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2 month hire - where to go ?


cisamcgu

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Dear all,

 

My wife and I are hiring a boat from Rose Narrowboats for a couple of months starting mid-May. We have a vague plan of going clockwise from Rose and visiting Stratford-upon-Avon, then winding through Birmingham and going up to Llangollen and then to Chester. Then retracing  a little and going via the Middlewich branch, down the Trent and Mersey. Maybe visiting Burton and going up the Ashby for a side-trip, and arriving back at Rose 2 months later.

 

Is this a sensible idea, are we missing anything, will 2 months cover this ?

 

Thanks

Andrew

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Sounds like a good plan to me.  
 

If you feel up to rivers, it would be even better if you went downstream on the Avon from Stratford to Tewkesbury (£50 for an ANT one week visitor licence), and then up the Severn to Worcester and that way into Birmingham.  If you go on a river ask Rose to put an anchor on the boat.

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Thank everyone, would it be better to go anti-clockwise, getting to Llangollen earlier in the trip, rather than later ?

 

Not sure about rivers, we like the relative predictability of the canals

 

I have tried canalplan, didn't know furlongs were used outside of horse racing :) It did look good though, and will no doubt use it a lot during the trip

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31 minutes ago, cisamcgu said:

Thank everyone, would it be better to go anti-clockwise, getting to Llangollen earlier in the trip, rather than later ?

 

Not sure about rivers, we like the relative predictability of the canals

 

I have tried canalplan, didn't know furlongs were used outside of horse racing :) It did look good though, and will no doubt use it a lot during the trip

 

Rivers are rather harder to find mooring places on than canals, and also tend to have fewer accessible towns/pubs/restaurants/shops -- and I find them less interesting than canals to travel on, though others may disagree.

 

Whichever direction you go, you should aim to be in/around Llangollen at the weekend, not midweek. The reason is that most of the hire bases on the canal do weekend changeovers, so all the boaters on a one-week hire end up in Llangollen midweek and it can get crowded. It also means you'll pass through the locks (where queues can build up at busy times) when there aren't as many hire boats going through them.

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2 hours ago, IanD said:

 

Rivers are rather harder to find mooring places on than canals, and also tend to have fewer accessible towns/pubs/restaurants/shops -- and I find them less interesting than canals to travel on, though others may disagree.

 

Whichever direction you go, you should aim to be in/around Llangollen at the weekend, not midweek. The reason is that most of the hire bases on the canal do weekend changeovers, so all the boaters on a one-week hire end up in Llangollen midweek and it can get crowded. It also means you'll pass through the locks (where queues can build up at busy times) when there aren't as many hire boats going through them.

I would say that the river part I suggested, is one of the best, the upper Avon (above Evesham), has visitor moorings at virtually all the locks, and there are still plenty of moorings on the lower Avon. and the river goes through Bidford, Evesham, Pershaw and Tewkesbury.  The Severn I would agree is not good for stopping places, but it is less than a day from Tewkesbury to Worcester, so you will not need to Stop on the Severn at all.  As well as the Avon being very nice, going this was avoids doubling back up the South Stratford.  That said Diglis lock, the only one on the Severn you would need to go through is still shut as a result of the storms, so that would need to be checked before leaving Stratford.

 

The point about arrival in Llangollen is spot on, try and arrive on Saturday, or Sunday, and spend Sat/Sun or Sun/Mon in the basin, it will be the quietest then.

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On 31/03/2022 at 09:16, cisamcgu said:

Thank everyone, would it be better to go anti-clockwise, getting to Llangollen earlier in the trip, rather than later ?

 

Not sure about rivers, we like the relative predictability of the canals

 

I have tried canalplan, didn't know furlongs were used outside of horse racing :) It did look good though, and will no doubt use it a lot during the trip

 

Canals in the UK have traditionally been measured in miles and furlongs and so Canalplan uses that as the default but you can change the distance formats in the options.

 

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2 hours ago, cisamcgu said:

Thanks for all of this, it is really useful.

 

Is it feasible to plan to moor in Stratford centre in late May ?

We've never had a problem mooring in Bancroft basin in Stratford, if it is full you can always drop on to the river and moor alongside the park.  There is an overnight charge if going on to the river.

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1 minute ago, Rob-M said:

We've never had a problem mooring in Bancroft basin in Stratford, if it is full you can always drop on to the river and moor alongside the park.  There is an overnight charge if going on to the river.

Unless you are planning on boating the Avon anyway, in which case use of the river and moorings in Stratford are included in the licence cost.

If you are using the river its always worth going upstream beyond the town centre, at least as far as the bend by the Red House, where there is plenty of room to turn.

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58 minutes ago, cisamcgu said:

I think we will give the rivers a miss - at least this time :)

Why? the non tidal parts are perfectly safe and the Avon (Plus many others) is lovely and the tidal parts are too if you plan correctly. they may flood but you do get notice of that. 

 

20 minutes ago, cisamcgu said:

Oh, another question if I may ?

 

We are planning on hand washing our clothes during the trip, but how feasible is it to dry them on the boat ? Would it cause condensation issues maybe ?

Best pick a warm day and leave the doors/ windows open, it should be fine. Even on damp days should be OK on a hire boats as I imagine you could turn on the heating, and open a window if it gets damp. 

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On 03/04/2022 at 08:48, cisamcgu said:

Thanks for all of this, it is really useful.

 

Is it feasible to plan to moor in Stratford centre in late May ?

It is always feasible to moor in Stratford.  If you can get there late morning, as people will have left and others not yet arrived!  The moorings in Stratford are all 48 hour so a good turnover of boats each day. If you did find the basin full when you get there you can drop down onto the river and moor on the recreation ground, it is £5 a night to do that with no access to the river locks.  You can get ANT licences online https://www.avonnavigationtrust.org/licences-short-term/ or https://www.avonnavigationtrust.org/overnight-moorings/overnight-moorings-stratford-upon-avon-recreation-ground/

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27 minutes ago, cisamcgu said:

I'm sure Rose Narrowboats will explain everything, but is it relatively easy to find places to get diesel ? 

 

Thanks

Andrew

Yes it is, and you should only need probably one fill, max two on a two month trip.  You will also need to get the toilet pumped out, that will be more times, say something like 4 times depending on the tank size, the number of people on board and how minimal you are with flush water.

 

For both diesel and toilet, use your Nicholsons guide (other guides are available) to identify marinas/boatyards that provide the service and ideally give them a call to chek they will be open and the service available at the time you want.

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18 hours ago, john6767 said:

Yes it is, and you should only need probably one fill, max two on a two month trip.  You will also need to get the toilet pumped out, that will be more times, say something like 4 times depending on the tank size, the number of people on board and how minimal you are with flush water.

 

For both diesel and toilet, use your Nicholsons guide (other guides are available) to identify marinas/boatyards that provide the service and ideally give them a call to chek they will be open and the service available at the time you want.

 

On both of my shareboats and my current boat a tankfull of diesel lasted about 3 weeks of 8 hour days. All.had tanks of around 225-250 litres.

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