The Toad in the Hole

Isnit the olympic site closed 'till after the games?

I'd definitely be looking for an off line mooring on the upper reaches of the llangollen. The canal is simply very, very busy, which means a lot of fast moving boats and inexperienced crews, which means on line moorers get a lot of knocks and bumps. Last time I used the dry dock at Trevor, a hire boat came out onto the junction way too fast and the bank was hit hard enough to rupture his fuel tank (into the basin!). Lots of boats on tight timetables coming up for a week off the shroppie/ middlewich, who don't stop for anything!

I'm early 40s - I really should get round to expanding my profile. When I was your age, my (to be) inlaws had a 60' semitrad, and we used that a lot - I probably wouldn't have a boat otherwise, but we couldn't justify spending that sort of money on a boat we couldn't use all the time. We bought our current boat on impulse from friends and it's extraordinarily basic - more akin to a steel bothy. I spend a lot of time working in and around big conservation charities, and I'm watching with something between horror and disbelief as BW try to reinvent the wheel here. They really need to sort their attitude to volunteers out if they have any serious interest in moving towards that sort of a model. At the moment they are sounding like the parks department of a not particularly forward looking District Council.

I dipped in and out a bit last night, and (despite my reasonably pokey PC and connection) things did seem to periodically grind to a stop, but here's my thoughts on a couple of the points. New boaters. That's probably me in an old, basic and small narrowboat - the Llangollen new, charged for, facilities are of little use to me. I don't have mains power and I moor locally, so I reckon the visitor tax at Llangollen, which seems to be a preferred model for BW, adds maybe £30 onto my license. Fine if you're a holiday boat or a retiree making a onece only visit, less good for repeat trade. I don't need 240v power, I need clean toilet blocks/sani stations with showers - Use Maesbury as your model. I also need moorings that are more than 48 hours, because I don't live on board, and I might want to go out one weekend and back the next. There is a real possibility that BW are becoming a floating static caravan park, with the same levels of fit out and the same degree of inflexibility Boaters on the board I think BW would be fools to tie themselves to such a small pool of potential talent for such important positions. I'm not sure what an early retired account manager from Hounslow who happens to own a narrowboat could bring to the board that proper, consultation with boaters wouldn't but I do think they need to be more active in co-opting the specialist advice they need when they need it. 3rd sector model The BW response to this was very telling - there seemed to be very much a public sector, "well volunteers can do the photocall and the litterpicking" approach to volunteer involvement. The thing they need to grasp is that volunteers aren't a plug and play option. It takes years to develop proper volunteer networks and requires support and investment on a par with opening a whole new office, but once they have the structures and the training in place, there is very little they can't do. But as a quid pro quo, they need real responsibility and governance roles as well - that means volunteers on the board in the fullness of time. BW are going to have look at different ways of doing things, they have been managing themselves on an old fashioned model, and they need to look elsewhere. They could start with getting organisational, rather than just technical advice from other bits of Defra like Natural England, who have a much better track record at volunteer involvement, and also to talk to bigger membership organisations (doesn't matter if they aren't considering membership at this stage) like (god forbid) RSPB or the nat. trust. And they need to go to them on the basis of equals, that they might actually offer BW some insights into the running of their whole organisation, not just about visitor centres or water voles. And BW - stop being so bloody defensive. I want an active, healthy, well funded BW, just like you. If there's criticism, it's in the hope you might be able to do things better for all of us, and maybe, just maybe there is a brighter future, but you need to pull your corporate fingers out now.

Is it me, or does the "cover it live" software appear to have stopped / slowed to a crawl?

