The end and the beginning

We are back to our home mooring. My goodness it was overgrown, but beautifully green. Here is my bench almost swallowed by nettles:

Bonny was very happy to be back in familiar surroundings and has spent the last few days happily exploring the undergrowth without showing any inclination to wander off! Here she is in meditative mood:

Oh and just because I love the photo, here is a friend I met at Great Haywood:

So, our great adventure is over and we are back safe and sound. Thinking about all the things that could have gone wrong mechanically, physically and emotionally, I am very grateful to have done it all with only a bruised leg to show for the risks I took.

It is good to be back. Friends on the mooring have been lovely, (with the exception of one grumpy bloke who seems utterly un-delighted that I have returned safe and sound!) It has been great having my car to do shopping and the massive load of laundry I had piled up in my bath! I am a little sad that the great adventure is over, but as the title of this post suggests, it is the end of one adventure and the beginning of the next, as my future at this point is totally unknown!

The immediate future is more certain as tomorrow I take to the water again, but only as far as Barton Marina to finally get my water leak fixed. Then on 1st September I’m off to Devon to stay in a real house for two weeks! Oh the bliss of just flushing and forgetting, of turning a light on without worrying how much power I am using and perhaps even having a bath without having to replace the water! Deep joy – for a change, but only as a holiday; I wouldn’t swap water borne living for anything.

Am I Odd?

I have been moored in the above spot since Friday. It is just above Weston Lock on the Trent and Mersey. Because of the vegetation and silt, there is only comfortably room for one boat to moor. Since this trip began, I have only found a handful of moorings as isolated as this.

I have found that I can only deeply relax when I know I am going to be without company. My spirit expands to fill the space I am in and it feels wonderful. I can honestly say that I have not missed human company at all on this trip. Yes, I have had friends and family at the end of a phone or computer and that has been good, but day to day living without being face to face with anybody else has felt so normal I haven’t even really noticed the lack most of the time.

So I come back to my question – am I odd?

From Genesis onwards when God said ‘It is not good for Man to be alone’, society has arranged itself in communities and has treated with suspicion anybody who lived outside the group. These days, it seems to me, you are a second class citizen if you are not in some sort of relationship with somebody. It doesn’t really seem to matter if it is with a lifelong partner or someone you fell into bed with the night before, but if you live as a single person, I find you are treated with pity if not with downright suspicion.

It seems to be assumed by most people that if you are alone then you must be lonely. If you are single then you must be in search of a man – or woman! If you are a single handed boater, you must be in need of a crew (or as a woman, a captain!!) And if you actively seek out solitude then you must be, at the very least, odd!

I have been exploring what draws me to solitude and have come to conclude that it feeds both the unhealthy, damaged side of me and the whole, spiritually searching Mandy. The scarred by life part of me feels threatened and therefore frightened when anybody gets too close to me. I want to push them away – aggressively if necessary. But this part of me needs to be healed and the only way I can see of addressing it is by being in the company of other people and practising not feeling threatened.

However, the wise woman (as a close friend persists in calling me) needs space and time alone to explore the universe, both outer and inner, and that is where any wisdom or spirituality I have comes from. And there’s the rub. How do I organise my life so that I have both company and solitude? How do I begin to address the ‘defensive child’ in me, whilst at the same time feed the ‘wise woman’?

As for being odd, well I can live with the label. One of the advantages of being at home in my own company is that other people’s opinions of me are held fairly lightly.

OK, end of introspection for today. Normal service will be resumed shortly!

Oh, one more question. I have started to consider how I am going to earn my daily crust again and wondered whether I could write for a living – articles or even a book. If anybody has any comments or suggestions how to go about making money from my ramblings, they would be gratefully received. (Lynda, I’m particularly thinking of you!)

Tunnel and Town

I faced my greatest fear (during this cruise) when I navigated the Harecastle Tunnel – all 2926 yards (or one and three quarter miles) of it!

Here it is. The man with the brolly was the really kind and helpful lock keeper. Note the colour of the water!

And inside the belly of the beast, approaching the end – this is one of the higher parts of the roof – at one point I had to bend over to avoid hitting my head. The boater following me wasn’t as careful and gashed his head, lost control and sheared his chimney off half way down! I’m really glad I only heard this story afterwards and not before I went through!

 

When I came out the other end, the lock keeper told me the usual transit takes 45 minutes to an hour and I had come through in 35 minutes. I wasn’t going to hang around! Seriously though, the most helpful thing the first lock keeper told me was to keep my speed up to 3-4 mph. That way the bow wave created would help keep me off the tunnel  walls. It worked perfectly; the only time I got near the wall was when I slowed down approaching the exit.

