning, I'd responded to Phil Hynds's comment on the last post, asking if he could come and see us in connection with a photo piece on retired liveaboards he's preparing. We agreed to meet at Norbury this morning.

Today, a complete change in the weather had manifested itself. It was mild and cloudy, but a steady breeze, gusting at times to a serious blast, made it feel just as cold as when it was frosty. After breakfast I set off to take some recycling to the bins by the cafe and chandlery at around 9.30. Just by the junction I saw a bloke with a tripod and serious camera bag, and thought that Phil must have turned up early to get some background shots for his piece.

On enquiry, however, this guy turned out to be one of a large number of students from the Defence Photography School at Cosford. On hearing my explanation of why I'd approached him, Jim, for such was his name, promptly asked if he could come and take some pictures as well.

Back at the boat, I alerted Sheila to the situation, and we had just about finished giving Sanity a quick clean when Jim arrived. Since Graeme's current job involves a bit of services photography, we had an interesting natter with Jim, who had just finished taking photos when Phil rocked up.

What a busy morning – who says winter is a quiet time on the cut?

We had a good session with Phil too, first of all being interviewed and then showing him through the boat, and then more photos. This finished just in nice time for lunch, and was followed by a quiet afternoon – a bit of wood was cut, some internet banking done, newspapers read and the like.

Tomorrow we will brave a windy forecast to do the short run to Gnosall for the weekend, and hopefully a rendezvous with Elanor.