Xilion Rose

Sorry for the delay in updating the Blog, but here is the latest.  We finally arrived at Stone on the Thursday Evening, and the fist problem was to find a mooring, it just happened that the Boater Christian Association had decided to hold a Christian weekend and every single mooring was taken, except one, and on the advise of a local guy watching us come through the bottom lock, we grabbed it, much to the annoyance of the boat in front that had missed the space.
The following day, our repaired hob arrived and was fitted and all seemed well, so as we had a few days spare, we decided to visit the Caldon Canal, which runs from Stoke on Trent to either Leek or  Froghall,  unfortunately, we misjudged the travel time and were only able to do about 7 miles of the Caldon, but it so impressed us that we have put it down as one of the Must Do’s for next year.
After passing back through Stone we made for the Great Haywood Marina where we had arranged to meet the previous owners of Xilion Rose (Derek and Elaine) who moor their new boat “Misty” in the same Marina. After swapping tales of their and our travels, we were invited to their house for dinner, which we gratefully accepted and had a marvellous evening with them. The following day we left Xilion in the Marina and travelled home to Thame for a “Ladies Night Ball” and a family gathering, arranged by our son Steven and after catching up with all the local gossip, returned to Great Haywood via Stafford, picking up an old friend “PJ” who is visiting from Spain and doing the rounds. PJ stayed with us for a couple of days while we left Great Haywood and made for Rugeley, where PJ said his goodbye’s and disappeared to visit the next person on his list (his sister I think). We continued on the Trent and Mersey through to the Trent Lock which is just below Shardlow where we branched right on to the river Soar and the Leicester Canal. I must say that the Soar is special with parts of it very wide, while other areas are very narrow, all perfect, until you reach Leicester, which we found to be depressing with all the disused and demolished buildings bordering the canal. Once past Leicester, the canal again becomes a joy to use, until you reach the dreaded “Foxton Flight” two sets of five Staircase Locks, where you need to “Book In” before you can proceed, we arrived at 9.00 am and did not start up the locks until 11.00 am. Still, it was a good experience, but surely a place to avoid during the rush of summer hire boats. We have decided to moor Xilion Rose in the Crick Marina for a few days as we have booked to take our Classic Car to the Isle of Wight with the Thame Classic Car Club, with plans to return to Xilion on the 14th.

Cheers

Annie and Malcolm

The Caldon Chimneys

A frightning site, the Foxton Flight

Annie in "Full Flight" on the Foxton Locks