Sunday 18 October 2015

Looking forward to a fire tonight but …….

Saturday 3rd October; Audlem (Coxbank) to Tyrley Wharf

We woke up (late) to a foggy morning so didn’t hurry to leave. The fog was clearing by 10 as we set off up the top two Audlem locks. The top bywash was fierce enough to have created mounds of foam overnight.

1 foam audlem top

No cakes at the cottage unfortunately.  it’s sad that, owing to theft, they have had to install CCTV. 

2 no cakes

At Adderley we met the first boat of the day, so all the locks were in our favour. There are a couple of damson trees half-way up the flight, but as I got some damsons the other day I left them. Everything was damp and they were mostly out of reach anyway!  We moored at the top to visit the farm shop. Empty shelves! The farmer appeared with the news that his wife had taken ALL their fresh stuff to the Whitchurch Blackberry Fair. But there were a few things in his freezer, so we won’t go hungry. We had lunch before we moved on again to Market Drayton, passing this intriguingly named boat on the way.

3 good name m drayton

At Market Drayton we went down to the town for a few bits and pieces. At 3 o’clock on a dismal Saturday the town wasn’t busy and the veg stall had packed up. He gave me a 3lb bag of carrots for 50p! Far too many for us, I shall have to give some away. There was this wonderful tree beginning to develop its autumn colours.

4 m drayton fab tree

The effect is rather spoiled by the Bargain Booze sign behind it! We didn’t want to stay at Market Drayton so set off again towards Tyrley locks. There was a boat moored where we wanted to stop, so we went on to the locks. A boat was on its way down, so we had a short wait in the rocky cutting below. Unfortunately they bore the news that there was someone ahead of us, so the last three locks were against us. Here is Dave approaching no. 4 and taking action against the fierce bywash.

5 tyrley no 4

The cottages make a lovely scene at the top lock. Their history is interesting, and I snapped the plaque on the wall to save typing…...

7 tyrley info on cottage

We tied up on the visitor moorings and didn’t quite get a TV signal for the rugby tonight.

We’ve only seen a few boats on the move, and the cloud didn’t lift all day. Must be autumn! So we lit the fire tonight for the first time this autumn. And after a while Dave said, why can I see flames reflected in the tiles at the back? A quick look with the torch revealed the hot plate had fallen off (this is the round plate that blocks off the rear flue hole if your fire uses the top one, which is usual on narrowboats).  So there was nothing to be done but open the windows and door and let the fire burn out. The CO monitor wasn’t sounding so we weren’t too worried – the throat plate was probably deflecting the gases up the chimney.

12 locks, about 7 miles

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