The Crick Waterways Show 2016.

Saturday 28 to Monday 30th May, 2016 at the Crick Waterways Show.
We've been at the Crick show a number of times before, both with MM and without, so we did wonder if perhaps three whole days at the show might start to become a bit "samey". Not so; we had three super days enjoying the stalls and exhibits and were delighted to meet and spend time with so many of our friends.
On Saturday, when the show opened at 10:00am, we were first through the gate. Only exhibitors were there before us.

Two hours later, the scene was a bit different!

Saturday, is what the exhibitors call "clip-board day" - serious purchasers who arrive with a list and move from stand to stand making the purchases and enquiries that they need. Sunday is normally families on a day out and is often the busiest day of the show. Monday tends to be the quietest with most people just browsing.
We had a lovely time on Day One. This year is the three hundreth anniversary of the birth of the canal engineering pioneer James Brindley. As is appropriate on such a special occasion, he was kind enough to make a personal appearance and regale us with tales of his exploits and achievements.

Afterwards we attended a fascinating seminar by his biographer Christine Richardson.
We chatted to Barry and Monica Tuckey (whose crane launched MM), Terry Robertson (with whom we did our "Helmsman's Course" in 2009), "Cookie" (who used to work for Kingsground but now works for Barrus) and Glenn of Elite Furnishing (who made the curtains and soft furnishings for MM). Glenn had purchased too many flowers for his stand and very kindly gave the excess to M so she walked around all morning proudly carrying a large bouquet!
In the evening, the headline entertainment was a Blondie tribute band. They were brilliant and having gone over to listen to a "couple of songs", we ended up staying right to the end.
A spectacular sunset rounded off the first day.

On Sunday, we had a series of friends arrive! Mick and Jackie from Dorking, who have nb "Zodiak", Jonathan from Reigate, who has nb "Achilles", Bob and Jan from Long Buckby, who own the Kingsground nb "Barocha" and our lovely friends Richard and Simon who used to work for Kingsground. We seemed to spend a lot of time in the Vintage Tea Room entertaining them.
One of the most successful stands on the show must have been this gentleman, who was a great showman and was selling a very innovative and effective mop.

We must have seen hundreds of people carrying them over the three days - including us, as we bought one too for just a fiver!
Richie and Simon joined us on MM for tea and later Mick and Jackie came on board for supper.
Monday was cool and breezy, but thankfully the rain held off. Mid morning, we were joined by Charles, Penny and Minnie, who had all driven up from London for the day. It was so nice to see them. We started off in the Vintage Tea Room, being entertained by a talented (and gorgeous) 1940's girl duo called "My Favourite Things".

Penny tried her hand at painting roses and did an excellent job.

After a few rides on the fun-fair, both girls enjoyed huge ice-creams.

Minnie did end up wearing quite a lot of hers but was determined to finish every last mouthful, despite losing much of it down her sleeve!

Charles thought that a beautiful hexagonal log cabin, complete with a central fireplace and reindeer skin covers on the seats, would make a brilliant games room.

He said that it would be big enough to hold ALL his board games - he thought that getting all his games out of the house might persuade Emma that the £8,800 price tag was worth it - but R wasn't so sure!
So, Crick 2016 has been absolutely wonderful and huge fun.
Tomorrow, we have to moor up MM in a local marina to go away for three weeks - but we plan to be back cruising by 21st June, so please watch this space...
Tuesday (to Yelvertoft Marina): 2 miles, 0 locks and 2.1 hours.
Trip: 90 miles, 49 locks and 79.3 hours.

Three Relaxing Days before the Show

Wednesday 25th to Friday 27th May, 2016 at Crick.
The three pre-show days were great fun. A general carnival atmosphere prevailed among the boats moored on the towpath two abreast. Better still, the weather was good and forecast to stay that way through the weekend.

On Wednesday, we went for a walk to discover where the old horse path over Crick tunnel used to go. On Tuesday, we had been thwarted by an electric fence just after we passed the old road name.

We tried to access it from the other end and found that the original path was clearly blocked (probably illegally) by the electric fence but there was a rather enjoyable alternative that took us back into the village through tall grass, mud and a series of stiles.

M went for a walk in the afternoon and came across this very silly cow, who was doggedly chewing someone's camera strap inch by inch until it managed to swallow it all! Bet it had tummy ache next day...

On Thursday, we decided to take the bus into Long Buckby and waited for the bus outside the show entrance.

The canal that runs by the Crick marina and show ground is called the Leicester Line of the Grand Union Canal.

