After my little jaunt away living the highlife, counting puffins Eric had moved Firecrest through Leicester and was waiting for me at Kilby Bridge. The weather was perfect and we were keen to be on our way.
South of Bumble Bee lock
Sometimes there’s no need for lengthy details as we watch the world go by
Sometimes the scenery and tranquility just speaks for itself as others just watch us go by, whilst we disappear into the tunnel
Sometimes quite a lot of people watching us go by, but what do you expect going up Foxton Locks on a sunny Sunday afternoon
Lots of helpers on hand
Just so long as they evenings are peaceful
But its in the tunnels that you really hope you don’t meet anyone,
Mmmm that looks like 2 boats coming towards us, hope they move over. Crick tunnel is two way
But meeting a lockie on the Watford flight is always welcome.
The Watford flight would be very pleasant if it weren’t for the M1 thundering alongside the canal
And finally, Norton Junction. We’ve arrived at the point where our current Plan xxx route and our original plan A route rejoin, and we thought we’d have been here in March.
Whilst I was off on my puffin adventure with Amanda, I took advantage of being close to family and friends and ticked off a few “firsts” for me,
Always good to see my favourite daughter and her favourite chicken, (my favourite son wasn’t around for a photo) And to spend a day at one of my favourite places with my bestie,
On the beach at Aldeburgh, with Anne
Before heading to Amanda’s and my favourite furballs
Sacha and Rascal
Where she took me to see her favourite team, Posh
Yes Posh had just taken the lead with their 3rd goal of the match
Admittedly Peterborough United isn’t my favourite team, but as Amanda has a season ticket and I’d never been to a real live match before, I did enjoy the experience and I can understand why so many pay good money to stand in the cold for 90 minutes every Saturday. The atmosphere was buzzing and it was exciting to be part of the crowd. Completely off the scale compared to watching a match on the telly. And whilst I was feeling sporty, Amanda is also a race horse owner. Admittedly only the whisker on his nose, as part of a syndicate, but never the less Lilkian was due to run and she had owners tickets so off we ran to Chelmsford for the race. Another first for me and good fun being wined and dined, and allowed to stand in the paddock to discuss tactics with the trainer and jockey…
Sounds a good bet
but alas Lilkian came home last
Video
And then it was time for me to come home, to my favourite hubby and favourite narrowboat
Today was the day we had been looking forward to for several months.
We were going to land on Skomer Island and go puffin hunting. Clad in our most waterproof clothes we set off on our 15 minute boat trip, determined to enjoy our day.
No sooner had we left the boat when the puffins were hopping up the stone steps with us. Posing for photos.
We were welcomed onto the island by the assistant warden, who told us it was a good day to see puffins because, unlike us, they enjoy a bit of wild weather. Our main instruction was to stick to the paths because most of the birds on the island live in burrows only a few inches under the ground, and whilst they didn’t want any twisted broken ankles, they really didn’t want any squashed puffins. It was roughly 4 miles to walk around the island,
Skomer had been inhabited by farming families up until 1950s. The earliest archeology dates back to the iron age and there was clearly some historical structures still standing.
The Harold Stone
Nowadays there’s a year round warden and seasonal researchers studying the wildlife. Most people visit the island on a day trip. The puffins are also just visiting, and make their annual visit between April and July. And we were treated to far more than just the puffins, the island was covered in beautiful bluebells and I imagine there will be more flowers and heathers throughout the season
And the scenery was spectacular
But it was the puffins we really wanted to see
There are roughly 40,000 puffins visiting Skomer each year and I think we saw most of them
We were given clear instructions to stick to the paths so we didn’t damage the puffins burrows, the puffins were free to wander, and we really did have to be careful not to tread on them.
It was fascinating to get so close to these comical little birds
It was build a nest day for the puffins so they were hopping around collecting bits of vegetation
We didn’t just see puffins, but guillemots as well,
I wasn’t going to risk getting any closer to check which bird they were
And razor bills, I think
Razor Bills
One reason the birds thrive on skomer, is because there are no rats, we left the island very happy even though we felt like drowned rats at times.
some information sites we used for our trip
there is a live webcam for puffin watching on skomer.
After the disappointment last June when Amanda (my sister in law) and I had our whale and puffin watching excursion cancelled,
All togged up but our trip was cancelled at the very last minute
we promised ourselves we’d go to see some British puffins this year. And oh boy did we see puffins, we felt like mini David Attenboroughs.
