Trent & Mersey Canal Trip 2011 - Savoy Hill

We again hired the BBC Club narrow boat, Savoy Hill, for our week's holiday on the UK's waterways system, this year the boat was moored at Kings Bromley marina just outside Lichfield in Staffordshire. This will have been the 11th year in a row that we have hired and for the last 2 years have also rented a  ukboathire boat - see separate blog entry below of our Warwickshire Ring trip. As you will see I decided to try to create timelapse videos of each days travel as I thought it would help us to remember the trip and could help others see exactly what the canal (and River Trent) is like - not just the canal but towpath, general area etc. I think we captured about 90% of the trip but there were times when it wasn't noticed that the camera had turned itself off - battery lasted about 3 hours, or when I didn't delete the day before photo's. Each day generated about 5000 640k photos and was stitched together using a freeware package called Photolapse 3.0 and it pretty easy. I've uploaded these to my youtube account (RoggieLondon) for all to see. Also setup Google Latitude so anyone who wanted to visit us could see exactly where we were.

We do a big shop first - this time at Tescos in Lichfield but there is also a large Morrisons in the town so we have enough food to last the 7 days - always enough beer and wine as well. Happy, friendly staff at Kings Bromley and the marina seems very secure.
Wasn't sure which route to take this year as we have been round the 4 Counties (both ways) and over the last 2 years have been around a fair few parts of the BCN - so decided to try to get to Newark via the River Trent. Not too sure about rivers though, went from Bath to Bristol and back last year and think we prefer canals to rivers. Still worth a go and www.canalplan.org.uk said it was possible at about 8.5 hours a day.

Started Saturday lunchtime (about 1.30) from Kings Bromley marina - reversed out of the mooring and the front was caught by the wind (63ft length) - give it some welly said the lady in the nearest boat - so much for taking things gently at first eh? Managed not to emerge into the cut in front of anyone else and proceeded towards Frandley Junction - weather slightly overcast but fine. Got as far as Barton Turns before mooring just after the lock. Day 1 video

Didn't start till almost 10.30 - very lazy and the weather was very nice indeed. Moored up just after Swarkestone, miles for anywhere. Day 2 . Every now and again you see the same boats, either you go past them or they past you - almost a ever present on the outbound trip was Joshua (seen here moored by Hurst Pierpoint). My wife and I had a look at a old BCN tug boat not used for hiring via  Saisons who have a couple of boats with portholes - I quite like this style but she thinks they made the inside of the boat too dark - so I was interested to speak to the owners to see what they thought - finally caught up with them on our return trip when we saw them moored on the Trent - I'd applied for 2012 tickets to watch the white water events and it was a good opportunity to see the course which is right by the side of the river. Ice creams for sale nearby as well. The owners kindly let us look inside the boat, and very nice it is too - Trish still isn't sure about portholes...











I think about now I realised that Newark wasn't possible (or practical) so decided to get as far as the River Trent in Nottingham and moor outside County Hall on the river itself - good moorings with loads of rings on the steps to moor to. Day 3

Given the appalling weather forecast (heavy rain, thunder etc.) decided to head down the Trent to the Ferry Boat Inn at Stoke Bardolph, one lock away, as the other alternative, the Erewash canal wouldn't be that much fun in the rain - given all the locks. As it happened we had a few spots of rain and then it was lovely and sunny all day - the pub has few moorings and so that wasn't on (area marked out for a 'trip boat'. So it was back into the Nottingham Canal - showers all round and filled up with water (next day noticed we left behind the BW key) and moored next to the Nottingham Castle marina - nice place to moor and a very busy towpath. Day 4

Yet another warm and sunny day - noticed no BW key at Beeston lock so thought we would try up the Erewash to the couple of boatyards there - no joy but at least we can say we have been up the canal - even if it was only for a few miles. Crystal clear water with loads of fish visible  - shared the lock back down with a just collected 74 year old (no name) boat going to the Ellesmere Canal Museum - impressive beast.

BW key and cork purchased from Sawley Marina so that's OK then. £10'ish so not cheap....Day 5

Yet another nice day - no wonder the water levels are low everywhere. Dropped into Mercia marina to buy a 'insurance' BW key for next time.. early finish right by the railway line - at least it would be quiet at night - it wasn't,. Doom and gloom said the weather forecast for Friday Day 6

Well the forecast was right - rained all morning and most of the afternoon - heavy at times as well.  Still you don't appreciate the good weather if thats all you get. Camera inside the cabin looking through the window rather than outside. Spotted Granny Buttons at Horninglow Marina - I've been reading Andrew's blogs for a few years now and it was good to see the actual boat itself - very nice too,

Popped into Barton Marina - picked up some bread but no newspapers on sale. Provisions (and fish & chips) from Alrewas before finally finding somewhere to moor 3 locks past Fradley junction. Day 7

Last day before returning the boat - needed to fill with diesel, water and get the 2 toilets pumped out. Good job it wasn't that windy as not too sure of manoeuvrings the boat in marinas - there isn't loads of space. Took a look at the 70ft hire boat Ivy May which lives at the marina - loads of space on board and possible a future hire boat for us. Day 8

Given that we enjoy boating and the life on the canals we are giving some serious consideration as what to do next. Current options are to look to hire for about 3 weeks next year - perhaps end of May/June - to see whether we link being on a boat for longer than the week - given that this will cost about £2k (less if we went for Ivy May) I'm thinking of buying a boat at about £15k - saw 3 for sale around this price on our route and I have the numbers to ring - would fit into a £20k budget - and could possibly be re-sold for approximately the same if needed. Of course this comes with the £3k per year costs and where to buy a mooring.... So many decisions.

