john6767

Don't forget that you should be able to get one at a caravan/camping shop, there are a few around the Tamworth area.

I have had a couple in the last 30 mins as well.

Really enjoyed the Droitwich. We went down hill, and did not notice the locks being particularly heavy. Droitwich its self was good, and good mooring in the basin. It is a shame that there can not be a couple of mooring sites cleared on the Barge Canal, as there are some nice spots. Arrival at the Severn is quite dramatic, on a wide bend in the river.

I have said on here a couple of times before, but I believe there is a real "tidle flow" effect of mainly hire boats on the Llangollen. If you are going all the way to Llangollen then try to be there Saturday/Sunday nights or Sunday/Monday nights. Most of the hire boats turn round on Friday/Saturday so arrive in Llangollen Tuesday/Wednesday. If you have time try to spend a few days on the Montgomery, it is very nice and very quiet. You need to phone to book the locks though.

This week we seem to have seen many more of the mountain bikes with riders with full protective kit riding at break neck speed. Is this an increasing trend I wonder, if it is I fear that it will become an increasing danger, and someone is going to get hurt.

There is no answer to that!

Can someone explain where Rugby figures in this?

If you have the tins of grease with the plate with a hole in it put the open end of the greaser over the hole and push down while unscrewing the greaser and it fills with little air. Trouble is usually some grease will come round the side of the plate so you end up scooping that in with a screw driver or similar when the tin is almost empty unless you just waste that part.

Well it just proves how unobservant I am, must have passed you too. I think 30 years ago is just before Merry Hill was built, so I expect it was a derelict steel works then.

Exactly, didn't see many boats at all. To be honest a large number of those going down were Black Prince and Alvechurch, which seems to tie in with leaving Stoke Prior on Friday and Alvechurch on Saturday, so presumably Tuesday is a particularly busy day. The other thing to remember is that from Alvechurch, Blowers Green is the first lock you come to, followed by Delph, so those who are first timers this is not easy. Really all that needs to happen, and it was fine in a couple of pounds is that the boats come out at the same time, turn right then left together and you pass gracefully and into the waiting lock. Trying to throw bow and stern rope and pull the boat over is a recipe for making it hard, which yesterday proved! I did get "messed up" it the pound above the bottom lock, when the boat coming out of the bottom lock did not swing his stern round and I had to hit the brakes, and then it took me 3 backwards and forwards to get the front over to line up with the lock which is at quite an angle.

I don't think any of the weirs had water going over then yesterday. When we came down it was very busy with mostly hire boats coming up, and crossing in the short pounds brought about some interesting maneuvers from some boats with lots of use of ropes . A CRT volunteer (that knew what they were doing) would have been very useful, but as usual none in sight.

So in the end we decided to do it in one go, thanks to those for the mooring suggestions though. Clearly the Red/Blue paddles on Delph are a thing of the past now, some signs of the paint but no instructions about doing anything special. Both lock flights were good, but the stretch of canal between Delph and Stourbridge locks is very poor, overgrown, shallow and full of rubbish, much worse than anything I have seen anywhere on the BCN. It is surprising it is so poor given it is a through route.

We must have passed you then, we came down today from Merry Hill. Delph was very busy but Stourbridge less so, we did not leave Merry Hill until late morning though. Moored on the Staffs & Worcester north of Greensforge now.

I can't comment on the printer, but as to faxes, use one of the email to fax services.

Yep, egg whisk here and tickover is very slow, so would probably be doing 1000rpm, rather than tickover which is 800.

If you search you will find lots of threads on here. There are basically 3 ways; 1. A smart phone used as a wireless router, I am using my iPhone for this right now. You need a phone contract the allow tethering, such a Three's One Plan which gives unlimited internet. 2. A dongle connected to the laptop, although if you wan to use your iPad you will need to use the dongle with a wireless router rather than connecting to a laptop. 3. A MiFi device, which is basically a dongle and a wireless router in a single device.

1. You go past slow enough so as not to disturb the boats too much, you can not define it as an actual speed, and it all depends on things like the depth and width of the canal. Some people just like to complain, irrespective of what you do. 2. Clearly you should have the tunnel light on. What they are probably complaining about it the light blinding them. The light really should be pointed upwards a bit to illuminate the ceiling of the tunnel. 3. That is rubbish, everyone takes their turn. 4. The speed limit is 4mph, but on most canals that is going to be too fast anyway. The main thing is not to create a breaking wash.

Well we are at Merry Hill now, doing Delph/Stourbridge tomorrow. Seems as though most of the Black Prince and Alvechurch fleets are here too, I don't think we will bother getting off so early. Netherton tunnel was like the M1.

We had a short term mooring there a month ago. I thought it was very nice, but you can hear the motorway so not as traquil as the surrounds suggest, but I guess you would get used to it. I would suggest you visit before hand and see what you think.

There should be the footfall at the Bridge I agree, it is on a busy road, and a very busy section of canal with many hire boats on it, full of people on holiday looking to eat out.

Yep agree, it is clearly all staged, it's a TV entertainment program, what else would you expect. As to the tables outside the Bridge restaurant in Bidford-on-Avon. There are no tables on the grass by their mooring at all, so those table were brought in and populated with extras just for the scene.

I don't really have a problem if someone wants to chooses to use fenders in a wide lock, most wide locks have plenty of clearance for them to do that (thinking mainly northern GU here). I guess if you know that the particular lock is very tight for 2 boats, then mention it to them.

One thing to be aware though, and I think I am right here, is that on the mobile profile (eg. when on a phone), whilst you can add the tags when creating a new topic, you can not see them on any topic. Another annoying thing on the phone is it only shows the first 40 or so characters of the title, so when people include a lot of information in the title, on a phone you miss that.