TRIP REPORTS

A VERY INTERRUPTED CRUISE - SUMMER 2007

Part 2 - Hillmorton to Athersone

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We resume the story at the Old Royal Oak at Hillmorton.

We set off at 9:41 and stopped at Clifton Cruisers for a pump-out and also bought a lot of diesel at quite a good price. The chap there re-fixed our front fender which had been a bit dodgy for some time and had finally given way when Wendy had a bump with an unexpectedly hard lump of bank under a bush while trying to give a lot of room to a Willow Wren training boat coming the other way. The people on the other boat were a bit scornful about this, so Wendy was pleased to learn at Clifton that they’d done something silly earlier.

We stopped again at Brownsover Wharf for a load of shopping at Tesco, then went on to moor at 18:33 in the middle of nowhere a little way north of Stretton, hoping that Tilly wouldn’t wander too far.

Hawkesbury junction

We made a late start (12:02) after a disturbed night because Wendy kept waking herself up coughing. At Hawkesbury junction we had a pleasant pub lunch sitting outside The Greyhound and watching boats go round the tight corner of the junction. Then we turned left on the Coventry Canal, stopping at 18:18 at The Anchor, Hartshill. We moored just past the pub. I walked back there for a drink, but Wendy was feeling too groggy. It was a very pleasant pub with good beer and the menu looked interesting. Worth remembering for the future.

Another disturbed night so we didn’t set off until 11:15. The weather was ferocious again, and we had a certain amount of queuing in the Atherstone flight - there were boats coming the other way but the timings were all wrong. We needed to shop at Atherstone, as I realised I’d left the mains charger for my Nokia ‘phone in London and would need it at the National. The moorings below the road bridge by the King’s Head were full, so we had to moor above it (opposite the pub) at 13:36. The weather was so filthy that we decided not to go any further.

Wendy by now was feeling horribly ill with her usual “bronichals” and rather light-headed, so we decide to say put here and I’d travel from here to the National (at least we were close to a railway station).

On Monday we walked to the station for me to catch the advertised train to Nuneaton to change to a direct train to Cambridge or Ely, which former didn’t appear. The enquiries people hadn’t told me that this end of the journey was being covered by a rail replacement bus service. So I had to get a taxi (from one of the pubs in the town) to Nuneaton.

For the ensuing week, I was working at the “National” and Wendy took to her bed for several days, until she managed to get to a pharmacist who sold her a chesty-cough remedy that was OK for diabetics. That helped a lot, Atherstone has mediocre shopping, recycling bins and at least one decent pub with good, unpretentious food. The Market isn’t as good as we remember it from some years ago. I came back on the (second) Tuesday evening, worn out after the “National”.