Of Cancer, Chemo and Cruising

[TeeELL]

How do all, I’ve just had to go back pages on the forum to find my last travel entry!! The 31st of October and so much has happened since, enough of that let me conclude our tale.

We set off from Wednesfield and fairly shortly afterwards encountered the dreaded Wyrley and Essington weed. As you know the W&E is a ‘remainder waterway’ and BW have been fighting a battle with the weed for years – it is one of those vicious circles, if more boats cruised the W&E the weed would reduce, but boats don’t so the weed grows. We encountered a growth across the full width of the cut but eventually broke through, we subsequently encountered a couple more, less dramatic barriers – but we didn’t have recourse to go down the weed hatch. There is another side of the coin, the towpath; from Horseleyfield Jn through to Pelsall Jn was in fantastic condition. The towpath itself gravel based and certainly a minimum of 2ft wide and the vegetation cut right down on the canal side and up to 3ft into the ‘hedge’ side of the towpath. The sort of condition you would expect to see on the major canals – we even saw the contractors who were doing it, 2 men and 2 machines.

This is my sales pitch for the W&E: Once we moved away from the more built up areas the waters of the canal became crystal clear – we could easily see shoals of fish and I was surprised at both the size and variety of markings on the pike. No Kingfishers though! I think it is worth a cruise and if more boats cruised the W&E the weed problem would reduce and make it an even more pleasant experience.

Mo and I have started to really appreciate the reasons for the canal system during our 8 weeks and we keep a careful lookout for clues on old basins etc. The Guide books help a little (especially if you are travelling in the direction of the script – if you see what I mean!?). We have notices, for instance, that where an old basin existed the evidence can be seen on the towpath, the copingstones are lower and tougher and have evidence of ‘boat strikes’ – many of these are winding holes these days. Further to this, we are now seeking out more information to enhance our knowledge of what used to exist in the places we pass through. All very laudable you cry, but it does enhance the ‘canal experience’.

We stopped at Sneyd Jn for water – top tip, the taps flow veerrry slooowwwwly! Just before the Jn we passed a burned out narrowboat ‘DRAGON’ – no details but more of this boat later. (I think I heard Mo talking to someone at Sneyd Jn who mentioned that it had been an act of vandalism – but I don’t remember for sure. Perhaps someone on the forum is better informed). I do remember that one of the boaters told us it was due to snow the following Tuesday though! After about 45 mins we left Sneyd – or tried to! For the first time on the W&E we had a fouled prop and judicious use of reverse wasn’t going to fix it. Down the weed hatch and we encountered the ‘usual mix’ of plastic stuff, it didn’t take long to remove and so we set forth once again. We passed Birchills Jn and the temperature was starting to dive once again and we decided to moor at Pelsall.

We encountered our first, and only, bit of ‘trouble’ during this last part of our journey. As we started into open country just beyond Teece’s Bridge some ragamuffin children, ages from not a lot to about 12 appeared. The young boy, probably about 5 or 6, decided that throwing stones and shouting obscenities at us was the way forward. The ferocity of his throwing had to be seen to be believed; fortunately it wasn’t matched by power or accuracy – we cruised on ignoring them (don’t think that went down well either).

According to the latest Nicholson, fuel is available at CTS Norton Canes – so we cruised up the Cannock extension only to find that the information is woefully out of date! Fortunately they were prepared to let us have some fuel so be warned the Guides may be newly printed but it doesn’t mean the data has been checked. We wound at the dry dock with an awkward wind that did nothing to assist especially with the newly painted hulls of narrowboats shells everywhere. BIG POINT – if you ‘do’ the W&A PLEASE, PLEASE go up the Cannock extension at least to the old colliery basins – there is a ‘boat counter’ under Pelsall Common Br (I think) being used to determine justification of extending the arm north. Of course, being an arm very few boats venture up it!!