Then I had to get through Stoke on Trent and Stone, before returning to my natural habitat – the countryside. For those of you bored of all the pictures of green and pleasant land, here are a few of the sights I saw in town…

Stoke – the pottery town.

If you have to be surrounded by walls, it helps if they are covered in flowers!

One of the famous old bottle kilns.

How the pottery owners used to live!

Attitude alters reality

Or does it? I wrote a scathing review of the Macclesfield Canal only a week or so ago. I called it a neglected, silty ditch masquerading as a canal. I criticised the towpaths, the lack of dredging and the visitors moorings. And all this was absolutely true – in my reality, at that time. But my attitude and feelings at the time had a huge influence on what I was perceiving.

I had just completed ‘Heartbreak Hill’ and was exhausted. I had been dreaming of cruising the Maccy for so long that I had built up a level of expectation that the Grand Canal in Venice would not have been able to match! I was also entering a period of travel weariness, where having to plan where I was going to buy food, wash my clothes or moor for the night had started to feel like hard work and I had started to miss my home mooring for the first time on this cruise. (Note I now say home mooring and not home – after three and a half years my boat is finally home for me and not the place that it is moored!)

For the past three days I have been travelling back down the same canal, with roughly the same sort of weather (sunshine and showers) and it now seems utterly beautiful to me. I have found moorings without difficulty – the first night I returned to the idyllic mooring near High Lane. This is the only place I have found on my cruise that rivals Fradley Junction as a long term mooring spot. The next day I discovered a hidden gem in Dane’s Moss – a small but perfectly formed nature reserve really close to the mooring I had on the way up, which drove me to despair and to writing my damning account of this canal. Yesterday I managed two swing bridges, 4 miles and the 12 locks of Bosley and moored at the bottom of the flight just before the first rain of the day. Today I have only moved far enough to find a secluded mooring, facing ‘The Cloud’, with plenty of hunting opportunities for Bonny along the overgrown towpath. (She is so good now I have allowed her free rein and she has voluntarily stayed close to the boat.)

I am seeing this canal through different eyes because my attitude has changed. My expectations are now reasonable and because the end of my cruise is almost in sight, it makes me appreciate what I am experiencing here much more sharply. Also, I believe I am now more ‘in the flow’ of the journey.

When I was on the Llangollen, a boat passed me, its engine straining, the boat kicking up a big bow wave and a red faced,angry man at the tiller. Because of the speed he was travelling, he threw my boat about on its ropes. When I pointed this out, he said ‘I’m not going fast, I have to fight the flow’. He meant the flow of water you find on that canal. That phrase and picture of him and his boat stuck in my mind though.

I think for a lot of this cruise if I haven’t been actively ‘fighting the flow’, then I have at least been trying to control it. Instead of being open to what comes, whether that be weather, people or challenges, I have tried to force reality to fit my wishes and expectations. It’s hard to explain but it makes cruising – and life – feel like hard work, with lots of disappointments along the way. But when I let go and ‘go with the flow’, then, although I feel less in control and so not as safe, life is better. I am not nearly as stressed, the challenges are less daunting and I don’t waste energy on worrying whether I’ll manage, or will I find a good mooring or will someone come and moor right next to me etc. etc.

I am reading a Buddhist book at present – The Wisdom of no Escape by Pema Chodron. In it, she says that we are all at the centre of our universe. around us is a sacred circle and everything that enters that space around us, whether it be people or problems or experiences come to teach us something. Therefore we should welcome whatever comes into our sphere of existence, not labelling it good or bad, because it is there to teach us something and help us grow. This fits well with what I am beginning to understand about this journey.

So here is to ‘going with the flow!’

Going Back

I have been down to Bugsworth Basin at the terminus of the Peak Forest Canal. It was a fascinating place, made up of three different basins and various little dead ends where one or two boats can moor. For over 100 years burnt lime was produced here and ferried by working narrowboats. It was said that you could walk for six miles past boats waiting to be loaded up here!

It was a hub of industry all through the 18th century but declined as the railway system slowly took over freight hauling. The basin finally closed in 1927 and was left to moulder until some canal enthusiasts spent the last 30 years bringing it back to life and you can now tour this historic site and moor in it!

