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wiff-waff awards 2023

Best Town---Bridport

Dump---Rugby runner up---Burton on Trent

Hero---Stuart at Great Bridge

Villain---Streethay Wharf

Favourite Waterway---River Soar

Hello Again-Rob & Ann

Dirtiest Lock--Belgrave in Leicester. How much litter in the water? Shame on you

Best Food---Fish & Chips @ Rubicon Pop-up West Bay

Best Buy--Turkey baster in Rugeley

Best Marina--CWM

Special Recognition--Bluemayne, you never let us down once

Deep Joy/Worry--Ben

Top Tiger-David for putting up with me

Pic--Zouch

David returns to toil in Hemel this Wednesday, I return to toil in YOS this Monday, our trusty stove has new fire bricks, rope and chimney, we have wood, we are winter ready.

SAVE SAVE SAVE. Keep clear of covid and be kind to others.

See you next April. I thank you x

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We passed 3 boats in leaky Blisworth tunnel and I didn't touch one.

I am steerer of the year. King of the tiller.

Posh Pippa has joined the good ship wiff-waff and she comes leaden with gifts. Bless.

Three more nights. I don't want to stop but stop we must. But not forever. That's a fact.

Even though we didn't cruise the route we'd envisaged this year we still had the best trip out. Made many memories.

Yes we got robbed by cowboys at the beginning but if it wasn't for those shi'sters we would never have got to go camping in Eype and Cae Du. Top time of the summer.

Into MK today, last night out on the cut.

Oh bummer.

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7 days and we are done.

It only seems like yesterday we were pulling out of CWM and now the summer is over and we are glum.

From Foxton the canal weaves it's way in splendid isolation. No cars, no noise, no buildings, few people until Kilworth wharf where we stopped for a quote and then on our way again through magical countryside so beautiful it makes me wanna sigh.

Finally the perfect picture postcard village of Crick is reached, through it's leaky tunnel and down the 7 locks at Watford Gap before joining the mainline at Norton junction.

We are in the homeward stretch now and trying not to be sad and determined to enjoy and relish our last 7 days on the cut before we stop for the winter.

Work, coal dust, dullards. Have the lot.

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One of my favourite places on the whole network is fabulous Foxton locks. We ascended the 11 narrow chambers yesterday in bright sunshine and the flight was full of tourists and gongoozlers eating ice-creams or eating in the 2 pubs at the bottom of the flight. Everybody enjoying themselves, there's such a joyous buzz about the place, I could stay here forever.

Alas we must move today because we have an appointment at North Kilworth wharf on Tuesday regarding a quote to have the boat painted. Personally I think we should just have the roof done but David wants a full repaint, we shall see!

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Kingfisher!

I've enjoyed every second on the Soar but alas it is no more. We are now on the GU Leicester Line which will lead us down to the main line just above Whilton locks.

Where are we going you may well wonder? You may well not.

The same town we keep going back to every year even though I said we'd never return, because it's as close as we can get to David's folks without paying silly money and it's just convenient and David has even got his old job back at HH (with hefty payrise) He starts 3 weeks on Monday!

In the meantime we have a joyous cruise back to Bucks.

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I didn't score in Loughborough and I couldn't sniff out a deal in Leicester city centre either.

Such is life.

In wetter times the Soar can be a river to be cautious on but since we've had no rain most of it is benign and very shallow. It is truly beautiful apart from the stretch through Leicester where most of the locals seem to throw all their rubbish in it. Shameful.

We are thankfully south of the city now and because lock 42 is now closed for 3 weeks to be fixed there are far fewer boats moving and already the river is fighting back. It is full of floating vegetation and feels wild and unused and a nightmare for prop foul. It's slow progress but that's ok.

Passing through Leicester several locals told us to take care at lock 39 because there was a sunken boat just after the chamber. So we approached said boat cautiously and on the bank looking at the boat were 2 young guys on their bike and scooter and they'd stopped for a smoke. I could smell it a mile away. If you don't ask you don't get. A 100 yards later at the next bridge I got a 30bag. Good boys.

And look at the name on the sunken boat, we'd been there a few weeks back, that made us smile.