And as we can see this little puffin is busy lining their nest with bracken
We booked ourselves an AirBnB in Milford Haven. Not your usual chocolate box seaside holiday destination, but actually there’s a very nice promenade overlooking the harbour that draws the eye away from the oil and gas refinery. Its all newly built and above the shops and fancy restaurants there’s some rather nice apartments.
The view from our appartment
We were all set for our trip to Skomer Island. We’d booked 2 trips, the first was a sunset cruise around the island. We togged up very well cause although the sun was shining, the wind was also competing for supremacy.
in our icelandic sweaters of course
We were amazed by the number of puffins we saw both flying and bobbing around. My camera skills and equipment doesn’t quite make BBC standards for wildlife photography so you’ll just have to believe me that there were not hundreds, but thousands of these comical little birds, entertaining us, crash landing into the sea, cause they arent the most graceful fliers.
I think these are guilemots
And we didn’t just see puffins, but many other seabirds as well, kitiwakes, manx shearwater, gannets, gulls, storm petrel, fulmar, guillemots and razorbills. Or at least according to our very informative guide we saw them all. We also saw a peregrine falcon, a blackbird and a Robin.
Puffins in the water and I think kitiwakes on the cliff
And we saw common grey seals and harbour porpoise
Apparently the week before there were over 200 seals on this beach
It was an exhilarating trip
We got what we wanted, we saw puffins the sunset and Wales
The next morning our beautiful view was somewhat obscured,
But it didn’t dampen our spirits because one of us had a birthday to celebrate
One thing we discovered, that as a tourist, the Pembrokeshire coast is heavily geared towards outdoor attraction (and quite rightly so) we drove over to St David’s and enjoyed the cathedral but the rain was coming down in barrel fulls and even exploring the little streets wasn’t much fun. Outdoor attractions need sunshine, cause despite there being lots of castles in the area, non of them still have a roof.
St David’s Cathedral
And of course as soon as we called it quits and trudged home for a nice meal in one of the fancy restaurants,
the sun came out and provided a bit of a sunset
And we went to bed looking forward to the night day tomorrow
So much for my good intentions suggesting we take the Leicestershire route, down the River Soar. I’d checked all the relevant websites and confirmed that the Soar was no longer in flood, but I had forgotten to check that short stretch of the River Trent between Derwent Mouth lock and Sawley marina, and yes you’ve guessed , we were still hovering on red and the flood gates were closed.
Dewent Mouth Lock in the red
Luckily it only held us up by 2 days, and our friend Jo popped in to say hello whilst we were twiddling our thumbs. Jo has recently discovered the joys of drumming and took me to her group that meets in Nottingham.
And I’m happy to agree that it was a great way to spend an evening. But when the sun rose the next morning and CRT gave us the go-ahead we weren’t hanging around, we were off, hurtling through the swirly currents at a heady 6 mph, under the M1,
Where the Derwent River and the Trent cross paths
Throught the Sawley cut, waving to the Erewash canal and turning off before Nottingham’s cranfleet cut.
Make your mind up time, which way shall we go…
And onto the River Soar.
Turning right onto the Soar, cruising up stream, does that look a bit autumnal to you, have we missed summer?
We quite enjoy river cruising, its usually wide and has a sense of greater freedom, although we were glad to be off the strong currents.
We made it through to Loughborough, and who should we meet but Jo and her trusty windlass to help us through a lock.
Always ready to help
We were making good progress so didn’t stay long, We wanted to moor up at Birstall,
Words fail me, not my idea of fun at all.
This is where Jo had moored in December, and why we don’t cruise rivers in the winter. But as she says, she had a whale of a time and lived to tell the tale. In the mean time we took advantage of that nice solid edge and the sunshine to do some spring cleaning.
That looks fun
Just in time to welcome another visitor, my friend Carol from back in the day when we were student nurses together
Having had an enjoyable day we got ready to cruise into Leicester but guess what Birstall Lock had problems,
That doesn’t look good
It had been knocked off its hinges and although CRT said it was still operable with care, it took ages to empty and we had to enlist the help of 4 burly young men to help us open the gate to let us in. It didn’t take long to fill and we got through safely but not surprisingly the next day CRT changed its advise and closed it for a week until it was repaired.
But we’d made it to Leicester and within walking distance to the train station cause I was jumping ship for my next adventure
