A large posh council house at the end of the Mall, really????

A touch of deep red during sunset last night

 November 13th

 Hmm, must do something with the solar panel. The wind...it did an 'alf blow last night and rattled that solar panel something rotten. Quite how we can stop this I don't know although Ian's suggestion of putting a bag of coal on top of it was met with dumbfounded disbelieve. Okay so gullible was the word used by him when I said as much! Anyway it was that that woke us and not the rumble of the trains. 

So up, washed, dressed and ready for breakfast when another discovery made. The fridge light was off which meant it had stopped working! And not only that but all the sockets were dead. Something had tripped the switch and it can only be the fridge compressor again. No alternative but to start the engine! Thankfully we had no boats by us because the time was only 7.30 am and the boaters rule is no starting of engines before 8 am unless you are setting off. Once again it did the trick and all the sockets and fridge came back to life. This is the second time the fridge has done this, the first when we set of from Langley Mill in early October though Ian thinks the problem this time could be with our deep cycle batteries. Already 6 years old, we think maybe now is the time for them to be replaced. Groan....more expense!

Today then we had the two Hack Green locks and 13 of the Audlem flight to do. Fully expecting to turn every lock, what a pleasant surprise to see a boat descending Hack Green. The bottom lock was empty so in our favour and the nice chap from the descending boat, kindly opened the gates.

 Shroppie Fly and a very quick stop to get rid of rubbish and empty the cassette.

 One thing this Canal is notorious for is the fierce by-washes and the one after the Shroppie Fly is the worst.  Not good at the best of times but when locks are being emptied on the flight its a killer. The force of water gushes right across the approach and there is nothing one can do to keep the boat heading straight into the open lock. I challenge even the most experienced boater to do it without bouncing off the sides. In fact this shows it very well. 

All but two of the locks on the Audlem flight was with us. We did meet two boats on the way down which helped.

Then at lock 5, as I ascended, a chap sitting on a bench opened a conversation. A snippet of information was mentioned that about floored me. "Where are you from?" he asked. Our reply "From down south, I'm an Essex lass and Ian is a cockney." "I lived in London to for a while" he told us and then he proceeded to tell us of the huge posh council house he once lived in situated at the end of the Mall. Took a second or two to sink in, Ian clicked first, did he mean Buckingham Palace??? Yep. turns out he had been the Queen's head sous chef for 15 years before then moving to Woburn Abbey and working for the Duke of Bedford for a further 4 years. My immediate thought was this man was delusional but he told stories about the Duke of Edinburgh and his famous BBQ's,  and how Princess Ann actually made him a cup of tea when she visited the kitchens at Balmoral, He even was the chef on Britannia and went nearly everywhere the royal family went. So my mind was made up that this was not just someone wanting to act important but a genuine person who was proud of what he had achieved in his working life.. I could have listened to him for the rest of the afternoon, shame we had to continue our journey. 

 

Lock 4 and 3 were done before stopping at Cox's Bank. Not a bad mooring although stopping between  locks always worries me slightly 'cos it only takes someone to leave a paddle up, the pound would drain and we would be sitting at a jaunty angle.

Fishing was slow, 2 hours of dangling a maggot and just about to give up when a good size Perch was caught. Then not one minute later, when I decided on just one more cast an even bigger Perch was scooped up.

 And seen on route,

Bottom lock Audlem

How on earth can you see to steer over this rooftop garden!

And wildlife,