Barry's 'Random Top Ten Waterways Images' (part 2)

Here's the next random selection of images. They are all colour corrected and possibly retouched, and form part of our photo library (from where the prints, including cards and postcards, may be purchased if you're interested).  Click on Sanbar Photography Library

 Pontcysyllte Aqueduct on the Llangollen Canal

  Moored narrowboats on the Shropshire Union Canal near Brewood

Eckington Bridge over the Lower River Avon

Lock 21 and Bridge 36 on the Stratford Canal at Lapworth

   Tern in flight over the Chesterfield Canal

Clarence Docks in Leeds on the River Aire

Mill buildings at Saltaire on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal

Hay field and the 'Dog and Doublet' pub on the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal 

Old working boats at the Black Country Museum at Dudley

Warehouses beside the River Avon at Bath

An eventful Monday in Milton Keynes - sorting and grinding with a couple of surprises thrown in!

We're experiencing a delightfully balmy winter in Gisborne at the moment, and it's certainly assisting me in coping with the season I've been dreading having successfully avoided it for four years!  So much so that I believe many of our daytime temperatures recently, of around 20ºC, have been higher than those in the UK in their summer.  I hope it picks up again for everyone there soon.

Monday 18 October 

Today was clear and dry, and we were on schedule distance-wise, so we took the opportunity to remain in one place.  Barry busied himself grinding the foredeck ready to paint, while I began the tedious task of sorting all of our collected 'stuff' out - we'd amassed so much it's untrue!  The piles consisted of what to take back to NZ, items to take to my parents to store, anything we wouldn't use again to recycle at charity shops with remaining items being disposed of.

Very picturesque with the yellow leaves

Barry must've been using his power-tool rather vigorously, as at one point the shaft of his grinder snapped off and broke, having lasted us since 2009.  Not the best timing!  So off he set on the bike to find the nearest B & Q (or equivalent) which he'd been told was on the other side of town, to find a replacement. 

Barry reported back that Milton Keynes was an 'interesting' place.  He'd taken a wrong direction and ended up cycling along some very busy roads trying to get back on course, but did eventually find what he was searching for whilst having a good deal of unplanned exercise along the way.

'Midsummer Boulevard' is a wide dual carriageway/main street of Milton Keynes, with parking bays either side next to shops and offices, and a walk/cycleway through the centre

It's like a conglomeration of the modern parts of every city in one - no 'historic' buildings here!

Some strange sculptures at various sites along the street

At the canal end is Campbell Park looking out across the Bedfordshire countryside

The view from the top of the park - the canal is hidden somewhere behind the trees

The tree-lined towpath, with the canal camouflaged to the right

Late in the afternoon we set off to the nearest water point, about two miles away, to fill up.  With most of the packing and sorting completed, all that was left was removing it from the boat and getting it to its next destinations.  Barry got a lot of work done once he'd replaced the grinder, so we were on track for our last couple of weeks on board. 

At around 2200hrs we had a phone call from a number I didn't recognise, and were surprised to discover it was Sue, a woman I went to school with from the ages of five to eleven and who I've caught up with every now and again over the decades since then.  She and her husband Dave live not far from Milton Keynes, so they suggested we meet up somewhere tomorrow night for a drink - but of course, what an unexpected pleasure!

Barry's choice of 'Ten Random Waterways Photographs' (part 1)

I thought I might keep the interest going by posting now and again ten different photographs from our trip at completely random places. I may or may not put where they were taken. All of them will be colour corrected and possibly retouched, and form part of our photo library (from where the prints may be purchased if you're interested).

Click here to view photography library

  British Waterways working boats 'Leo' and 'Scorpio' on the Staffordshire & Worcester Canal near Wolverhampton

Stourport Basin on the Staffordshire & Worcester Canal near the junction with the River Severn

Barrel-roof lock cottage on the Stratford Canal

Colourful working boats 'Clover' and 'Fazeley' moored on the Upper Oxford Canal

 A flock of swans along the River Withan in the centre of Lincoln

Summer cruising past the mill at Low Bradley, on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal

Housing development at the junction of Birmingham Main Line to the left, and the Sherbourne Arm to the right

Tranquil moorings on meadows close to Stafford, on the Staffordshire & Worcester Canal

 Permanent moorers beside Radlett Power Station on the River Ouse

Old working boat 'Harold Turpin' permanently moored on display at Enfield Basin

I hope you enjoyed looking at them as much as I took pleasure in being there and taking them.  More to follow soon ...

Saturday night fever, sporadic sunshine, some sadness and a few bees! Oh and introducing 'Sanbar Canal Photography'

After many months of procrastination, I'm finally making time to work on our 'coffee table book' that Barry has put many hundreds of hours into.  It's amazing how fascinating things become when we eventually give a focus to them.  Watch this space for news of our progress ...

You may also notice that we've added a link to the ''Sanbar Canal Photography' website of Barry's stock library of stunning photography, painstakingly but lovingly put together in the past six months - so now if we're asked for a copy of a photo from the blog we can direct people to the specific link from where they can order said image!  We've had many requests in the past and have released images free gratis out of the goodness of our hearts, but we're now on a mission to return to the waterways so need to use all means available to us to realise that dream.