Finally - a boat after my own heart - his n'her Bromptons, as sometimes you have to get off. Neat I thought.

Warwickshire Ring Canal holiday April 2011

Easter Sunday April 2011 we hired a UKBoat Hire narrowboat out of Rugby Marina, 4 of us and making good use of our Tesco clubcard vouchers. Decided to see whether time-lapse video are easy or not (or worthwhile), you can now be the judge. Left the marina and decided to do the Warwickshire ring clockwise - thought it best to get the Hatton flight out of the way earlier rather than later. Day 1 is here:-

Warwickshire Ring Day 1

Brought a extendable tripod from Maplins and fixed it to the front of the boat - the flexible mount worked pretty well and the Ricoh R8 camera took a while to set-up (1 photo every 5 seconds, lowest resolution & screen off, some freeware software to put all the photos together, Photolapse 3 http://photolapse-3-3-0.soft-free-download.com/) but worked well. Main problem was making sure the battery (we fortunately had 2) hadn't run out without us noticing - difficult from 40 feet away of course. Day 2 is here:-

Warwickshire Ring Day 2  

Day 3:-

Warwickshire Ring Day 3 This was a really hot day but we did manage to pair up with another boat for the Hatton flight - only because I pedaled up the flight on the Brompton and asked the boat a few locks in front if they wanted to share - I did say we were 1 lock behind which was a slight exaggeration (we were 3).

Day 4 saw us going through the litter strewn canals of Birmingham, mooring overnight at Star City with the ever present hum of the M6. Got stuck in one of the locks due to litter - couldn't understand why we were not moving - nor did the other boat waiting for us. Its a strange canal, going round the back of everywhere, some industrial dereliction and some residential but we had been into gas Street basin the year before so thought we would try the Grand Union this time.

Warwickshire Ring Day 4

Day 5 had a few locks but we had done most of them in the ring so time for a more relaxed time 

Warwickshire Ring Day 5
Same for Day 6 

Warwickshire Ring Day 6 

Day 7 was Royal Wedding day, poor TV reception on the TV so we decided to make for the Greyhound at Hawkesbury Junction, just made it in time for the wedding.
Warwickshire Ring Day 7

Battery packed up before getting back to the maria hence no shots of us entering Rugby Wharf. 

So they you have it - perhaps useful in that you can see where some good moorings may be - also you can just see the state of some of the towpath. Or is it boys with toys? Will try again on our next hire - Trent & Mersey towards Derby mid August out of Kings Bromley on Savoy Hill, if you see us coming w/c 20th August give us a wave.

Alvinne Brewery Visit July 2011

5 of us made our annual trip out to Chimay, Belgium for the l'Audax des Fagnes cycle ride http://audax-de-chimay.over-blog.com/ As usual we try to find a brewery to stop at on the return journey (and on the way out of possible). This year we contacted Glenn at Alvinne and he was kind enough to invite us to visit their new brewery, which was not yet brewing due to the new equipment not being installed as yet. Freshly imported all the way from China - cheaper than buying from the EU we were told.

The brewery has moved to a small town called Moen, a village near Kortrijk, where they have bought an old industrial building to put in a brand new brewery. The address is Vaartstraat 4a, Moen (Zwevegem), 8552 http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Vaartstraat+4a,+Moen+(Zwevegem),+8552&hl=en&oe=utf-8

We arrived just after noon, as planned. Glenn invited us to a nearby cafe for a spot of lunch - lovely hot and sunny day and a pleasure to sit outside and talk about beer, Flanders, governments (or not as the case was) and even bikes. Back to the brewery to see what is planned - stainless steel everywhere and waiting for a engineer to link them all together.






At the back of all this steel are the wooden barrels that they hope to use to mature some of the beer. Many collected from a recent visit to Bordeaux and having a amazing small of the Monbazillac that had been matured in them previously. These are the barrels they use to mature the Cuvée d’Erpigny beer (15%) Here you can see Glenn explaining how they got around 17 barrels back from the Bordeaux area to Flanders - must have been a large van, shame the barrels were empty as some contained some very nice Bordeaux wine.




So now it was upstairs to taste some of the beers. Very comfortable it was too - as you can see from the photos. Not finished yet and the bar area still had to have the shelf glued on. One pump for draft beer and some very comfortable seats at eh end. We tried most of the regular beers finishing with the Cuvée d’Erpigny. It was then downstairs to purchase a few beers to take home with us. I was pleased to see a good selection of Fantome beers - which are very difficult to get even in Belgium itself.

 What better site than a fridge full of beer - and all at a very reasonable price with small tasting glasses available and the opportunity to be talked through each one by the brewer himself.

Thanks very much Glenn for all the trouble you went to to make us so welcome, Hopefully they will update their website and add details of local gites etc. for those wanting to visit and not drive - perhaps info on cycle hire in the area to explore the nice (flat) countryside to generate a thirst.