So today was spent mostly cycling along the coast into head wind. Lucky the family that arrived at about 9pm in a car and camped next to us didn’t make too much noise and I got an alright nights sleep. I was comfortable but forgot how small my tent is and how tricky it is to get  changed in it. 

Breakfast was a feast of coffee, bagel and muesli with swallows/house Martins over head. The sun was shinning. 

A lot of the route was off road and was good. We head though broughty ferry and stopped off in Dundee http://wp.me/s1AxOa-dundee there are some photos of breakfast there as well. 

We are now stopped at the coop, cliff is getting dinner. 

In a Dundee weather spoons charging up with coffee and two power points. 

After lunch we headed back on the road. We were full and felt more like a nap. We were also suffering from maldisembarkation, from the sleeper train and I kept feeling like I was moving forwards and backwards we didn’t even try any of the 100 whiskeys on offer at the ship inn. 

The cycle had nice views with trying headwinds. Most of the roads were quiet and good for cycling. There was a not very nice bit on the a92 which was fairly busy.

After this we head of on to smaller roads to St Cyrus nature reserve we have found a bit of grass in the car park where we can camp or hopefully can. 

Cliff is currently having a ‘shower’ in the toilet. 

The curry was a bit warm when we finally got all our stuff into the sleep carriage, but it was tasty. After curry and beer we watched an episode of peep show had a few biscuits and then slept a bit. There were a few rattles and the bed was a bit small but comfortable. The toilet was splatted with blood, (a child had had a nose bleed his mother apologised). We woke up at about 645, hoping for the coffee to be delivered we pre ordered one from the platform at Euston but the train boilers had broken so we got an orange juice and shortbread. We unloaded the bikes loaded all our stuff onto them and head into to Aberdeen for coffee and breakfast, we found the perfect place a weatherspoon. After this we headed out of the city into a nice head wind. We past another cyclist with a shinny new thorn, Raven sports two. 

It was a nice ride mostly a long the coast, spoilt only by having to cost the construction of a new road possibly A90.   

We are now stopped for lunch in the ship inn in stonehaven. 

 

So after a busy rush getting packed going to work I managed to make the train and then short ride to Cliff’s. We sat around a bit made my pannier fit and then cycled to near Euston. We are now getting some last minute supplies, chutneys takeaway and some surprise from cliff who is is in cost cutter. Before we get the train. 

Edit

Posted as we are going along due to 4g mobile signal.

So this is written the day after it happened. We got up fairly early and Cliff and Jo went for a run. They are training to run around the world. (Some of that might not be true.) After this we started the engine at 8, this is the earliest it can be started and it has to be turned of by 8.

We started driving the boat and heading west towards Bath. The first thing of note was the Avoncliff aqueduct. Well before this there was a swing bridge that is normally open but was closed as somebody was using it to get to the water works. We slowed down a bit and it was fine. After this we went on and over the Dundas Aqueduct made of Bath limestone. In the early 1980s the aqueduct was repaired with concrete and reopened in 1984.

After this there were a few swing bridges which are fairly easy to operate and then we found a nice bit of bank for our bacon and avocado sandwiches. After lunch we continued west to Bath and turned around just before bridge 188 Sydney Wharf Bridge.

After this we headed back east and stopped for the night in a very similar but not exactly the same place for the night.

We had a lovely nut roast prepared by Jo and Cliff. Before dinner we played trivial pursuits genus edition which Cliff and Jo got from the second chance charity shop. We won’t say who won. We had a few beers and whisky before bed. Oh we did play a bit of ligretto.

I forgot to mention earlier we filled up with water at the Dundas wharf which was just after the aqueduct.

So this is the first post in a long time. It is from Lydia, a 4 berth 54ft long canal boat.

A while ago we decided with Cliff and Jo to go on a narrow boat holiday and here we are in February on a boat. It is a warm 4 degrees.

We left London this morning heading west along some roads out of London. The first stop was Avebury a village with a lot of standing stones, a National Trust car park and visitors center. Jo and I used the toilets Cliff and Sarah stayed in the car to avoid the £4 parking charge.

We headed into Devizes not devices. We went to Sainsbury’s belong to J Sainsbury. We used Sarah project management and a Google sheet to quickly go around the small supermarket buying supplies. The car park cost 55p which we almost forgot to get refunded at time of payment.

After shopping we headed to the Caen Hill Locks to have a quick look around and a lunch of humus, veg and bread. We had lunch sitting on a bench with a dog poo under it and    a dog that seemed to want to eat our lunch. I think the dog was called Blondie.

The locks were pretty impressive it was a flight of 16 we think somebody said.

After the locks we headed to collect the boat. This involved unloading a lot of stuff on to the boat. Then watching a video about locks and how to use them.

We headed off with the guy who showed us around the boat and then jump off fairly soon after leaving the Marina.

We headed down the canal towards Bath. It was starting to get a bit dark. We then arrived at the first lock. There seemed to be a lot of people around the lock and a boat coming up which we didn’t see, which lead to a bit of confusion. The video also didn’t explain about the little hooks that needed to be raised on the winching gear on the locks, which meant that we didn’t realise that the paddles were open. In the end a helpful man in a baseball cap helped us out and it was all OK.

We headed out of the lock, and found somewhere to moor up using the mooring pins, the bank was a bit muddy and we had to use the gang plank.

We had a tagine for dinner that Sarah made at home and put in a plastic box. I am now writing this blog.