End of history lesson. Although it was a really interesting place to visit,  I didn’t enjoy it as a mooring site. The A6 runs right alongside the basin which makes it pretty noisy. The old walls of the basin are high and it made me feel quite claustrophobic, as well as being surrounded on every side by boats, so we only stayed one night. The next day (Sunday) I took a ride to the 21st Century in the shape of a Tesco built right alongside the canal (by where the canal splits to go to Whaley Bridge or Bugsworth). Then having topped up my water tank, we set off back towards the Maccy.

This is the first time in two months that we are actually heading in the direction of Fradley Junction – albeit a long way away. It has made me think what it will be like when I settle back into ‘normal’ life. How will I cope with the ordinary little happenings on my home mooring after all the excitements of the grand tour? I’ll have to start thinking about earning a crust, but the very thought of settling back down to the 9-5 grind makes my blood run cold.

I have also found it profoundly normal and comfortable to spend long periods of time alone. It suits my personality as well as keeping my neurotic impulses to a minimum! It has been super to keep in touch with people by phone and email but it is also a relief to be able to turn the phone or computer off! I will have to find a way of preserving that space without losing my friends and relatives!

I do have something to look forward to though. After cruising for three months I rather crave a bit of luxury on shore, so I have organised a holiday swap with some friends back in Devon. They will take ‘Don’t Panic’ for a couple of weeks while Bonny and I stay in their annex in Bradworthy (can’t stay in main house as cats rule!). I’ll be able to visit all the friends I haven’t seen since the end of 2008, whilst knowing the boat will be looked after.

The idea of being able to run a tap and not worry about replacing the water, or to leave a light on even if I’m not in the room is intoxicating! (Lynda, I relate to your New Wine experience – lovely to camp but lovely to get home again! Let me know how you found New Wine – I wondered if your developed theology might struggle a bit with some of the more simplistic teaching you can find there?)

My friends are very good boaters so I know my boat will be in safe hands. This will happen in September so it’s nice to have another treat to look forward to. Meanwhile, I shall make the most of my journey. I had no phone, TV or radio reception at Bugsworth and it was refreshing. I realised that I haven’t been entering into the experience of solitude as deeply as I might have as I have been texting most days and watching TV or listening to the radio most evenings. So, since the reception isn’t great on the Maccy anyway, I shall be turning my phone off for a day or two and listening more to silence!

I’ll leave you with something conspicuous by it’s absence so far – a picture of me on my cruise! This was taken yesterday on the Peak Forest – and yes, this cruise has turned me grey!

Walking Paradise

OK, I take it all back. It was worth all the hard work and hanging off my ropes and struggling with locks and lift bridges just to make it to this spot – the same spot that we were at yesterday and the day before! In fact it is the longest we have stayed anywhere except when we were pinned down by monsoons.
I hesitate to be exact about where we are mooring in case everybody decides to come here! But since I am trying to reduce my selfishness, I will say that we are moored just south of bridge 13 on the Maccy, between two lines of long term moorers but with enough space so that I can run my engine when I need to without disturbing anyone.
We did the most tremendous walk this morning, requiring many references to the OS map, but that just added to the excitement. It was a circular walk that had everything – river, moorland, woodland, crossing a railway line, hills and valleys. Oh and Lyme Park which is the most extraordinary castle like house sitting in magnificent isolation on the top of the peak.
Here are the highlights… (We are off to the Peak Forest tomorrow)

The Ladybrook Valley and start of our trek

This is the bridge over a watering hole that Bonny much enjoyed

And this is her enjoying it!



I found this 'doer upper' in the valley. I'd have it!

And if you like a bit of space around your mansion...

...How about Lyme Park!?

A bit harsh…

OK, I admit it, I was a little harsh in my judgement of the Macclesfield Canal. Yesterday I at last found a little slice of Heaven on this ‘silty little ditch’.

I am moored near High Lane, south of Marple and the junction with the Peak Forest canal. I had intended to carry on, but spotted a place to stop for lunch and so took it. It is a very quiet spot, away from the road and railway. I am in between two sections of long term mooring, but in this little gap, there are no other boats. These are the views out of both sides of my boat…

And this is my only neighbour…

What really sold the mooring to me though were the walks. From a footbridge just up the way, we can climb up onto the moors or down into a wood. From the other side we can get onto the Middlewood Way which is a fantastic walk using a disused railway line. And of course there are towpath walks too.

I have been looking for a place to stop for a few days and recoup and I had despaired of finding anywhere on the Maccy. I was wrong! Sorry to the Macclesfield Canal and to all who sail in her!

Photos of our walks to follow. Oh and I was about to write that we have had 4 dry days in a row but it has just started drizzling! Never mind, an excuse to veg.