Watching the boats go by.

They’re all out this weekend. Old and new, plastic, steel and aluminium, long or short. The fine weather has brought out the boats this weekend like midges around a Scottish loch.

We’ve stayed put, not doing anything particular, just trying to stay cool. I did have a look at that small diesel leak that was mentioned by the BSS examiner, but I can’t do anything till we’re below half a tank of fuel, due to the syphon effect of the positioning of the pipework.

Friday evening, after I’d finished writing and posted to the blog, I heard an increasing cacophony of tweets and squawks coming down the canal, then this lot gathered below the side hatch, hoping for a tasty titbit.
Canada geese seem to be attentive parents, gathering their offspring into crèches for safety. There were half a dozen adults chaperoning this little lot on their Trick or Treat outing down the row of moored boats. 

Meg and I have spent a little while walking around the large pool at Branston Water Park, she’s taken the opportunity to have a cooling dunk whenever she could.

Branston Water Park

Coot having a scratch…

…And tufted duck, err, having a scratch!

Outside the boat, in the evening, this female thrush has been gathering food for probably a nestfull of demanding beaks…

We’ll be toddling on tomorrow, aiming to get to Shardlow in two days. That’ll be good going for us.

Now then, Tom set me a challenge recently, after I’d calculated the number of bricks used to line Harecastle Tunnel, he suggested I should to do the same for The Great Wall of China.
http://www.china-mike.com/china-tourist-attractions/great-wall-china/history-facts/

At first glance, simples. Assume it’s a couple of courses thick on each side, filled with rubble. The average height is around 6.5 metres and the length, according to China’s State Administration of Cultural Heritage (and they should know…) is officially set at 8,851.1 Km. That’s a lot of wall.


http://www.china-mike.com/china-tourist-attractions/great-wall-china/history-facts/

Tom kindly furnished a link to a website that informs me that a Ming Dynasty standard brick is 375x95x187mm, a volume of 0.0067m³, and the brickwork volume for the wall is 6.5x8851100x.4(guess) x2 (two sides to the wall) = 46025720m³, therefore the number of bricks is 46025720/0.0067 = a mind boggling 6,869,510,448 bricks! Yes? No!!

The wall was built over a couple of thousand years, with techniques ranging from tamped earth to dressed stone, and even wood and vegetation reinforced gravel in some places. The fired bricks only made an appearance during the Ming Dynasty, when a century-long improvement and repair project was undertaken. And even then stone was used as well as brick if it was handy.
So the answer is, anywhere between a couple of million to 7 billion! And that’s not including the watchtowers.

It remains the biggest civil engineering project in history, but it was never directly assaulted by the people it was built to defend against. Until it was improved during the Ming period marauding armies from the north could actually go around the ends of the disconnected sections, following the improvements betrayal by border guards allowed the Manchurian Army through, who established the Qing Dynasty which lasted for nearly 300 years, until early in the 20th century.

The only time the wall was actively defended was as a precursor to the second Sino-Japanese War. In 1933 Japanese troops were held back at Shanhaiguan Pass for three days before overrunning the defenders.

There you have it. No definitive answer, but an interesting bit of research. Thanks Tom. There’s an excellent website that I came across on the subject (and others). The two pictures I’ve used were gleaned from this site.

Thanks everyone for the comments about the Mags picture. You’re right, I don’t know how she does it. I hope I look as good as that in *# years!

Carol, we’re heading down through Leicester to Norton Junction, then either down the GU, along the Thames and back up the Oxford, or vice-versa. So we’ll catch up with you at some point.

KevinToo, mmm, pie! Sorry we’ll miss you this time. We’ll be through Shardlow Wednesday, all being well. Give our regards to your Mum.

Locks 0, miles 0

A taste of the Trent

Leaving our mooring on the edge of Alrewas this morning, we dropped down Bagnall Lock, through the village, then Alrewas Lock, down onto the short river section.

Bagnall Lock, another beautiful morning.

The moorings are always busy through Alrewas, the village must do quite well from boaters, but then it does make us welcome.

Someone wanting water will have to shift this guy. Two water taps, and he’s right between them!

On the River Trent.

An awkward bridge to negotiate part way

The peace and quiet of this pleasant ½ mile interlude is soon shattered as we return to the canal at Wychnor.

Wychnor Lock.

The busy A38 runs right alongside.

With 35 minutes before Barton Lock there was time for elevenses…

Mug of tea and a bacon butty made with dry cured back bacon from the farm shop at Great Haywood. Lovely.

