John and Carol

Our visit yesterday from John and Carol went really well. They are lovely people, easy to talk to and fascinating to listen to and I think I can safely say we have made some good friends there, all be it we will not see them very often as they are based in Chippenham (Wiltshire in the UK). They had stayed overnight at their camp site in Cong, deciding not to move about too much due to the cold wind, but instead to base them selves at Cong and work outwards from there. They have quite a sophisticated set up, trailer tent, cooking facilities, sink with pumped water, warm and cosy etc, so much so that they declined our offer of a stay overnight. They had come from Cong (to our west) relying on sat nav which had somehow found them a route via Moyne village (east of us!). They had then driven past our door without knowing, and phoned us from Lisacul village, back west of us again.

We are similar age and interests so the chat ranged around over a big variety of subjects including 2CV escapades, the North of France and WW1 sites, the Normandy beaches and then on up into Yorkshire. Both of them hail from the lovely village of Slaithwaite which we know from narrow boating as the village where the canal runs up next to the high-street tarmac, between the house and shop fronts. See also my post on this blog from July 26th 2011 on http://deefer-dawg.blogspot.ie/2011/07/nurse-screens.html . They grew up together there and met while working in one of the local factories. John has had a fascinating life having worked for a while in textiles including running an angora rabbit fur processing plant (!) as well as working for Intel, the computer chip makers) and spending some time in Co. Mayo, which is how come he is now bringing the Bath 2CV club 'raid' over this way.

They were intrigued by our own move, the house renovation and the small holding. They had a good look round the house and the garden. Liz's food was a great success; we had cheese, bacon and chilli biscuits as a snack, then an Easter inspired slow-roast lamb with plenty of veg (I did my roast potatoes) followed by a lovely chocolate mousse in which 'floated' mini chocolate eggs. They had arrived bearing gifts including a lovely yellow rose plant for Liz, and we sent them off with half a dozen of our lovely eggs. They were here from about half twelve till gone 6 and we enjoyed every minute. For entertainment, just in case they'd get bored, neighbour Una had a go at setting light to some trees so we raced round there at one stage to play fire-fighter. Never a dull moment.

Thank you for coming, John and Carol. We will see you again when the Raid happens (May/June) and I hope we can now be firm friends on into the future.

Nurse! The Screens!

Leaving behind the excitements of the "Stan'idge" we steal a march on the Oxford boat, somehow finishing our breakfasts and shepherding the children round the Marsden Visitor Centre and then getting under way before Commander Dave and Fran fire up their engine, so we are first into the fast paced succession of locks down the Marsden Flight. Lock 42 East down to 23 East, they come in quick succession.

In theory you are bring down a lock full of water with you, so you should never run out. In practise these are the poor condition locks with leaky gates including the one with the broken cill 'threshold' which led to our need to do this circuit anticlockwise in the first place, so we are all supervised down by British Waterways guys including BW Terry, our tunnel guide from yesterday.

One lock has such leaky lower gates that the guys cannot fill it enough to allow easy opening of the top gates, and 5 of us have to lean on the beam to persuade it open against the 10-12 inch water level difference. One further down still has no BW help and we are advised to tow it open with the boat in reverse. It needs full power and a bit of a (gentle) run-up to break the water's grip enough that water can leak round the ajar door and fill the chamber.

We descend into Slaithwaite (pronounced more like "Slaw-it") - a truly beautiful village where the canal runs down the high street and the high street has prospered as a result - artisan bakers, deli's, organic fruit and veg shops, chocolate gifts, fancy hair dressers. Here we meet the Darlingtons , famed narrow boaters and authors of the "Narrow Dog" books. Dad goes and schmoozes them up a bit, enthusing (genuinely) about the books and making a fuss of famed 'narrow dog' Jim (a whippet) and his new partner-in-crime (another whippet) but comes back rather alarmed to report witnessing a rather beginnerish aborted attempt to moor up and throw ropes etc.

Mum at this point gets excused lock-wrangling on the grounds that some bad insect bites incurred early on in the holiday have suddenly exploded into big half-a-grape sized blisters. Mrs Silverwood is renamed "Nurse-the-Screens" due to her heroic efforts at medical intervention and we use Slathwaite's pharmacy to buy dressings and stuff, but Mum is reduced to flip-flops which are not the safest lock-busting equipment. Em-J and J-M step up to the plate and become heroic lock-wranglers, impressing everyone.

We are sadly now, definitely on the way home, and Friday 15th (Day 12) sees us descending to the bottom of the Huddersfield Narrow and emerging into Aspley Basin (in Huddersfield itself) and back to territory we have covered before.

All good things must come to an end

Deefer