harleyj

We went from Sowerby Bridge to Littleborough last year and I personally think it's my favourite bit of canal even though there can be water issues, but it is just stunning. Even caught up with some Aussie birds, emus no less, at the summit.

Lily, you have that pommie disposition of always expecting the worst, enjoy it while you can. Whatever tomorrow brings we deal with.

There is more to life than drinking! Just kocked off a couple of stubbies(bottles to you mob)

Really been two wonderful days on the Oxford between Braunston and Cropredy. Stunning weather beautiful scenery which after the last couple of weeks has been a major improvement. I know some will say it has been a miserable winter ( we got here at the end of March) but days like the last two days start to make up for it. Stunning!!

When we bought Lazy Bee in 2015 we asked the forum for a recommendation for a surveyor to have a quick look re the price and then made an offer subject to the subsequent survey. We have been told that we were very brave but we are extremely happy with our "Bee". We didn' have the option to fly over at that time so we understood that it was a huge gamble but it did pay off. Also A.B.N.B. were very good to deal with. I don' know which part of Oz your from but if you want p.m. me, I may be able to help in some small way. Harley P.S. sorry haven't been on the site for a few days so missed the original post.

WE spent several nights in June in this delightful town and will and have recommended it to any of our friends travelling to the UK. WE all get a biased view from any town when we either have a good or bad experience there. WE believe that we visited some of the best the canals have to offer on both the L & L and the Rochdale this year and can't wait to go back there.

We put our boat onto hard standing for the time we are in Oz. Nine months from early July due to a family illness, normally six months. It costs the same to have it either in or out of the water with the marina(Swanley Bridge) and the cost of taking it out (approx 170 pounds) but we save six months licence fee. So we save around 400 pounds by having the boat on hard standing. Of course this suits us but maybe not the OP.

Yes, we have no choice, just a tad expensive to pop over for the weekend.

We take two & a half hours to get to Perth, W.A. then 20 hours to get to Manchester, so with sitting around waiting at airports and train stations probably the quickest we could be to our boat would be 30 hours. But boy is it worth it!

In 71 days we fly out to join Lazy Bee for six glorious months travelling the absolutely unique and delightful canals of England. We can hardly wait. We are going "oop north" this year to parts unknown. Hope its not too cold in March Comming over early this year to go to the Cheltenham Gold Cup, one of those bucket list things. By the way it's going to be 37 degrees here tomorrow!

We don't have that many canals down this way! 37 Celsius tomorrow, just a bit dry for inland waterways!

My main reason for starting this rant was that because we have been intermittent users of the canal system, we have noticed the gradual encroachment of cyclists on the towpath. Now not all cyclists are dangerous but we have noticed this year on our travels that there are more and more who think the towpath is a racetrack which has taken away that delightful feeling of being relaxed when walking or when working boats along the canal. I, like most people don't profess to have all the answers, but when we first stated using the canals(10 years ago) there were vast tracts of the towpath not allowing cyclists of any kind. Obviously CART has a different agenda these days.

I will qualify my rant as a minority are very courteous and do as you say but some are just like the lycra mafia of our roads at home, pig ignorant! Love it!

Our bow appears to be be reasonably higher than the stern especially when we have just rubbed the ceiling of the M5 tunnel on the Droitwich Canal although the water does enter more often after filling the water tank. Having checked out some other boats it does appear our drainage holes are very close to the water line.

It is more a case of the small amount of water that just sits in amongst the stored items at the bow, just a pain the rear.

They only drain the foredeck and and are supposed to be level but are just a bit higher especially on the starboard side. One fellow boater suggested that most foredecks slope slightly towards the stern to encourage the drainage, this sounds logical to me but this has not been done on our boat.

Sorry it has taken me so long to reply but have been travelling for the last couple of days with an old forumite and the nights have been too busy to even log onto CWDF. I must admit even though I love horses I did prefer the first description and painting from Wickywacky!

Having been on the canals, hiring for the last ten years and now a very proud owner of our own narrowboat , I feel that I am entitled to my first official rant! Well here it it is, if some of the lycra mafia don't start to slow down around me and "the boss" and abide by the signs(ring their bell & give way) we will be feigning deafness & blindness and staying in the middle of the towpath and may accidently trip and nock one the clowns into the canal. They have taken over the towpath it's time to fight back.

That may not be the correct name but we have discovered a design fault on our " Lazy Bee". The drainage holes for the bow deck are too low and consequently the deck in certain situations ie. fast filling lock or a passing boat in a tunnel, water enters the deck and is a pain in the rear end to clean up. We have used the high tech repair method of plugging the holes with blu-tac but realise that will not suffice in all situations. Are we best to change the floor of the deck and also the drainage holes or is there any other suggestions?

Kelpie, thats an Australian sheep dog, part dingo originally. Have a great time.

My wife and I have just been discussing this topic and she , who steers a fair bit and is confident on the tiller, suggests that you tell her you love her and it doesn't matter if she makes a mistake or if she scratches the boat.