Fradley Pumping Station Sunday 19 July 2015

I didn’t intend to blog today, what could I say that was new on such familiar territory, well here goes.

A steady drive to the boat until the M42 junction on the M6  where it was all stop for road works and then a good run the rest of the way stopping at McDonalds for lunch, we were going to go to the Harvester at Basset Pole but they were queuing for seats let alone food, so it was McDonalds just across the road for a snack and then on to the moorings. We decided not to leave until 4pm  to let Fradley Junction cool down. Not long after leaving the marina a small boat was up behind us, his wife had arranged to meet the kids and grand kids at Fradley Swan at 5 pm so I waved him by. We still caught up with him at Woodend lock as there was a boat ahead of him. At Fradley junction we turned right towards Fazeley with the intention of taking water, however when we arrived the boat ahead of the small one who we had followed down the locks was taking water and at the second water point a boat was moored so I pulled along side him. Said to the lady was she happy for me to run the hose across her roof explaining they were on the water point. To be fair someone had removed the waterpoint sign. To give the boater their due she popped out and helped me tie alongside and also ran the hose over for us. Then the best bit, her partner arrived and it turned out he used to be a professional boater driving a tug for Sea and Land and he was most apologetic. As he moors in the same marina as us I promised I would tell every one. When we had finished filling with water he felt so guilty that he actually moved to the 24 hour moorings just through the swing bridge.

Once we set off needless to say all the moorings were taken so we thought we would move on to Fradley village by bridge 90, there was only one space at the end and the next boat along was running a generator so we pushed on finally mooring at 7pm by Fradley Pumping Station. There are notices saying loading only and CRT work boats, but if one turns up now we will move on, if not we are here for the night, its about as far away from the A38 that the canal goes until you reach Huddlesford and I didn’t want to go that far tonight.

Today’s Journey

3 locks, 1 junction, 1 swing bridge, 2 canals 4.5 miles in 3 hours.

Barge Holiday on Le Cher France Day Five 1/7/2015

This morning we had a very quick rain shower, there was one lone fishermen in his boat out in the river and as you can see the rain didn’t bother him at all. 

The hot water boiler had been playing up and Leigh managed to get a local plumber to pop out to fix it. The boiler is several years old but luckily he had a thermocouple in his old bits box so we were not delayed at all.

A short way above the lock there is an island with a mill on it.  This is part of the Chenonceau estate. 

A view from the towpath

The only sign of life

Looking downstream to the mill

The next place we came to was chissay Lock, we had bit of a problem getting in here as the channel is not only very narrow but its also close to the bank and quite shallow so we spent a bit of time on the bottom. This and the next lock should both be automatic with the boater using a radio transmitter to operate the lock as he arrives.

Approaching the lock	Leigh and Alain struggle with the gates	Leigh closing the bottom gate
Nymphea’s hydraulic pack	Attaching the hydraulics
Alain running lines to open the bottom gate	It took tree of us to shift the gates	Once moving it needed the two of us to open it.

The system has completely failed and to draw the paddles the crew has to attach its own hydraulic power pack on the end of a long electrical extension lead. The gate should also open and close hydraulically but the rams have been disconnected so they have to be pulled and pushed manually.

After lunch we went back to The château Chenonceau by minibus to see it from the top.              

Approaching the château on foot	The pattern on the floor worn by visitors, only the edge remains.	The old mill, this is what started the construction of the château
		The Moated garden
The old farm buildings	A pond that was used for cooling the horses on their return home
The château has a collection of old carts	The château has a collection of old carts
	The trip boat turning after coming under the château

Returning to the boat we moved up to Montrichard lock for the night, again the channel is close to the bank, a bit closer than this bush that we brushed along. Again the power system doesn’t work so its out with the power pack, The rams for the top gates are still connected so by Teeing in the hydraulics it was possible to swing the gates, but this meant getting the power pack to the offside with no walkways on the gates.

The barrage at Montrichard

Alain with the power lead

No walkway so Leigh balances on top of the gate

While we were here the lock keeper adjusted some of the finger in the barrage by drawing them out and resetting them.

That evening we were taken into town for a meal at a local restaurant to give Jenny and Erell the evening off. The waiter had quite an interesting hair style and we got this photograph of him a few days later when we returned to the town to visit the market. Although they had out door seating we sat just inside the restaurant with all the front open. After diner Diana and I decided to walk along the river back to the boat as it was such a nice night and only about quarter of a mile. When we returned to the boat this was the view from the bows. In case you hadn’t realised it we are moored in the lock overnight.

Barge Holiday on Le Cher France Day Six 2/7/15

When we got up this morning there was this chap trying to repair the lock mechanism but declared it dead. Its a terribly complicated system for a river with no traffic and very little likelihood of there ever being any. You can see the walkway from the top gate lying behind him and the hand rails up against the wall. The lock is even fitted with a traffic light system but with no power of course like the rest it doesn't work. We are just leaving the lock, see I told you yesterday that is where we were mooring overnight. A short way upstream and before the bridge the town has a nice beach and leisure complex on the off side with an area set aside for swimming etc.. You can see where we walked back along the bank last night, we are just passing under the bridge and the restaurant was quite close to this. The lock is just behind Alain’s head We carried on upstream to Bourré lock where Leigh showed off his skill with a rope lassoing the bollard first shot from our bedroom roof. This lock is actually powered but the control system doesn’t work, however the lock can be operated by pressing buttons on the main panel. The only problem is that if the lock is not in your favour there is nowhere to stop to set it.

Here Alain is at the controls note the panel door is open

We left the boat in the lock while we went to visit a Troglodyte dwelling. Quite often after they quarried the white stone out they turned the caves into homes. The one we visited also was used to rear silkworms for the silk industry and they have mulberry trees in the garden to feed the worms on.

	The outside of the Troglodyte
	The modern living part of the Troglodyte
Steps up to the Silkworm farm	Part of the old quarry
Display of old tools
	The old living accommodation
Frame for winding silk	A bowl of silk cocoons	Silkworms
Modern frame for worms to spin cocoons on	Worms on Mulberry leaves	Traditional Japanese frame for cocoons
close up of a cocoon	1 thread of silk	cocoons on sticks

We returned to Nymphea for lunch before heading upstream as far as we could go and this was not even as far as the next lock, here we pulled over for a wild mooring disturbing two ladies who were enjoying a bath. I tried a quick paddle here on our return and under a very thin layer of sand it was very slippery clay.

As you can see out minibus was waiting, this time it was a trip to Valencay here the Château de Valençay was almost deserted. As we went into the house we were given an audio guide. There are some superb tapestries hanging on the walls.          

When we visited the kitchen a cookery demonstration had just finished so we were in time to sample the wares. The cellar has hundreds of bottles of very old wine stored away. From what I could understand the town took over the property several years ago and have been restoring it but nothing has been changed, just cared for; this includes the animals in the small zoo. Outside they have spent years restoring the stone work and there is only a small section on the right hand tower to do now.

Just repairs to the right tower required		A gravel courtyard
A dry moat		well kept gardens
		A large pool with fountain
information about the icehouse	The icehouse in the trees	One of the Peacocks in the small zoo

It was then back to the moorings to head back down stream. The plan was to hold the bow in and motor the stern round against the flow to turn, we got to about 90° before she stopped swinging. Although the river is very wide it is also very shallow and weedy so there was a large risk of grounding by going back too far and it took us some little time to get round whilst travelling sideways. Even this resulted in a prop full of weed and the tree lopping saw was brought into play so that we could get back to our mooring for the night in Bourré lock.