About Us
- Ian and Irene Jameison
- In 1977 we hired our first narrowboat from Anglo Welsh at Market Harborough.From that moment our destiny was set. In 2006 we finally purchased our own brand new 57' narrowboat which we named 'Free Spirit'. Our aim is to travel the length and breadth of all the navigable rivers and canals of the UK. This will be our story as it unfolds.
Friday 30 November 2012
Thursday 29 November 2012
Wednesday 28 November 2012
Tuesday 27 November 2012
Motgomery ongoing restoration work
Its amazing what can be achieved by a canal society. The hours and hard work and sheer determination put into the Montgomery restoration work is commendable, especially so when the volunteers have to deal with atrocious working conditions. This can be seen in the Shropshire union work party reports. Without the passion of these people no end of the 'remainder' waterways would be derelict. Thank you to all who have made our canals a joy to cruise.
The restoration begins |
Still in water but as yet unnavigable |
Restored lift bridge |
Ongoing work starts here |
The end of restoration work so far. |
Monday 26 November 2012
2012 Floods at Swarkstone, Sawley and Trent Lock
SWARKSTONE
Wouldn't want to get the car out today! |
SAWLEY
Wooden Chalets cut of by the water. |
The River Trent is on the right |
Raging water at the weir before the approach to Sawley lock |
Sawley flood lock |
Road leading to the facilities. |
TRENT LOCK
Add caption |
Safe haven for the ducks and swans. |
Steps completely disappeared. |
Towpath flooded to Cranfleet. Note the water tap in the middle of the picture |
Water tap! |
Even the canoeist had to wade through the flood to get back to base. |
Sunday 25 November 2012
Back on Free Spirit
The meal in The Sun Trevor last night, was delicious. Our
table was booked for 17.30, early for us to eat, but we wanted to watch Strictly
Come Dancing at 18.40pm. The rain was lashing down so we made a quick dash over
the bridge to the Pub. The rain never
let up so we had another quick dash back to the boat. All night the rain continued and by early morning
the wind had also picked up so we knew we were in for an interesting time when
we had to reverse the boat back into Anglo Welsh basin. After a quick tidy
round we set off for Trevor just after 9am. Although we still had strong winds
to contend with the rain had stopped and the sun came out making our final
journey a delight. When we arrived it
was every bit as difficult to reverse the boat back as I had predicted but Tony
(engineer and maintenance man) managed to grab our centre rope and with a lot
of pulling and pushing got Merlin safely moored up. Then all we had to do was
to remove our belongings, clean the boat inside and set off for Free Spirit.
River Dee higher then normal |
Trough in the sky. Photo taken on our return to Trevor from the Llangollen |
Our journey home was slow going as we hadn’t realised
the amount of flooding that had occurred throughout North Wales and the
Midlands . We made a detour to Christine’s in Swadlincote, Derby and had to
cross the River Trent at Ripton near Willington. I can’t remember the last time
we saw the river that high. Then after leaving Christine we made a slight
detour to Swarkstone to see what the floods were like there. Horrendous is the only way I can describe it.
I took loads of photos at, not only Swarkstone, but at Sawley and Trent lock on
the Erewash as well. These I will post in tomorrow’s blog.
Swarkstone Bridge. More photos to follow tomorrow |
On arriving back at Free Spirit we noticed the water levels
were a lot higher than normal. So much so that we couldn’t get back on the boat
without Ian having to don his wellies and move the boat forward. Jade looked on
in what appeared to be some amusement. I’m sure she thought that we should have
jumped for the back deck. After all its easy for a dog with four legs!!! Still the fire is now lit, unpacking done and
Ian is just off to get a meal from our local Chinese. Our 5 day break was
fantastic and we are seriously thinking of doing it all over again in early
March next year. All depends on the MRI results early December.
Saturday 24 November 2012
Our last full day before we return to Trevor
God we were cold last night! The fire had gone out and as we
never leave the gas central heating on, our
first task was for Ian to fire up the boiler and get some warmth in the
boat. Ian then went to take Jade out and nearly fell
off the boat!! The deck was covered in black ice and the ropes had frozen
solid. To add insult to injury a blanket of fog surrounded us and, as it hadn’t
lifted by the time we set off, we had to travel with the headlight on for mile
upon mile, praying that no other boater would be as daft as us and be on the
move toward us. Eventually it did lift and the morning didn’t turn out to bad after all.
Once over Chirk aqueduct ( which again was really slow going ) the tunnel
loomed in front of us. There is a slight bend before you get into the tunnel
entrance and Ian had just put the boats
nose in when I noticed another boat entering from the other side. Ian did the gentlemanly thing and reversed out and it must have been a good 10 minute wait before
it finally came through. No other boat was
following so in we went and was very surprised that, even against the flow, we
made reasonable headway. All to soon we arrived at the Junction at Trevor and
headed off toward Llangollen. After a quick stop for lunch ( we had put the TV on for the weather and the map for this region was for torrential rain by 3pm.) we pulled pins and made for Llangollen to do a quick turn around to get us back to The Sun Trevor for a meal tonight. The weather forecaster got it wrong because the heavens opened by 2 pm and the last half hour was dismal, cold and wet. Still, the final day was grand and tomorrow we are back to a Free Spirit having thoroughly enjoyed our 5 days away.
Foggy start to the day |
Chirk aqueduct |
Air vent in Chirk tunnel. Looks blocked to me! |
Seems they start the kids boating early in these parts. |
Lunch time mooring on the way to Llangollen |
Lovely views. Shame its so misty. |
The narrows |
A very cold Jade. She wouldn't go below so we covered her up instead! |
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2012
(355)
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November
(30)
- Your supposed to take the bread!
- Garrulus glandarius
- Reflections of autumn
- Motgomery ongoing restoration work
- 2012 Floods at Swarkstone, Sawley and Trent Lock
- Back on Free Spirit
- Our last full day before we return to Trevor
- Back up the Montgomery
- To Maesbury, the end of navigation.
- Our second day
- Llangollen day 1
- Packed and ready to go
- Can someone please get rid of this feather from my...
- Can you see me?
- Wonder whats on the otherside?
- Autumnal forest
- Not sure green suits my leg!
- I said dont turn your back on me when I'm quacking
- The flight of a Harris Falcon
- Ummmm, which sausage shall I have!
- I just hope this stays afloat!
- Can anyone identify this plant?
- We're to late! Those pesky gulls have pinched all ...
- The trouble I had to get this bit of nut!
- Glistening Dandelion seed
- Mmmmm... This might be a bit of a mouthful
- Waiting for the green light
- Quick march men and I said no squabbling in the ra...
- Cor... Thats a bit of a stretch
- Stop Press! New species of tree found in Sherwood ...
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November
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