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For the last couple of weeks we've had a screeching fan-belt every time I start the engine, which is very very stressful to say the least. Yesterday we took the boat into Sileby Mill boatyard to fix the problem and their mechanic said the alternator had been put on incorrectly.

Fucking Streethay Wharf are cowboys and robbers.

Lock 42 just north of Leicester is knackered and CRT are only allowing assisted passages through it on Tuesdays and Fridays which is very annoying as it is only 9 miles from Sileby so today we are going to turn round and head back to Loughborough because we are low on water and low on provisions. We're booked to go through the lock this Tuesday between 1-3 and in the meantime we'll enjoy the splendour that is the river Soar and hopefully score some weed in Loughborough,

A boy can hope!

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We turned around in Nottingham and headed back along the Beeston and onto the Trent to Waters Meeting where the Trent meets the Soar and the Erewash canal.

Left onto the river Soar which leads all the way down to the Grand Union and is truly a beautiful river. First stop Loughborough a busy market town.

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Nottingham

#Nottingham

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Passing through the final lock at Shardlow and onto the giant expanse of water that is the river Trent can be quite intimidating and scary, Through another 2 locks and we join the river proper, the current was fast and we flew the 5 miles to Beeston lock in no time at all. At Beeston the river becomes the Nottingham canal and runs for 6 miles through Nottingham and eventually rejoins the Trent at Trent Bridge.

We are moored in the centre of town and here we sit for 5 nights.

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No likes, my fragile ego.

The canal changes greatly after the locks at Fradley, no longer does it twist and turn, now it is largely straight all the way to the Trent.

We moored for the night in the picturesque little village of Alrewas with it's 3 pubs, award winning butcher and friendly Co-op.

Through Alrewas lock and the canal joins the Trent for about a mile, beware the large weir in full flow. Once back on the canal the A38 follows the waterway for a good 5 miles, it's noisy, polluting and far too busy.

Tatenhill lock is just perfectly beautiful, we cruised for another mile and moored close to the village of Branston, original home of the famous pickle.

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So (hate it when people start a sentence with so) we are back on the T&M and it is BUSY, too many boats speeding along. Slow down.

WE had our obligatory stop in Rugeley for provisions from the canal side Aldi and even though we've stopped in this Staffordshire town countless times David has never been into the centre before. I told him to prepare himself to be wowed.

Of the 100 or so shops scattered around the compact car-free centre I think probably 40 of them were closed or boarded up. It was a ghost town.

FFS Rugeley council be radical. The vast majority of those shops are never going to be let again. Turn them into accommodation, give people much needed homes, bring people into the town centre, happy days.

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Our time on the S&W is over, fabulous canal and well worth a visit. We turned off at Great Haywood onto the Trent & Mersey and will take this canal all the way to the river Trent at Waters Meeting near Long Eaton and onto the river into Nottingham.

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I've got to say the Staffs & Worcs is probably my favourite canal on the network. Out of Stourport this ancient waterway twists and turns more times than a Jed Mercurio sub-plot.

The canal then passes through the former carpet capital of the country Kidderminster where (I'm sorry) the towpath was popular with many a heroin addled skank but has a lovely canal-side church.

Onward the canal leads a lonely path until it reaches the small town of Kinver where it was cut through red rock which was home to cave dwellers many moons ago.

We are now passing around Wolverhampton in a wide arc, through the staircase locks at The Bratch and each chamber has unusual drains unlike those on the network.

And great names

and beautiful lock-side cottage gardens

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Rest in peace Steve. We shared so many great times together, happy

 memories. You’ve broken my heart today.

Does my arse look big in these??

x

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River cruising is fine if you are into trees, trees, the occasional pub and more trees. We turned off the benign Severn at Stourport and here we sit for one night only. This pretty little tourist town was once rich and prosperous, you only have to look at the fine buildings around the various wharves but now the centre is spoilt by many many empty shops and it is so sad to see.

We have turned onto the Staffs & Worcs which was finished in 1772 and is one of the oldest canals in the country. We will cruise it’s entire 47 miles to Great Haywood and back onto the T&M because we are off to Nottingham, David is meeting a friend there, we have 2 weeks.

Go.