We spent the night near Pelsall Common Br with quite a strong wind picking up. The following morning was the final leg of our journey, we set off turning left at Pelsall Jn and heading for Brownhills. Still the canal water was clear and in the sunshine we could view the aquatic life – strange that the biggest fish we saw were always about 200yds from the nearest fishermen. Another important piece of information that is not in the Nicholson Guides (no not even the latest edition) is the BW sanitation point immediately adjacent to the little arm east of Coopers Br and just short of the ‘shopping basket’ (a TESCO!!). This sanitation point also encompasses the local canoe club and has all the facilities available via your BW Watermate key. Now, you won’t believe this – we DIDN’T stop at TESCO, we decided to press on and have lunch at The Manor Arms (which dates from 1104 and was first licensed in 1248) unfortunately we arrived there at 14.10 and they had finished serving food at 14.00 Oh well, we had a couple of beers and a bag of crisps instead. With just a mile to go to our home mooring and a return to ‘reality’ we pressed on. At Longwood we moored on the visitor moorings and started packing – much easier to access the car. I suppose it took us about an hour or so to sort things out and we realised we would miss dinner at the Manor Arms if we didn’t get a move on. So, having got the boat back on to our club mooring and reattached the main umbilical we walked to the Pub. Now here is the strange thing, just short of the Pub a road comes close to the canal, why we have yet to discover. There were several people in yellow reflective jackets (remember it was dark by now) and, lo and behold there was NB ‘DRAGON’ out of the water – by what means it got there was not to be seen (remember, we had only passed that same spot 4 hours previously). What was obvious was that the low loader didn’t have the capacity to carry the boat – I guess a rethink was going to be the order of the day.

 

That dear reader concludes the 8 week journey of me, Mo, Scampi and ‘ELEMIAH’. I have a drive train alignment issue to resolve before the next adventure. Thank you for reading my tale and thank to those of you who have posted.

[Yoda]

It has been a pleasure to read the tale of Tony and Mo on Elemiah.

[Ray]

Many thanks for keeping us informed of your cruise. I hope you find the time to do so with future cruises and, furthermore, I sincerely trust that your treatment is now both complete and successful.

 

Good Luck for the future and maybe you'll pass us or we you.

[Neildudman]

Tony, Mo....talk to me.......give ya £50 for your broken boat.........alrite, i'll make it £55 and cuddle.....

 

Good to meet you guys, great summer days cruising with you.... more next year me hopes......and still waiting for that massage too Mo!!!!!

 

Much love.

Edited November 8, 2008 by Neildudman

[Yoda]

Tony, Mo....talk to me.......give ya £50 for your broken boat.........alrite, i'll make is £55 and cuddle.....

 

Good to meet you guys, great summer days cruising with you.... more next year me hopes......and still waiting for that massage too Mo!!!!!

 

Much love.

 

It's not broken Neil, just worn out.

[Bullfrog]

Well done Tony and Mo. I've been amazed at your tenacity and courage through what has obviously been a very rough patch for you both.

 

Best wishes for a long and happy future with lots of boating.

 

David

[AlanJ]

Tony,

Your courage and determination should be a lesson to us all

Congratulations on getting to the end of the chemo, I hope that it won't be too long before you're back on your feet and that will be the end of it.

 

Your cruise notes have been interesting and entertaining, I hope that it won't be too long before you can share another story with us all.

Best Wishes

Alan

[TeeELL]

I was talking to our Club Treasurer and it would seem that our cruise around the BCN may entitle us to a plaque! The requirements are to have seen a minimum of 14 finger posts. As we saw at least 5 on the 'Curly Wyrely' alone I think we have achieved it, I now have to recall the route (easy enough) and workout how many other finger posts we saw - I can think of another 5 along the Birmingham Main Line alone.

 

Thanks to AlanJ and Bullfrog for your kind words.

[TeeELL]

Two pieces of good news:

 

Firstly, and most importantly - I today received the 'all clear' from my Oncologist. Both my C/T scan and blood test results indicate that the operations and chemo have been successful. The very best Christmas present imaginable.