The emergency services (outside of mountain rescue) aren't always that good with grid references - They have become over reliant on sat nav and like street names and post codes. In fact the conversation I once had was along the lines of "we don't use that grid system, can you give me an address?" Don't use BNG?! You'l love it - it's a way of life

You can also get dedicated dog harnesses for climbing/ Search & rescue work, but they are expensive. Lifejackets can be warm for a dog and (if you're bothered) can look a bit ott for ditch crawling, though I wouldn't use anything else on a river etc. A good compromise is the ruffwear harness which has a handle, but is open sided http://www.climbers-shop.com/3597/products...og_Harness.aspx (Can't vouch for the shop, but the harness is good)

The avon stuff is really only any good for midgies (it's long been a fixture with gillies and foresters in Scotland). It isn't so much a repellent as it provides a barrier to the midge. Proper insects like mozzies and horseflies just burrow on in regarless. I don't like using DEET continuously, but I do use it if big biting insects are likely to be a problem. I barely react to horseflies ( a common Shropshire canal fixture), but mrs Toad swells up like a balloon if one happens to sneeze near her, and she's very quick on the DEET. Citronella is ok, but it doesn't really cut it with serious biters. I also have a head net (bought for Scottish climbing, but has been seen on occasional still summer towpath evenings)

Paramo is an interesting product range. I increasingly use paramo on the hill as it has peerless breathability and it's warmer in the winter, but I wouldn't use it on the tiller, though I might for working a big lock flight. The whole nickwax analogy thing works by using your activity as a pump to drive moisture away from the skin. Paramo itself isn't objectively that waterproof. In practice this means providing you've layered up correctly, paramo gear keeps you warm and dry whilst you are walking / scrambling up some choss-filled gulley. It's also perfectly adequate for more sedentary activity providing it isn't honking down. In very heavy rain I still use a goretex shell (breathability is about getting your layers right - put a big fleece under a goretex shell and you can expect to get properly sweaty if you exert) and similarly standing still on the back of a boat in heavy and continuous rain, I wouldn't expect paramo to work effectively. I wear an old goretex shell with a brimmed hat on the boat - the other thing to remember is that goretex melts and snags, so If I'm likely to do anything oily or hot, I don't want to worry about mr arcterix getting knackered in the process.

In my other life, I'm a bit of a climber and mountain walker. I offer the British Mountaineering Council participation statement: "The BMC recognises that climbing, hill walking and mountaineering are activities with a danger of personal injury or death. Participants in these activities should be aware of and accept these risks and be responsible for their own actions." Pretty much anything we do when we set foot outside the house has an element of risk. We owe it to ourselves and our loved ones to take sensible precautions to minimise that risk, but that shouldn't mean we don't do those things, or that we should be in a constant state of worry about what if... In the interim, all we can do is offer our sincerest condolenses. More generally, as a rule of thumb on climbing forums, speculation about accidents is not encouraged. The important fact is that we have lost one of our own.

Someone can correct me (again ), but isn't there is an agreement with NE/CCW over the number of boat movements, as well as the amount of water diverted down?

If you mean "do you mean the Llangollen not the Shroppie?" then if we're being picky it's the Llangollen arm of the Shropshire Union. Any news on progress with assessment/ repairs? Be interesting to see how it affects traffic at my end - Fewer big green Alvechurch, but more big orange Viking boats would be my guess.

Top of my head from A42 / M1 junction you are very close to Trent Lock / Erewash / Sawley neck of the woods - Park at Sawley Marina walk down to the locks over the footbridge by the railway and down the Trent to Trent Lock and the Erewash Canal/ Soar/Trent or head for Shardlow for the old working boats and a stroll up the Trent and Mersey

I've a big labrador, who likes a swim, but he won't go in without permission. Training is the key to any dog's behaviour, and though breeds do have specific traits, they can be overcome or redirected. (I take no credit for mine - he's a rehomed working dog). What I would say is that size becomes important if you are on non canal moorings. At a push I can carry mine, but I wouldn't get him up a ladder from a pontoon on a big river. A life jacket does give him a useful handle, though

