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| Our new mooring in Flecknoe |
By Tuesday it was really
time to move on from Braunston otherwise we could be accused of overstaying and
be fined by the Canal & River Trust (CRT).
But first I had to make a trip to the village butcher shop to stock up
with meat for the freezer. Buddy loves
going to the butcher shop as it is one of the few shops he is allowed into. He is allowed into some pubs of course: in
fact we only visit pubs that take dogs.
He has learnt that most dog friendly pubs have dog treats so when we
walk past pub doors he tries to drag us in – he must smell the beer!
Later on Buddy and I had an easy
cruise down to Flecknoe with no locks.
At one point on the way is a stretch of permanent moorings and one day, on a walk,
Karen and I had seen a large dog sitting in a shed. We couldn’t decide if it was real or not and,
before Karen could take a picture, the residents closed the door. Anyway, the door was never open whenever we walked
passed since but we were lucky when we were driving by on the boat.
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| Seems strange to have such a large statue in a shed |
Soon after mooring up a
large plane flew really low overhead. I
knew friends of ours would know what it was so I put the picture up on Facebook
and soon got several responses. Steve
Joy said that it was a “Lockheed C130j RAF with special
colour scheme tail 50th anniversary”. I
had been expecting wise cracks like, “It’s a plane” but didn’t get that comment
until four hours later (thanks Maafi!).
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Low flying plane
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| A much better picture of the plane - courtesy of Steve Joy |
Whilst I was inside investigating the winter stoppages
which are now available on the web, Mark called by to fill us up with diesel.
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| Mark on the working boat Callisto getting the diesel line |
Winter stoppages are put in place on sections of canals
where structures such as locks or bridges need to be repaired. The works are carried out during the winter
as boat traffic is lighter then. The
winter stoppages can have quite an impact on those of us that keep cruising all
year round but fortunately this year the impact on our area is not too
bad. In short we cannot go south down the
Oxford canal during November, we cannot go west of Warwick (and hence down to
Stratford) from November until March and we cannot go north of Rugby during
December.
Another thing that is put
in place by CRT during the winter are what are called winter moorings. This is where boaters can pay to moor in the
same spot from November to March (or odd months during that period). We have never fancied it as we have preferred
to keep on moving but now Karen is working it may be an attractive proposition
for a while if there are any near her work.
I took advantage of the good internet signal on our new moorings and
found that there will be winter moorings in Radford Semele and Stockton, both
fairly near Leamington. They are the cheapest
type because there are no facilities such as water, rubbish disposal, mooring
ring etc. but they are probably more suitable for us. I am waiting to hear exactly what stretch
they are on as they need to be near a road for Karen.
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| Panoramic view of our Flecknoe base |
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