The jubilee clips on the neck of my aluminium windlass are so I can fish it out with a magnet should I lose it in the cut.

Barton Marina, our enforced winter domicile 2012-2013 while Mags recovered from her “bit of a do”.

We topped up with water below Barton Lock before swinging away from the road and negotiating Bridge 36. This is reckoned to be the narrowest stand-alone bridge on the network, just wide enough for a narrowboat.

We gave way to an approaching boat…

…before skittling through ourselves.

Tattenhill Lock was left open for us by a boat coming up, but we couldn’t return the favour, there was no-one waiting below.

Leaving Tattenhill Lock
Yes, the offside gate swung open as soon as I’d left it.

We did meet another boat a couple of minutes later, so they’d have had to open only one gate…

Magpie on wire

Moored just beyond Branston Bridge
There are moorings both side of the bridge, but these are more open, with a wider towpath.

That’s my girl!

She’s certainly caught the sun these last few days!

We’re going to have a day off tomorrow, you never know, maybe even Sunday. Next stop will be above Stenson Lock, all the narrow locks will be behind us, 6 broad locks ahead to take us down to the Trent at Shardlow.

I‘m getting to like the new camera. Leaving it on auto seems to work well, and it boots up just a bit faster than the old Samsung so you can catch snaps on the fly. The image stabilisation, important if you’re using zoom from the back of a moving boat, is excellent. And I’ve pretty well sorted out the colour balance, too. Finally I’ve rooted out a USB cable that fits the camera mini-D socket, so now I don’t have to remove the memory card to dump the pictures. Battery life seems to good, too. I’ve taken over a hundred pictures and it’s still showing well charged. After my initial reservations I’ve come round.
A good buy, especially at the discounted price. I don’t think I’d have paid the full list of £180, though.

Hi Lesley, Wozie. Yes Lesley, I'm really going to be careful with my comments about "The Doughnut Queen". Now's she's got an iPad she can check up on me...!
Wozie, thanks for the comment. Comparison shots with the old and new cameras show the difference. A worthwhile investment.

Locks 5, miles 5.

Fun in the sun at Fradley Junction

Well, to be honest, not a lot of sun… But it was warm.

It was always going to busy through the locks at Fradley, so we waited till 10 to get off, letting the first flush of eager boaters get going. Once again we were passed by several boats in both directions before we got underway.

Taking Meg for her morning perambulation gave me the opportunity to have a play with my new toy. I downloaded and read the manual last night, not a “man” thing I know, but I’m a bit more aware of what it can do now.

Taken from about 40 feet away, blackbird in a willow tree, handheld on 16x zoom, enlarged and cropped. 
So the image stabilisation works!

Zoom once again of ducklings on the canal

Foxglove on macro…

…and flag iris, close but not macro 
It seems to be sharper than the Samsung, but the colours appear a little washed out. I can change the default colour settings, so maybe that’s the solution.

All of today’s pictures were taken with the camera set on Auto.

Back at the mooring

Anyway, we pulled pins and set off, heading past Kings Bromley Marina and into Ravenshaw Wood.

One of the boats passing this morning, and old Springer towing an equally venerable “plastic” both piled high with odds and ends, had pulled up in the woods.
A passing C&RT patrol officer was taking an interest…

There was a boat ahead of us at Woodend Lock when we arrived, so we tied on the landing while waiting for our turn.

Woodend Lock 

The lock refilled, Mags tried to set off but there was no forward thrust and the engine wouldn’t rev. I hopped on  and managed to coax the boat into the lock, but had to pull her out onto the lower landing to investigate the propeller. Someone was missing a bedsheet, probably drying it on the back of the boat and it blew off into the cut, to be collected by our prop.

Secondhand bedlinen, anyone? Slightly soiled but well rinsed… 
Having shut down as soon as we realised we had a problem the sheet wasn’t inextricably combined with the prop and shaft, only needing a good pull to drag it out through the weed hatch (what a misnomer, I’ve only once pulled weed through there!) before we were on our way again.

Shade House and the following four locks were occupied by boats coming up, so we made good progress down the flight.

Leaving Shade House Lock

Lock 18, Middle Lock, was particularly quick to fill, with a damaged cill liner allowing copious amounts of water in at the top.

Where the gates meet the structure of the chamber, vertically up the lock wall and horizontally against the concrete or brick cill, wooden strips known as liners are fixed to make a seal. The lower one, on the cill, has become dislodged in this case. C&RT are aware, and are scheduling a stoppage to repair it. Difficult though, with this many boats about…

Junction Lock, just below the junction with the Coventry Canal.

