Filling in time at Hartshill

8th & 9th April

It's been wet overnight both nights since I last posted, but still warm enough to start the night with the Houdini propped open on its cork. It just means being alert enough to wake as it starts raining and hop out of bed to close the hatch. There are some advantages to being sufficiently decrepit to sleep lightly.

Yesterday morning was bright and breezy, as forecast. I nipped to the Co-op to get a paper and some bread. When I got back to the canal, Sheila had started up and was heading towards me. I could see that Lock 5 was empty (the bottom gates were just ajar) so I opened them up and waited under the bridge below the lock for the boat.

The canal has already narrowed down to seven foot there, so I was able to swap my shopping bag for my locking gloves and windlass. Sheila explained that she'd heard someone starting to work Lock 6 behind us, and, knowing that the flight should be with us (a "good road" in the jargon), she didn't want to waste it.

We had a good run up the flight as a result. I back set each lock as we left it, so that the guy behind had an easier time of it, until at Lock 2 I could see a boat coming down the top lock, so left it open for them.

As we came into the top lock, Tony the Lockkeeper was nattering on his mobile, but stopped to say hello in a cheery way. Since last time I spoke to him he blanked me with an expression like a bulldog chewing a wasp, I don't figure the guy. Must just be moody, I guess.

As we came up the lock, a Rose narrowboat appeared, but her crew explained that she was going to wind above the flight, as they needed to turn back. She mentioned that Rose no longer provide fenders on their boats. They'd had a broken night the night before, as they'd moored on some Armco, and of course the boat banged against the piling all night.

They planned to make some fenders out of old milk containers, but as we had some scruffy old spare fenders just sat on the roof, I gave them a pair to use. It does seem pretty mean not to provide fenders – Rose aren't the cheapest hire company on the cut by any means.

We then had a nice run to Hartshill, mooring between Bridge 33 and the visitor moorings without trouble. No sooner had we settled inside than Slow Gin came past, so we shot out and had a natter with Colin and Jane, mainly about geocaching, of which they are aficionados too. In fact, I think they were the ones who really sold us on the idea in the first place.

After lunch we made a trip to Dobbies, and bought Sheila her watering can, as well as carrying out a raid in the Julian Graves franchise in there.

Today has been much wetter, though the rain held off long enough to tempt us out. We found a couple of caches, one in Hartshill Castle grounds, and the other in Hartshill Hayes Country Park. That's another place we'd not have stumbled across if we hadn't been after a cache. It's much bigger than we expected, and we had a good wander round, eventually finding our way back to the canal with the aid of the GPS and the waymarks for the Quarryman's Track.

In this context, it's worth recording that there's a footpath from Bridge 33 which avoids the nasty trek up the road from the moorings to the village at the top of the hill.

It was raining steadily by the time we got back to the boat, and we've lurked indoors ever since, having had all the exercise we wanted. We've been exchanging emails on the canals list about washing machines and about battery charging regimes.

The current thinking is about getting a top loading washer, but they are very expensive on water. On the other hand, you can always fill them with hot through the top, thus saving on the heat cycle. More of this in due course on the other blog.

Speaking of which, I know I've not posted anything there this week so far; blame my sore hand. With luck I'll do something tomorrow, after we get back to Atherstone and a fast connection. It's a painfully slow GPRS here, but stable.