Epiphany Blog gets an Update

Hey you, blog, narrowboat, canal, and K & A enthusiasts - do you like the new look? I have to confess it was very much a united effort from BJ and I!

Slight interruption whilst I eat and we watch "Locks and Quays" on ITV1 Granada - oh the joys of satellite TV! Fred has jumped off the map of the UK and into an Anglo Welsh narrowboat on the Ashby canal! He has been up the Macclesfield (a lovely canal) and on the Peak Forest.

We are recognising and remembering some of it from our trip on our share boat Twelfth Night up the Macclesfield (good pub worth visiting is the Fools Nook at Br 49) and onto the Huddersfield as far as the bottom of the Diggle flight.
We moored at the transhipment wharf at Wool Road, Dobcross. (see pic) We then took a bus over the Pennines to Marsden, walked along the canal to Standedge tunnel, took the trip boat in, had a look in the museum and to complete the trip went back on the train, through the railway tunnel that is alongside the canal tunnel. It was a great day, great scenery and full of history! Four methods of transport in one day.

We will continue to follow Fred and look forward to the time we can get up there on Epiphany.

Mad Dogs and Englishmen

Weather themes seem to be the order of the day. I have a Google alert for "canals" and "narrowboat" and this alerts me to lots of blogs and unfortunately also rubbish! Everyone is commenting on the weather, cold, wind and wet. So here is my contribution!


A good maxim I heard yesterday (from a GP who advocates walking as a good health mantra) is "there is no such thing as bad weather only bad clothing". Thats OK for the effect of wind, rain, snow and ice on us but how does one clothe a narrrowboat? Good insulation, an effective heating system, keeping the stove in overnight, high tog duvets, thermal nightwear etc are all current themes. Sat dishes and roof furniture are another matter!


Our sat dish easily goes over too - BJ has yet to invent a system to prevent this, he will - he is good at practical solutions. Middle of the night excursions meanwhile are prevented by forward thinking and bringing in anything that might fly off if there is any likelyhood of blustery conditions. We once spent a night on the Shroppie canal with the boat bucking and straining to be off down the canal into the next lock! Lesson learned, ha ha.


A Boxing day ice-in last year taught us that it is best to stay put, enjoy the nearest pub, wrap up and walk along the towpath to enjoy the scenery and watch the hire boats break the ice in their quest to return to base in time. After all bare steel on the bows wasn't their worry was it?


So to all of us who enjoy boating in all weathers, keep it up, the canals are an all weather leisure activity and maybe we will have the last laugh (like Noah did) if the climate finally floods the land as predicted. A discussion for another day I think!