It's hard to keep your head when all around are losing theirs. I'll be on the upper reaches of the Llan this w/end and I fully expect to see somebody lose their rag. I'll try hard for it not be me. It'll be busy and there will be lots of newbies setting out. There will also be one or two of the inevitable numpties abroad. There will also be a lot of shared/liveaboard/retirement villages out there with their intolerance meters turned up to 11 and somewhere in the middle will be the rest of us. My blacks a bit tatty, but even so I resent being pushed into the Dee by a speeding dayboat as much as the next person. Trick is to rise above. I daresay I'll still give them a hand at New Marton, even if their 276 children have been sat on the lock gate watching grannie drown and I've been steering through a Stella bottle slick for the last mile and a half. Similarly I'll nod and smile when the bod with the titanium & platinum lock key disparages the perfectly competent boaters working through the lock - because their boat has the name of a hire company, and he has a long dead haulage company written on his. Or maybe I'll smear myself in stern tube grease and run naked through the streets of chirk with the head of "he's just being friendly" impaled on my boathook, ranting incoherently about BW's winter stoppage programme. We'll just have to wait and see.

Perhaps the best analogy might be land "owned" by English Heritage, Natural England/CCW/SNH or the national parks. This is land in public ownership, managed by a government agency, like BW, but may have restrictions, or conditions on entry (eg no dogs, or not during the nesting season) or which might charge an entry fee. Some EH/ Cadw sites charge an entry fee, others have unrestricted access. Or it might be let to others. The ownership is still public, but the tenant controls access. BW may be subject to covenants regarding access, or their property may be crossed by rights of way (the surface of which belongs to the relevant highways authority) but in general, access to their property is at their discretion. Given the nature of the waterways, I'm not sure it could be any other way.

If you head north, I believe you are legally obliged to spend a night at the Anchor at High Offley. just remember they don't do food. Personally, I'd go for the slightly more strenuous option of carrying on to Nantwich, though that does involve Audlem flight. but I like Audlem, they're a very relaxed non stressy 15 locks, and there's the chance of a pint in the Black Lion.

I don't think the problem is with canoes per se, I think the problem is with racing. I've seen the same attitude with mountain bikes, roadies and fell runners. The time is the important factor, and other things, like their own or others safety, tend to get sublimated. So you get lots of bad temper and the occasional accident, be it on paths, the road or the canal. Not so much a problem with the competitors - they didn't enter for a bimble and a chat, they entered to win, as with the organisers and their venue selection. Every aspect of BW canal promotional gumph is a about slowing down and relaxing, therefore they shouldn't be suprised with the reaction from other users if they permit or encourage racing on their waters.

See canoes on the Llangollen and the monty quite a bit, and in the main they are very considerate. I think they are basically boating for the same reasons as me - out for a trip, bit of an adventure, see a more countryside from a different perspective. Club canoeists at Cropredy seemed much more gung ho and inconsiderate, but I appreciate the festival week is going to cause them annoyance on the water, even if they do make a shed load out of the punters with breakfast.

I encountered a diesel /electric hybrid on the llan a few weeks ago. I'm not sure of the energy efficiency aspects, as I assume the batteries charged from the engine, and it isn't as though a boat can reclaim energy going downhill or braking, but it sounded (or didn't, more to the point) lovely slipping past the moorings at dusk. Anyone have any more info about them? - 'cos at the moment it's found its way onto my next boat wishlist.

I'll take a guess at pretty unpleasant. Mustelids smell fairly unpleasant at close quarters, and compared to otter poo, the scat is horrid as well, so thanks, but I won't be lining up for the mink canapes at Cropredy this year

Mink are not just an envisaged threat to wildlife, they already are! Mink have had a big impact on water vole population And also water vole can't recolonise an area with an active mink presence. I'd expect BW to be rather more proactive with mink whether or not WV are present. As it it there seems to be an attitude of only controlling them if somebody waves the CROW act in their face and jumps up and down shouting. and also restrict expansion of the native Otter population. Actually, recent research seems to suggest a healthy otter (bigger and stronger predator) population will restrict the mink and actively drive them out. There is certainly evidence of this occuring in places on the Trent. Although anyone suggesting "wait and see" with mink is in for a nasty suprise. Mink have been around in the UK a while, and none of the news has been good.

Towpath has been reinstated and a lot of dredging went on last year along this stretch. When did you last come up here? I ask as I draw easily less than 20" and it was never a problem for me beforehand, so I wouldn't notice if it was still a problem.