Spangle

Thank you very much indeed for that gem of info! Much appreciated.....

Hi Guys! I'm hoping that someone on here will be able to advise us! I know that there are charges being made down the GU from Berkhamsted onwards, regarding visiting the Olympics. But are there similar charges being made on the Oxford Canal? I'm thinking Lower Heyford, Banbury and Oxford itself (where there are train stations). I've checked out Waterscape but can find no references anywhere and I just seem to be wasting my time looking. So I thought I'd ask if anyone knows anything about it at all? Thanks in advance and looking forward to hearing from you! We are currently tootling about on the GU waiting for the weather to improve!

Hi there everybody! We know that there is now a beautiful new canal waterway around the Olympic village, sadly though it isn't really going to be open to us for cruising round until after the Olympics. I asked on Waterscape about dates for availability but nobody got back, so I thought I'd ask on here. So - does anybody have any idea as to when that new 'Ring' will be open? Is there going to be a charge (I sincerely hope not). Any thoughts or suggestions? I know - I think - that you can pay and moor on it during the Olympics, but the charges are a fortune, so we won't be doing that! Look forward to hearing your comments! Hope you are all coping with these high winds (we're currently on the Llangollen) and we'd like to wish everybody a HAPPY CRIMBO !!!!!

We have just paid 7.00 per bag for 10 bags of petcoke, which is our preferred choice, it stays in beautifully overnight. Each bag is 20kg. Delivered to boat from coal merchant. We're currently on the Bridgewater, near Manchester, but only briefly.....this lot should last until Christmas with any luck!

We only use gas for cooking, and a 13kg propane bottle lasts 12 weeks. We always have one ready to go in, but we use 12 weeks as a rule of thumb. The last gas we bought was 19.95 from near Br 117 (Trent & Mersey, Stoke on Trent) - a brilliant price, especially when he knows you are a boater! Everywhere else seems to be about 25.00.... In winter we use approx 30 bags x 25kg coal, though we prefer petcoke which stays in overnight very nicely. A bag costs approx 8.00 - 10.00 depending on where you get it from. We are CCers, doing approx 1000 miles a year, so we cruise all year winter & summer. We reckon as a rule of thumb that a litre of diesel gives us 1 hour cruising/running time on days when we don't move. Hope these figures help!

So, we've been on the Fossdyke and Witham for best part of a month now and had no problems at all really to speak of. Certainly nothing like the Chesterfield! Currently moored at Anton's Gowt, looking at all the weed on the Drains, so I think we'll be giving them a miss, unfortunately. Off down the Kyme Eau on Sunday! This is turning out to be great trip!

Thanks for the offer of help, Andy - much appreciated! However, we have now turned back and heading for West Stockwith...... we WILL be back!! Yesterday - joy of joys! - a weed cutter passed us, with the associated boat skimming off the bits he'd just cut, so we made much better progress than we thought we would. So pleased. We are now heading for the Witham .... so reading that its weedy as well has just made our day!! Cheers one and all!

We are currently cruising the Chesterfield Canal, and very much enjoying it. However, I thought I might just warn other potential cruisers: There is NO diesel or gas available canalside. You could ask someone at Shireoaks Marina or Clayworth Boat Club to take you in their car, but that's it as far as we can tell. It's June - and the weed is thick, thick, thick, especially past Retford up the Forest Locks towards Ranby. We were doing less than half a mile per hour at one point as we slogged through it all. Now these two points above are related! Because it is so slow you are using far more fuel than you think you will need - and I have heard of two boaters who rang BW and said it was all their fault for not maintainting the canal properly that they were now very short of diesel....and BW brought them some in containers! Having said that, the scenery is gorgeous and the water is so clear you can see very large fish mooching about, even several pike, and we saw a snake swimming along yesterday too. Just be aware of its pitfalls!!!