The lowest of the Fradley Locks, Hunts.

Common Lock was our last for today, less than half a mile below Hunts

For the first time we saw no other boats here, so I had to refill the lock, open the gates, empty the lock and open and close the gates behind Mags all on my own! Shame!

We pulled in above Bagnall Lock, on the outskirts of Alrewas.

Moored outside of Alrewas.

It’s busy here too, we’re a bit closer to the road bridge than we’d like, but it’s only for the one night. Take-aways tonight, Mags is having fish and chips, I’ll patronise the Chinese.

The new camera must be pretty foolproof, Mags managed a picture of me without chopping any bits off!

Must trim that beard…

Locks 7, miles 4

Early birthday presents as we head through Rugeley

With our Boat Safety examination concluded successfully yesterday, we were free to get a good start this morning. Even though we weren’t so tardy, there was a steady stream of boats heading past before we got going. The plan was to arrive in Rugeley and get moored after the overnighters had left, and before the lunchtime and early finishers arrived.

Away from the pig farm Taft Wharf moorings at twenty past nine.

A bit cooler this morning, the sky well overcast, so it was on with a jumper first thing. That was soon discarded though as the day steadily brightened with the sun making fleeting appearances.

Around the bend at Brindley Bank and into Rugeley

As we approached the first of the moorings suitable for shopping, I spotted a familiar face and pulled in for a chat. It was last autumn we last saw Tony and Jacqui (NB Timewarp), since then they’ve been south on the Grand Union. Unfortunately Jacqui was in town, but we caught up with the news from Tony. They’ve taken to selling brass tiller pins, and thinking of Mags’ fondness for tigers, I asked Tony if he’d got one.

Tony and his tiller pin selection
He doesn’t like having his photo taken… can you tell?

He had a tiger, and Mags is now the proud owner of a new tiller pin!

That’s September’s birthday sorted then!

We left Tony to it, hoping to moor near Bridge 66 to be handier for Tesco, and were lucky enough to drop into a slot just beside the bridge.
First trip for me was up to Argos, where they’re having a sale. My old Samsung camera is starting to get a little flaky. The lens cover doesn’t always open, requiring a tap on the side of the housing to sort, the lens itself is scratched, and the pictures don’t seem to be as crisp as they were, or maybe that’s just me.
Anyway, Mags offered to buy me a new one for my birthday, and with Argos doing a Canon digital at a considerable reduction it seemed a good time to take advantage of the suggestion.

New Canon SX170

First impressions are mixed. I’ve not road tested it yet, the battery needs a good charge, but I took a couple of shots to make sure it worked. The battery has to be removed for charging, there’s no other way, and, as it comes, you also have to take the (required) memory card out to download the pics. With the Samsung I just plugged it in to a USB socket, it downloaded the day’s offerings and charged through the same lead. There’s a cable socket on the unit, so I shall have to investigate a little further.
The manual looked to be quite comprehensive, well, thick, anyway. Till I found that it’s in twenty different languages! There’s only four or five pages in English. The full instructions are available as a PDF from Canon’s website.
We’ll see how we get on.

Anyway, a few grocery bits from Morrisons (I was passing the door) completed the shopping excursion, and we pushed on through the town and out to fill with water beyond the Ash Tree pub.

Under the railway bridge

Tank filled, it was a few hundred yards before Meg and I jumped off to check for oncoming traffic through Armitage “Tunnel”.

All clear so we proceed through the narrows where the tunnel used to be.
The top was removed in 1971 as headroom was getting lower due to subsidence. It’s been part covered over again following construction of a new bridge since.

Around Armitage there are a few restrictions to easy navigation. Apart from the tunnel there’s a tree-hung section ending in a sharp right turn below the church,

and another narrow bit nearer Handsacre.

Aahh, Armitage. Toilets come to mind…

Some sort of beetle hitching a ride…

…and an acrobatic moorhen chick

I’m sure he’ll grow into those legs and feet…

We pulled over at Bridge 55, not far from Kings Bromley Marina, and were promptly accosted by the local family of beggars.

Looks like Dad’s had a close encounter with fishing line in the past.
It didn’t stop him having a go at me through the side hatch, though! Ungrateful git!

The weather’s improved considerably as the day’s worn on, bright warm sunshine now.

Thanks for the comment,  Sue. Yes it’s a relief to get that out of the way for another four years. Hope things get moving soon with the engine swap.

Locks 0, miles 7