I learnt a valuable lesson today which will become clear as the day unfolds! We set off promptly at 9am so as to arrive at Hinckley in good time to walk to the laundrette before meeting BBT and his wife, PJ. They were en route home after spending a week on their narrowboat, a bit further up the country. Expecting their arrival anytime from early afternoon I made a plan and ‘the best laid plans of mice and men’ as the saying goes…!
My first surprise was how busy this relatively short stretch of canal is. Perhaps its popular with boaters because there are no locks to contend with. To be honest that can make the journey feel a little flat, but at least you can time your travel a bit more accurately. Knowing we would be two hours before arrival I got on the helm sans tea or crumpet whilst R was busy in the galley preparing me breakfast that I could eat whilst meandering along. Before we even left the mooring a boat was coming towards us. Then as we rounded the first bend there was another boat in the near distance heading our way and a boat on the side that looked as though they were about to set off, holding their ropes in readiness. Enquiring of them what they were doing they said they had had to pull over as they had felt something around the propellor which turned out to be a pair of jogging pants and a plastic bag! It had been quite a fiddle to untangle those! I did then see a child’s tricycle in the canal – a reminder that some people do unashamedly use it as a dumping ground. Fortunately it is quite a wide canal in many places so you can take avoidance action if you think you see an obstacle but more often than not you just have to hope for the best. Another boat approaching me started gesticulating which is always a concern when you can’t make out their angst. In this instance he was just warning me that I was heading for some low overhanging trees. I tried to explain, in the 20 seconds you have for conversation when passing a boat, that I had felt it more prudent to avoid him than the branches of a tree. With branches you just duck, briefly shut your eyes and hope they don’t catch hold of anything on the roof. So three boats heading our way by 0930 was a bit of a surprise especially as I had to balance eating my breakfast with one hand whilst steering with the other, although the trick with using my hips to change direction did come in handy.
On the very outskirts of Hinckley there is a watertap and I had suggested to R that when we get there we run the bath with the piping hot water, get ourselves washed and then put on a totally fresh set of clothing. The only disadvantage to this plan would have been if the water tap was busy because after the bath was when we wanted to fill up. Another boater had told me the trick of running the water into the tank as you have a shower so as to not run the risk of running short. It’s a great feeling being clean and knowing the tank is full as well – water anxiety is an issue. Hence why every 1L plastic bottle of sparkling water has been repurposed when empty to be filled with tap water, an emergency back up!
Stripping the bed of linen, I prepared two substantial bags of washing. We then moved the boat further into town, where there was a wharf that we could wait at for our friends to arrive later but first we set off on the mile and a bit journey to the laundrette. According to Google it was open until 4pm so arriving there about 1pm still gave us plenty of time to get the wash clean and dry. I am sure you can imagine the ‘blue air’ as we eventually arrived and found not only was it shut, but it only did ‘service’ washes, starting at £25 for a large load. I rang the mobile number on the shop door and a friendly man cheerily told me he was not open today due to an unforeseen emergency. How I wished at that point I had done what I usually do, which is ring ahead! It would have saved a pointless trek of nearly 3 miles with two cumbersome bags. Enquiring if he knew of any other local laundrettes, it transpired there was another one 2 miles away but we discovered that closed at 2pm on Saturdays. There was nothing we could do, so we retraced our steps. Passing Lidl I popped in for a few provisions, notably scones and cream for afternoon tea. Arriving back at the boat I hand washed 2 jumpers, a tee shirt, a lightweight pair of trousers and some smalls. Not a tremendous amount of washing but even so it took 3 loads of spinning in the washing machine on the boat, each spin lasting about 20 minutes and necessitating the engine running. There was no way I could wash the bedlinen so for the first time in our trip I made use of the spare set I had brought with us. Usually I wash and dry the one set, putting it back on the bed to prevent it becoming damp whilst stored. I was relieved that the spare set was dry as I had stored it in an airtight vacuum bag for the entire trip.
Waiting for the delayed arrival of our guests we moved the boat to a mooring in the sun, outside a pub. We hadn’t been there long when we were asked to move as it was a private mooring. Even offering to buy a drink didn’t allow us to stay so we moved to the opposite side of the canal which was opposite a Marina, and wondered if we would be asked to move on from there! However BBT and PJ shortly arrived and were happy to cruise further along the canal with us. BBT decided to take the car to a bridge further up the canal and then walk back along the towpath to rejoin us. To expediate this he was delighted to hop on a passing bus (it being free to bearded gentlemen of his stature) travelling in the right direction towards us. However the bus unexpectedly turned up a road into a village so he found himself further away! Jumping off and crossing the road he encountered another bus that took him back towards the canal (all very surprising when you consider there are only about three buses a day running in this area!) so he felt blessed to be able to rejoin us in time for his cream tea! It was probably after about half an hour that we spied his car parked adjacent to the canal, at an excellent mooring for the boat. A beautiful view, a wide towpath and benches to sit. We got out our picnic table and chairs and enjoyed the last of the summer sun before BBT and PJ set off home in the early evening. BBT was particularly chuffed to have done a personal first of travelling on the same day on two different canal networks in two different narrowboats!
After they left and I busied myself cooking supper R spoke to the couple in the next door boat, warming themselves by a firepit. For ten years they have been travelling the canal network, usually April to October. They had done a couple of winters but found them particularly challenging on a boat with no stove. One of their stories involved having to go through three locks, all needing the ice to be broken, in order to reach a water tap, which they then found was also iced up! So they are now fair weather travellers! Am not sure what I would have done if that had happened to us. Although we did have ice forming at times on the inside of our windows, I never imagined the scenario of iced up water points. Probably just as well my imagination did not stretch that far!
An episode of ‘Endeavour’ and I was ready for bed although R stayed up watching some comedy followed by a programme on Australia so I was sound asleep by the time he retired.
NarrowboatTLC 