The Ashby Part II and weekend visitors

Apologies for not blogging for a while, but the Ashby has been so relaxing that I’ve been practically comatose, and haven’t been able to summon up the energy to get out the laptop and plug it in to the sometimes unpredictable internet signal. We are, however, on our way back southwards now with almost bare cupboards and fridge – there isn’t a lot in the way of retail up this neck of the woods! Friday saw us heading for Congerstone. The weather was a bit iffy, and we got soaked mooring up.

It’s sunny now, but… just look those clouds!

On Saturday, our friends Shirl and Andy made a two hour drive just to come and see us. We had planned to meet in the Horse and Jockey at Congerstone – when we arrived on Friday afternoon we took a walk to the pub to check it out, and found that it had closed down. A quick search of the canal guides produced another pub – the Rising Sun in Shakerstone, the next village along and a mere 20 minute cruise away(this time we phoned to make sure that they were open and doing food!), and a phone call to Andy to change the venue, and we were sorted. We chugged up there on Saturday morning, and they duly arrived. We had a lovely lunch and then came back to the boat for coffee.

Needless to say, more cider was drunk by the blokes after the coffee, and according to Shirl’s message, Andy slept the whole journey home, even though he insisted he wasn’t tired – funny that!! Thanks both, for taking the trouble to come and see us – we had a great afternoon, and it was terrific to see you both again.

On Sunday we cruised to the end of the currently navigable part of the canal – we needed to water up and empty the loo cassettes. The Ashby gets more and more remote the further north you go

Snaresstone Tunnel entrance – only 250 yards, but very low indeed in some places

The End

The Next Bit

Windsong at the end

We returned to Snarestone to moor for the night, as there was good road access and parking, as we were expecting Ali and Neil to come and replace the dodgy valve on the calorifier, and to sort out another couple of jobs.

Valve replaced, diesel leak from the Webasto sorted, and rubber seals around the ports replaced, Neil had a little accident – he was wearing a key chain attached to his belt, and as he lifted himself out of the engine hole, the chain caught on the 12v alternator and it gave off a bang and a puff of smoke! He was unharmed, but it shorted out the fuse so none of the 12v worked. So what was a morning’s work became a longer job as they had to go back to the workshop near Loughborough to fetch another fuse! Still, all was well in the end, and so far, no leaks from the Webasto, no sticking pressure release valve, and rubber seals all still in place –thanks both!

Yesterday we continued our way southwards and stopped at Sutton Cheyney. Have remained here today as the weather forecast was awful, but we managed to get a long walk in this morning before the rain hit us. We are now in dire need of supplies, so we have arranged for Mr Tesco to make a delivery to us at Trinity Marina , just outside Hinckley, tomorrow afternoon – it’s the first time we’ve done this, so let’s hope that it works!