It is a narrow canal, so all the wide-beam boats that are displayed at the show have to be brought in by truck.  As we waited, one the trucks belonging to our friend Barry Tuckey (whose crane launched MM) drove past into the show ground.

Long Buckby was disappointing, so we took a second bus on to historic Buckby Wharf. That was not only disappointing, but almost non-existent; the only remnant being a small bit of brick wall. Everything else has been demolished and replaced by housing. So sad, as it used to be one of the main centres for the boaters and their families. We did pass by the broken lock that we photographed earlier; it had been partially repaired but the gate was fixed shut, so only one gate could be opened to let narrowboats through.

Next to the locks is a canal-side shop in a cottage that was one of the five pubs which used to be on Buckby Wharf - only one of which remains. This Aladdin's Cave of a craft shop is full of painted canal ware and immediately attracted M's attention. Despite our resolve not to acquire any more canal ware, we couldn't resist a beautiful egg safe, hand painted with red roses by the owner, Tricia!

Rather than catch the buses back to Crick, we decided to walk the six miles back on the towpath. As we passed Watford Gap M1 Services, which is next to the canal, M spotted another four "Eddies"!
This year, the buttercups have been truly glorious with field after field a sea of gold.

At Watrord locks, we met up with Peter and Melanie on their narrowboat "Inkling" although when we first saw their boat, their reserve crew was on board patiently waiting for the lock.

Later that day, we joined all four of them for a lovely evening of Pimms, lively conversation and good company.
The historic narrowboat "Nutfield" with its butty "Raymond" were going through the locks and we kept pace with them as they made their way towards Crick when they had reached the summit. A splendid sight indeed.

On Friday morning, we were joined at breakfast by a very persistent duck who seemed to be telling R that she needed feeding too.

We did give her some and she was so tame that she almost took food from R's hand.
In the afternoon, we walked up nearby Crack's Hill, a tree-topped mound with a rather magical feel to it and panoramic views from the top.

For these three days we stayed moored up and didn't move. Three lovely days...

Mooring up at Crick Waterways Show.

Tuesday 24th May, 2016 at Crick.
Our mooring just south of Crick tunnel was beautiful and the day dawned bright and clear.

Although the mooring was lovely, whenever we moor under trees, the roof gets covered in blossom or leaves. Blossom is a bigger problem; it means washing the roof soon as it tends to stain if left for any time.

We decided to walk the two miles across Crick tunnel to buy some milk in the village and to reconnoitre the reserved moorings at the Crick Waterways Show, just the other side of the tunnel.

On the other side of the canal, there was a flock of sheep and lambs. This group was clearly the naughty crowd - head butting each other, racing round in circles, leaping in the air and generally creating havoc. We could have watched them for hours!

The first part of the old horse path over the tunnel was easy to follow. The buttercups this year have been spectacular - and in this field they served to accentuate the "ridge and furrow" pattern in the field very effectively, almost making a wave effect.

It was a lovely walk but in the outskirts of the village of Crick, the path was blocked by an electric fence so discretion being the better part of valour, we stayed on the roads. This brought us past a newly thatched cottage that was a real picture.

On a small village green was a beautiful Sweet Chestnut tree in full bloom.Lovely.

After walking two miles we felt that we deserved an ice-cream, particularly as the sun was shining.

When we walked down to the moorings, we saw a brand new family of twelve ducklings, probably only hatched this morning.

To our surprise, we found the notice for our reserved mooring was already up. We met two volunteer "mooring marshals" who told us that we were quite welcome to bring MM in and moor up straight away. This was great news as we had been told that we couldn't moor up before Thursday.

So we decided to walk the two miles back to MM and to bring her in. On the way back, we unintentionally disturbed a moorhen who was sitting on her eggs. She flew off with loud cries to distract us from the nest, which we quickly photographed. When we next passed, she was safely back on the nest.

As M had already walked across the tunnel twice by the time we got back to MM, she stayed on board as we went into Crick tunnel.

On the other side, we stopped off at the water point and filled MM with water. On the opposite bank was a gentleman who was clearly proud of his very large inflatable duck on the roof of his boat.

We moored up on our reserved mooring just outside the show ground and R set about cleaning the roof and cleaning off the blossom stains.

Today: 2 miles, 0 locks and 2.1 hours.
Trip: 90 miles, 49 locks and 79.3 hours.

Onto The Leicester Arm.

Monday 23rd May, 2016 at Watford.
Awoke to a pretty morning, cool but clear.  We had caught a glimpse of a very pink sunrise at 4am - but went back to sleep!

