The road to Crick - Fazeley

The road to Crick part 1

Calf Heath to Fazeley

May 2014

When I was student and was into back packing, and I really knew what it was to travel light. I sawed off my toothbrush handles, mixed dried milk with porridge and kept the spare clothes to a minimum.

Oh what a changes the years have wrought! I seem, to have moved from ultra light to mega heavy! Not content with 15 tons of narrowboat we now seem intent on testing is load carrying capacity. Of course the reason for all this weight gain is the preserves business and jam weighs a ton when carried in bulk!

Heavily laden at Fradley Junction

Buoyed by our success in Droitwich where we came within a whisker of selling out, we decided  that more stock is needed for Crick's huge audience, loaded umpteen jars of preserves plus a huge pile of cordials and vinegars. All this called for two trips to the boat with the Mondeo down on its bump stops and stock crammed into all the storage space available. I even pressed the void left by the old holding tank into good service - but more of that another time.

But in spite of all this pre loading all was not happiness on arrival at the marina. Someone (not me) forgot to bring the entry pack for Crick so someone (still not me) had to go back and get it.... This made for a late start but we still reached Great Haywood in time to find no room in the Clifford Arms for that long promised meal out.

Shadehouse Lock

The second day of travel to Fazeley was under a clear blue sky where fleeces, jeans and steel toed boots were discarded in favour of something cooler. I feared huge crowds, but the only one I saw grew behind us at Colwich Lock as everyone left Gt Haywood together at 9.00am.

Even our trip down the three locks at Gt Haywood (counting Wood End) were uninterrupted and we made solitary progress round through Seethay and on into the wooded countryside of Whittington.

By an amazing fluke we discovered that Sandra (of the amazing Awaken Your Life Coaching - why not see what she can do for you?) and Barry (AREandARE) were moored at Fazeley so a rendezvous point was agreed, and our curries were combined for yet another sociable meal with friends. But the sociability didn't end there. Jeff decided to come and stay for a couple of days so we met him at the nearby Wilnecolte Station whilst Helen tinkered with applications for Nettle Cordial - on sale at Crick Boat Show and all good purveyors of fine food!