As regular readers may have noticed, I’ve been a bit quiet recently. That’s because we’ve been away on the canals again for a 12 day holiday (last year’s adventure can be seen here). It was quite a gruelling schedule; we began our journey from the town of Shardlow (in Derbyshire), travelled down the Trent & Mersey canal, joined the Four Counties Ring, sailed all the way around, then returned to Shardlow via the Trent & Mersey.
This is quite a way to go when you’re tootling along at a few mph on a narrowboat, so we did some 10, 11 and even 12 hour motoring days for the first week. But once we’d gotten around the Ring and onto the home straight we were able to take a more leisurely cruise.
The weather wasn’t too great, varying from sunny with patchy showers to torrential downpours. Thankfully this didn’t really dampen our holiday spirit (ok, except the day when there was a bloody freezing wind as well) – it was all part of the fun.
So now onto the photographs, just click on the thumbnails for a closer look:

Becky and Sven loading up ‘The Deblin’ at the boatyard. We rented this boat from my boss, who had it built only recently, so it was a lot nicer than the hire boat we had last year. It looked so shiny when we first saw it, we were almost frightened to step on board for fear of getting it dirty.

These signets wandered out of the bushes while we were going though a lock. With no sign of any angry parents, Sven and I took the opportunity to grab a few snaps.

When we got to the small section of the Trent & Mersey canal where it joins the river Trent itself on the second day, we found it was closed for a few hours. Heavy rainfall had caused the river to become faster and more treacherous, so we dutifully joined the queue of other boats waiting for the water to subside.

Unfortunately our position was less than ideal due to shallow water and stinging nettles (we had to get the gang plank out). So we decided to make the best of a bad situation and deploy our BBQs. The photo on the right shows the river Trent as we crossed it; the weir is to the left of the picture and the river bends to the right.

Shots from the back of the boat. The midlands seem to have a lot of power stations, we saw several like this during our travels.

Left: An aqueduct takes the canal over a road.
Middle: Sad looking cows shelter from the rain under a tree.
Right: An unusual bridge with some sort of telegraph pole in the middle.

Left: Sven does some photography from the front of the boat.
Right: Looking down “Heartbreak Hill”, a stretch of the Four Counties Ring that has 29 locks in close succession. That was a very tiring day, although we only managed about 23 of them before giving up for the night.

Left: A “friendly” swan follows the boat for a little while.
Middle: A massive salt refinery. We did a small section of the Ring last year, so we’d seen this before.
Right: We stopped at the village of Weelock again this year, and just like last year we were foiled in our attempts to have a pub dinner here, and the same thing happened this year. So we went to the village’s Chinese takeaway again, recreating this photo from last year (they seem to have had a bit of a redecorate since then).

Harecastle Tunnel, a 45 minute sorjon into the dark depths of the Earth…erm, sort of. British Waterways staff were stationed at either end to make sure people boats only went through in a single direction at any one time.
Left: Looking back out of the boat at the entrance, having just gone in. There were no lights in the tunnel, other than those on the boat. Believe it or not, Alex is in this picture.
Middle: The tunnel ahead. The halo of light is from the single lamp mounted on the bow of the boat. Stalactites could be seen forming overhead.
Right: The entrance recedes into the distance to our rear.

Left: Sven attempts some time lapse and long exposure photography. The shaft of light is from the boat’s headlamp.
Right: Inside the boat, still in the tunnel.

Left: The canal reaches suburbia. I can’t remember exactly where this was.
Middle: This picture was taken from the boat’s kitchen (or should that be galley) window. We fed this swan family a few slices of bread.
Right: A nature reserve near the town of Branston, home to many aquatic birds. You’d have thought we’d been sick of them by then, but we all took photos anyway.

Left: The inclement weather bought down several trees and large branches across our path. Here’s one that we’ve just dodged past.
Right: The walk to the final lock before the boatyard. Unfortunately that lock was closed as a flood prevention measure to protect Shardlow. Luckily they decided to let a mere four boats through just as we arrived, so we were able to make it down to the boatyard.

So ends my holiday tale for another year, and a great time was had by all. For an alternative view of the trip, check out Sven’s Blog. He posted regular updates via his PDA/phone throughout the holiday.