We found a dead person under a bridge in Blackburn on the L & L, turned out to be a murder victim. After we reported it the young policewoman let us carry on, taking no details off us at all, which we found odd (we've seen enough detective TV stories to know!). We then got trapped in ice for a couple of weeks, never gave it another thought - until our daughter rang to say that the CID were looking for us!!! They only checked areas where there was a proper towpath though and we were way out in the sticks. So eventually our very own Morse and Lewis turned up at the nearest pub for a statement. Months passed. By then we were in Oxford when the Coroner's Office rang to request our attendance. We suggested that it was a long way....could they manage without us.....and apparently they could because we never heard anything else!!! Whew!

We always stop in Castlefield in Manchester, you can either walk up Deansgate or get the free bus (it runs about every 10 minutes) up to the Arndale Centre, which is where you'll find M & S, Debenhams, Boots, Primark etc. We also stopped on the new mooring rings outside the Trafford Centre - it's about 3 minutes walk across the car park into one of the biggest retail malls in the country. There are security cameras and personnel, they watch the boats all the time and the gates to the Trafford Centre can be unlocked for you, should they have not quite got round to it. We stayed overnight, perfectly safe and quiet, we will definitely stay there again! The Boathouse pub at Astley Green is very friendly, they have meal deals on .... we were iced in there for 8 weeks and took advantage of their 2 meals for 4.95 deal. Most acceptable! It's a shame that you are only allowed on the Bridgewater for a week, we struggle to visit all the places that we like in the time available. Enjoy!

We have just set off along the L & L from the Wigan end, so we have fingers crossed that all will be well for us traversing to Leeds! There's definitely not been much water at this side of the country (though it's raining as I write this). We 're not rushing, so it will be approx end of March before we clear this canal - heading for York etc. We don't want to go too quick so we don't encounter flooded rivers! Can't win!

We have just set off from the Bridgewater Canal (where we've been iced in for 8 weeks....) and are now heading up the Wigan Flight over the L & L to Leeds, then to York - we can't get beyond there I think as we are 59ft - then Stamford Bridge, Pocklington Canal, Doncaster, Sheffield, SYN, down Trent again to Chesterfield Canal, then on Trent again and off to Lincolne, Boston, Kyme Eau, Back again to Trent and along to Gainsborough and Nottingham. Grand Finale up the Erewash if we have time.... and then back along the T & M to the North West. That will take us all year we reckon, with all side routes covered wherever possible. We've not done anything beyond Leeds really before, so looking forward to it!

I am delighted to report that a boat from Castlefield has gone past us here at Astley Green this lunchtime! So after all but two months, we are now free to escape!! We only came for a coal delivery, way back in November ..... So, the ice is all but gone now - we can get on with our travels!!! And a very welcome tank of water ....

We have travelled on the Thames several times now, it's one of our favourites. We nearly always turn & face upstream, maybe it's just us, but if we don't, we always seem to make a hash of it! I broke my leg at Windsor one year, the lockies were really helpful, ringing ahead to let everybody know we were on our way. I would sit on the back deck with a stern rope, but when I couldn't do that Hubby would put a really long rope from the bow, step off onto the lock surround and simultaneously hold the stern rope. It worked well! We've covered both ends of the river, as it were, the Lechlade end is marginally better - but there's tons to see downstream! Regarding being on your own - in summer you can queue, but some of the bigger expensive cruisers refuse to go in a lock with a narrowboat, so the lockie tends to hold them back & wave you in. And if it's the wrong time of day, then you'll do them on your own anyway. The ones at the Lechlade end are beams, from Oxford they are electric. Enjoy whatever you do, it's great!

It all depends what you want to do! We've been live aboard continuous cruisers for 7 years now and it all works fine - but you must both want to do it. That's the key to the whole thing. If it's raining - we don't travel. If it's a weekend - we try not to travel! Just suit yourselves. We visit ageing parent as often as poss, ring regularly, send postcards (mum's not on the internet), our daughter keeps on coming to visit and brings new grandson - so it's all possible! Enjoy!!!