Hinkley to Sutton Cheney.

Hi Folks.

Hinkley to Sutton Cheney, 5.7 miles in 2 hours 50 minutes.

A warm night on board, because I had both stoves lit. The saloon stove was lit early evening to warm the bathroom for our showers, but with the fire in over night it got very warm and with me still going through the Menopause, I found it all to warm. Despite over heating through out the night, I did manage to sleep pretty well. We did not rush to get out of bed with the prospect of only going a short distance today. After sorting the fires out, having breakfast, walking Paddy and feeding mog and dog, we were ready for the off at 9.40am.

 

We cruised past NB Gilbert, but there was no sign of Ian or Karen.

We left Hinkley and the industry to get back to the rolling farmland and of course the bridges. Past by Trinity Marina.

Having not seen another boat on the move, we approached bridge 20 Freston's Bridge and I saw the tip of a bow approaching, so we hung back to allow the boat plenty of room to come through the bridge 'ole, because stopping for us on such a shallow canal is a bit of a nightmare. It turned out that there were two boats coming, so we waited for them both to come through the bridge 'ole before getting underway.

We had a very pleasant cruise, passing the Ashby Horeboat company.

We were hoping to moor at Stoke Golding, so we could go and look around the village, but when we pulled into the last remaining spot, I saw a winter mooring sign, the 48 hour moorings are all given out to winter moorings, which to me seems really stupid, because continuous cruisers need to moor up as well, we as a deeper drafted boat cannot always moor up in the countryside, sometimes we need to moor up on designated moorings which are deeper. So with no room for us we moved off, in search of another mooring, we did try to moor out on piling along the way but it was all to shallow.

We arrived at Sutton Cheney Wharf and saw that there were moorings on their 48 hour mooring, but once again they are set aside for winter moorings.

Because the signs did not go the end of the pontoon moorings we decided to moor right on the end. Even though it is a designated mooring, we are still not right into the pontoon, so Paddy will have to be a brave boy tonight.

Having had lunch and a coffee, we went and got rid of the rubbish I have collected along the towpath and we emptied one of the toilet cassettes. Whilst at the Wharf we checked out the menu and have already decided we will have a meal there tomorrow, because they are doing two meals for £9.99. As we walked back to the boat, I suggested we went out for a walk, as I want to do some walking everyday, to keep my fitness level up, so we picked up our cameras and took a walk to Ambion Wood.

The trees in the wood are mainly Pine and Oak.

If you follow the footpath it takes you to the Bosworth Battlefield. It is where the battle that is considered to have ended the Wars of the Roses was fought in 1485. We are going to visit that tomorrow. Whilst strolling through the wood, we saw Squirrels chasing each other up and down the trees, a couple of Greater Spotted Woodpeckers and lots of Goldcrest's flitting about in the trees, looking for their last meal of the day. There were lots of people out walking their dogs, and none of them actually took the time to stand and listen to the birds and wildlife, which i find very sad.

Back on the boat, I now have to think about tonight's dinner. Paddy and Marmite are out on the back counter, enjoying the last of the days sunshine. We have a good TV signal, so there was I hoping to see "I'm A Celebrity" but dang the football is on instead grrrrrrr. So will probably watch a film on one of the channels instead. So I am off to decide on tonight's dinner, chat soon xxx