 

Secondly, I'm definately entitles to my BCN plaque - we actually 'did' 21 of the 30 junctions etc during our 8 weeks.

 

 

A very, very, very Happy Christmas to you all

 

Tony and Mo

[bottle]

Tony

 

That is great news, do have a wonderful Christmas.

 

A little aside, our shell is being delivered to our builder next Wednesday.

 

Don't tell anyone else.

[Postcode]

Tony,

 

That is wonderful news - have a great Christmas.

 

I guess next years cruising will be of epic proportions without the tiredness and the need to get to Swindon regularly.

 

See you soon I hope.

 

Dave

[AlanJ]

Absolutely fabulous news

 

Christmas really has come early!!

[TeeELL]

Firstly, thanks for your very kind wishes - I'm sat here with a silly grin on my face - and much relief, Thanks for the texts.

 

(Keith - I though I'd be able to say your secret is safe regards your shell 'cos no ones reading this thread any more!! But it seems they are)

 

As this rate next years cruise will be incorporated into this. We have decided that 3 months would see all of the north covered so we are going for 8 weeks again so we will have something to save for the future. I'm going to see if I can improve my writing style and I may just adopt the 'blog' system rather that clutter up the Waterways Holidays bit of the forum. We will see.

 

Many vitual beers in the pub me thinks.

[cheshire~rose]

I guess next years cruising will be of epic proportions without the tiredness and the need to get to Swindon regularly.

 

My biggest concern is that you might feel you do not need any assistance from lockwheelers next year!

 

I would like to add my congratulations. I received the news by text on the CWF grapevine while at w**k this afternoon and feeling more than a tad sorry for myself having just sat an exam at work while struggling with a severe dose of "man flu" (I know it was man flu because it was a man who gave it to me)!

 

I have to say your fantastic news really brightened the afternoon and I formally announced it to the entire office - even though I am the only one who knows you there was a cheerful whoop went up as they all shared your good news!

[Debby]

I hope your northern trip will include the Macclesfield - we want to buy you a beer! We'll help with locks too, if you give us half a chance!

[TeeELL]

Hi 'Chesh' Glad I was able to brighten your day as mine was - and that of the office! As for locking, see below.

 

Dave & Debbie - we havn't even begun to finalise a general route yet but the 'Mac' certainly looks like an option. We look forward to meeting you and, rest assured, the crew of 'ELEMIAH' will never turn down help at locks.

[Debby]

Excellent news! We never turn down the opportunity to help at locks, and we certainly look forward to meeting you - though having looked at your photos earlier in this thread, I keep getting the feeling that we've met before.

 

I must also add our congratulations on your great news today!

[Yoda]

Tony, the best news I've had for this November. Everything else has been s**t.

 

Well done and have a wonderful time!

[Big John]

That really is G R E A T news Tony. We are delighted for you, and look forward to meeting up Uup North sometime next year. Will that include the Lankie? We hope to be there in June.

 

Have a very Happy Christmas and healthy New Year.

 

John and Fi

[purplehaze]

This is the best of news and I am so pleased for you and all your family, I've been following your journey all summer and lok forward to reading next years.

 

Have a wonderful Christmas

 

Julie

[SarahB]

Fantastic news - Christmas has definitely come early!

 

Please do post next year - I've enjoyed reading about your travels.

 

 

Sarah x

[TeeELL]

You are all gluttons for punishment!!!!!!

[TeeELL]

Back in 2006 (see CRUISE DIARIES - 'ELEMIAH's First Extended Cruise) we reported meeting a hire boat of Aussies whom we kept encountering. Yesterday I received an e-mail from one of those Aussies (Sandy) to say that she had spent an enjoyable couple of hours reading about this cruise. By gum those pigeons are efficient (and fast) to get all this halfway round the world so quickly!

 

Happy Christmas everyone.

[Ray]

Happy Christmas everyone.

 

And to you Tony (and crew). Let me add wishes for a Happy New Year as well.