Departure

 About to board, end of our nearly 5 month trip. The green grass of home...family,  friends  aqua, making soup, sleeping in our own bed...

A few last precious hours with cousins and old friends.

A last photo from our mooring

HOME SOON!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Heading west

Image
 Where shall we go for our last Santiago voyage?😢 initially we thought Llangollen,  over that amazing unpronounceable aqueduct  the Pontcysyllte. But time is short, still Scotland, Portsmouth, Lancashire, Yorkshire and London to fit in to our last 5 weeks So we settle on Chester. Not so many miles or locks as Llangollen. Funnily enough the River Dee runs through both, in Chester close to the sea, in Llangollen high in the Welsh hills, feeding part of its flow into the canal, enabling the transport of stone. So we travel back through the Harecastle tunnel, approximately 40 minutes, the Cap'n  sensibly wearing a lifejacket. Falling into an unlit tunnel, banging your head on a metal boat...it has happened, but not to us.
Read more

Descending Marple locks

Image
6/7/2017 Whimsical weather dampened my straw hat, but not our enjoyment of the descent of the Marple flight of 16 locks. At the bottom, a landscape of an aqueduct carrying the canal, adjacent to a high, arched railway viaduct,  with the distant Pennines framed in each arch. Working a lock involves one person on the boat, the other on the bank. The boat person has to thread the boat, 6' 8" wide, into the  7' 2" wide lock. Get it wrong, and 20 tonnes of steel boat hits solid stone. An embarrassing moment, and another scratch on the boat. When the boat is in the lock, and water is rushing in to raise or lower the boat, the boat hamdler must avoid being swamped by leaky locks or lockgates more resembling a waterfall. Leaving one lock to enter the next might involve holding it steady in a wind or against the pull of an overflow channel, while the lock is being readied. The boat person also needs to make cups of tea, pass up raincoats,  find hats. The shore person does ...
Read more

April 2023 Switzerland

Image
 Y Two nights ago we are in a folk club in Oberhafen, singing, laughing, clapping to music from South America,  Ireland, Germany....Much we don't understand, monolingual travellers that we are.  Our friend plays the piano with elan, Tim Winton virtuosity. A happy few hours in the company of friends of 50 years.  I met them through Lady Luck, them as newly weds exploring Australia,  me teaching English in an evening class to save for my own travels. That instant rapport which you seize for the prize it is. Friends for life. We were to be together in a hill town in Piedmont. The plan from.last year. But illness has struck one member of our Swiss family. We circle wagons, recall memories, listen to our friend's reflections on his life, affirm his legacy.  His journey is almost done, and we grieve together. He is a master jeweller, created unique pieces. A fine clever father husband friend. An expert mushroomer.  A subtle wicked sense of humour. A fierce g...
Read more