Moored back at Hatton
station on Tuesday
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It was a lovely bright and
frosty start to Tuesday, so I thought I’d finally leave Lapworth and cruise on
back to Hatton station. We could then
stay there the rest of the week before going down the locks over the weekend. Before we set off I walked to the Post Office
which happens to be one of Buddy’s favourite places. If I take him in, then the girls always
insist on giving him treats and every time we walk past he tries to drag me in
there. The last time we went in I told
them not to give him any treats as we’re trying to stop him expecting food from
strangers. They still sneaked him a
couple, so now I tie him up outside.
The Post Office trip was
to send Matthew’s mug over to Norway for him.
It was a Christmas present that he had left behind when he went
home. As expected, the postage cost more
than the mug itself but he has only been able to get tea cups in the islands where
he lives and would rather have his Yorkshire tea in a proper Yorkshire tea mug ๐
We set off when we got back
to the boat and had a leisurely cruise back the four miles down the Grand Union
to Hatton.
Buddy in his cruising position - practically on the gunwales
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Buddy tends to sit on the
towpath side so he can see the walkers, although I imagine he is looking at their
dogs. It’s quite funny if he sees
squirrels as he starts hopping from foot to foot and I’m surprised he’s never
fallen in.
Once again, we didn’t pass
any boats on the move
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It’s amazing, but we haven’t
passed a single boat on the move since the beginning of November. That was down in Alvechurch when the boat
coming the other way was travelling too fast and hit a couple of moored
boats. It was the sort of situation
where nothing needs to be said – actions speak louder than words. Izzie on Black Sheep did come past us in the
ice at Shirley in the middle of December, but I don’t really count that as we
were moored up at the time.
I resisted the urge to
take yet more pictures of the non-working working boats but couldn’t resist
taking a picture of Shrewley tunnel.
Not the usual shot I know,
but I had to do something
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Actually, to be honest, I
did take pictures of the double tunnel entrance, and really had to include it
here.
Sorry folks!
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The eagle-eyed amongst you
(such as Mike Fielding ๐) will have noticed that we have postponed
our booking for a pontoon in Liverpool docks by a month. Mike put two and two together and guessed
that this means Karen is staying at work for an extra four weeks. This is quite true, but after this week, she
will only have nine weeks left. She has
an agreement with them that if anything else needs to be done after that then
it will be done from the boat as we will be on our way north.
We’re going to need diesel
soon so, in the afternoon, I had a conversation with Mark, the guy who runs the
fuel boat Callisto from Warwick to Market Harborough and also up the
Ashby. Because of the stoppages, he is
only operating the eastern side of his route and won’t be back down to Warwick
until April time. As we only intend
staying in the Warwick area for the near future and there are no boatyards
selling fuel to the public, it means we’ll have to start using jerry cans. So we need to find which local garages sell
red diesel to the public; failing that we can always drive to the boatyard at
Lapworth and get fuel there.