We set off early to Norton Junction to fill up with water. The Junction is a beautiful spot, overlooked by the old Toll House with its magnificent Weeping Willow. That would be a lovely place to live!

Only 41 miles to Leicester (and coincidentally - 41 locks). M set off on foot as the first locks are only two miles away.

Along here the canal runs very close to the main north west railway line and the M1 motorway. It passes right by the Watford Gap Services. In fact, M discovered that squeezing through this hole in the hedge takes you straight into the Services. Unfortunately, we also know from past experience that there is no good food shop in the Services. M, however, went through anyway in search of Eddie Stobart trucks. Success! She found two!

This is a lovely stretch of rural waterway; you would never guess from this pastoral scene that the M1 is right behind those trees - but the noise does give it away!

The flight of seven locks at Watford is bordered by huge mature horse chestnut trees, which were in full bloom.

The middle four locks of the flight are a "staircase", where the top gate of one lock is the bottom gate of the next - so boats cannot pass in the middle. Luckily, the locks are manned by C&RT volunteers so there was little for us to do other than to enjoy having help up the locks.

Just above the locks, the canal passes under the horrid M1 thing. At least the guy on the side of the coach seemed cheerful!

We moored up two miles south of Crick in a lovely rural spot. We shall stay here for a couple of nights as our reserved mooring at Crick will not be ready before at least Wednesday. Tomorrow we plan to walk into Crick village to get the usual "few bits" and do some reconnaisance.

As with every evening, R sat down to write up the log for the day - after having coffee and cake, of course!

Heavy rain came from nowhere at about 5:00pm; these twin lambs took shelter under the tree opposite.

Today: 3 miles, 7 locks and 5.9 hours (including power).
Trip: 88 miles, 49 locks and 77.2 hours.

Cheese, Aground and a Change of Plan.

Sunday 22nd May, 2016 at Norton Junction.
By chance, we had moored last night in front of the "Cheese Boat", skippered by Mike. We've bought cheese from him before and luckily he had a stock of R's favourite - the ginger spice cheese from the Snowdonia Cheese Co.

R set off east through Braunston tunnel while M walked over the top, always looking wistfully backwards, sad to be leaving lovely Braunston.

Along the way, she found the first wild rose of the summer. So lovely.

Due to M's customary dawdling, R was already through the tunnel and waiting patiently for M to arrive!

Halfway to Norton Junction, MM ran well and truly aground. No amount of rocking and heaving on the long pole had any effect. The bow was free but the stern seemed to be sitting on a rock.

Even recruiting the help of a passing walker, MM would not budge an inch.

R tried to pull her off with a block and tackle but without success. Eventually a passing hire boat, nb "Eloise", gave us a tow and managed to pull MM off the obstacle and free her at last. The whole process took us at least thirty minutes.

The canal is lined by natural wild flowers of all descriptions - this, however, is a garden escapee.

We found a mooring just before Norton Junction, with lovely far-reaching views over the fields.
Blue tits were nesting in a tiny hole in the tree next to us and flying in and out to feed their young.

Our plan had been to go down the Grand Union Canal to Stoke Bruerne (down 7 locks and about 15 miles) and back, before going up to Crick for the IWA show next weekend; however, we heard that the flight of 7 Buckby Locks was closed due to a broken gate on the second lock down.

We walked along to investigate and found that the top gate on Lock 8 was lying on its side.

It appears that the owner of the narrowboat on that side, while in the lock, had gone below to make a cup of tea. The boat had drifted forwards and as the lock filled and the boat rose, the bow got caught under the gate and lifted it off its hinges. This has not gone down well with the Canal & River Trust chaps, who now have to work against the clock to repair the gate so that all those boats stuck south of the flight can make it to their reserved moorings at the Crick Boat Show next weekend.

It is expected to take three of four days to fix, so we have had to change our plans and just take it easy for a few days before going up to the show.
On the way back to MM, we admired this house with an old railway signal set to "Go" in its back garden. M says she wants one like it! We also admired the old-fashioned street lamp.  And, believe it or not, the garden also had a red letter box!  Marvellous!

So, we had a quiet afternoon and were rewarded with a beautiful sunset with the silhouette of a cow reflected in the water.

Just when we thought that it couldn't get any better, the sunset set the horizon on fire. This has to be one of the most spectacular sunsets that we have seen.

Today: 3 miles, 0 locks and 2.9 hours.
Trip: 85 miles, 42 locks and 71.3 hours.