In between posts in the future, we may just throw in a few random 'favourite shots' for you to savour and whet your appetite ...

Sunday 17 October

It was pretty noisy around Leighton Buzzard last night, with lots of random shouting of unknown origin and location.  Probably similar to most towns in the country on a Saturday night, with teenagers roaming around looking for something to do.  I went for a walk this morning into town to see if any of the shops were open, but disappointingly hardly any were - I did however discover three broken shop windows seemingly smashed since my visit yesterday.  Ah well, such is life sadly.  I returned to Tesco to get what I'd forgotten just a day ago, then we hastily escaped the madness on our way to Milton Keynes.

It was a busy day on the canals with an abundance of boats around.  We got chatting with a family gongoozling (I know, it's not a 'real' word, but it sounds good!) at the first lock who'd had a narrowboat holiday years ago for a week on the Llangollen and loved it, they now have small children but were eager to return to boating once they're older.  Sensible people I thought, no point doing it while the offspring are young.  I'm sure it's possible, but for me I can't see the enjoyment of being on a boat constantly having to watch young children every moment, it's not supposed to be stressful!

 

Burnt out wreck of a poor cruiser - there's not much left of them after a fire

 

 

 

 

We then shared a few locks with a delightful couple on I think NB Shennan?  They'd just retired, having sold their house in Kent and bought a place not far from Northampton closer to their boat and were planning to spend about half of the year on board, having previously been boating for around 25 years in one form or another.  They were at Leighton Buzzard taking part in the canal cleanup. 

NB Shennan waiting for us at Leighton Lock

We were last in but first out - very clever!

 One man and his dog, happily 'slipping away'

Passing 'The Globe Inn' pub at Linsdale

Doesn't come much nicer than this ...

... or as scary as this!

Every boaters nightmare - a fishing competition

Under Bridge 107 and into Soulbury Top Lock ...

... though we had to wait for a boat to come up first

 Good sized pounds between but could be fun with four 70ft boats passing

Now it's our turn into the first lock ...

... then into the middle lock

It was a pleasure to share some time with them, but we parted company at the third Soulbury lock to visit 'The Grand Union' pub at 'The Three Locks'.  A very pleasant place, in a fantastic position, with a rather pricey but delicious sounding menu (our budget only stretched to a home-made baguette on the boat!).  They have outdoor seating alongside the lock, and when we passed by the sun was shining brightly - by the time we'd had lunch and ventured out sadly the clouds had reformed.  Never mind, we still had a relaxing half hour chilling on a couple of large armchairs indoors, enjoying a pint of Guinness and half a Kronenberg and lime!  We know how to push the boat out, lol!

 Alongside 'The Grand Union' at The Three Locks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Time for a quick drink at 'The Grand Union' - formerly 'The Three Locks'

As we returned to the boat, low and behold the sunshine reappeared!  Typical!  We still had a fair distance to travel to get to Milton Keynes, and it was such a marvellous stretch of canal made even more pleasant by the reappearance of the sun.  It was still mightily cool, but so picturesque in the autumnal light with the leaves making a glorious display of their continually changing colours. 

I had four layers of clothes on, as well as a hat, scarf, ear warmers and gloves - unfortunately I hadn't really got any thick jumpers as surprisingly I couldn't I fit them in with the 20kg luggage allowance!  I was also determined not to buy any, as I've loads back in NZ - I'd have checked the charity shops, but they appear to be getting extortionately expensive nowadays.

 A charming setting, especially in the sunshine

Stoke Hammond Lock thankfully in our favour

The old narrow lock would have been where the path is now

Sandra on lock duty - all layered up

Exiting Stoke Hammond Lock

Stunning new-looking Dutch barge

A smart, modern development at Fenny Stratford Basin

There were lots of herons and other birds around and many quaint villages, then arriving at the south of Water Eaton on the outskirts of Milton Keynes and all the way up on one side was rural tranquillity with urban conurbation on the other. It was as if the canal formed a boundary wall between the two.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The wildlife enjoying the sunshine while they could

Fenny Compton Lock with a 12" drop and a swing bridge across the middle

Fenny Stratford Lock with the 'Red Lion' pub alongside

We finally moored up just before sunset, a little short of bridge 82, not far from the proposed site of the entrance to the 'Bedford and Milton Keynes Waterway'.

The evening marked the end of our final weekend on our beloved Northern Pride,so we were appreciating the time left on board.  The end of our journey in 2009 wasn't so difficult because we knew we'd be returning - this year we weren't sure when (or if) we'd be back on the cut ...

Bridge 92 on the outskirts of Simpson

We watched 'The Secret Life of Bees' that night.  Kim had lent me the book and I'd enjoyed it, so she bought me the DVD for my birthday.  I loved the film too, though not as much as the book (doesn't that so often happen?) but Barry wasn't so enthralled.  Despite appreciating the film and book, it did leave a bitter taste as I so dislike seeing some people's racial prejudice - how can people speak to and behave towards their fellow human beings in such an appalling way, just because of the colour or their skin?  It always amazes me and makes me ashamed to be a white Caucasian.  'What the world (still) needs is a great big melting pot'.