Tamworth, Coventry Canal

We've reached the time of year when the weather forecast dictates when we travel. With fewer favourable days, we tend to do longer journeys. We made good distance today as there were only 5 locks; three at the beginning while we were still on the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal then two at the end, after we'd turned right at Fazeley Junction on to the Coventry Canal. We passed Drayton Manor and Market Drayton. The latter is apparently a nice place to visit but we had to pass on this occasion as Vicky had a last minute hospital appointment in Gateshead and was getting the train from Tamworth on Friday.

Our Eberspacher heater (powering the central heating) has stopped working. Will diagnosed a fault and spoke to the company, who sent out a replacement part for £154 😬 Will had a really tough time fitting it, but when it was complete, the system came up with another fault! The company recommended getting a professional who had diagnostic software to look at it so Will called Ian Morgan who is based at Glascote Boatyard. We moored up right outside the basin but the towpath was one wet, muddy mess and we were losing the battle to stop our floor becoming one. Ian was due to check the Eberspacher on Wednesday, but on Thursday his wife sent a message saying he was ill and all his appointments for the week were cancelled.

The day before Vicky left we walked to a nearby newsagents to pick up an ebay parcel and had lunch at a Greene King pub; the Amington Inn. It was a large venue and being December it was nearly full with people having festive meetups. There were too few staff for the number of tables so we were left waiting for nearly an hour with a toddler screaming and jumping on the bench next to us 😏

On Vicky's return we ventured into Tamworth town centre. It was a bit run down with empty shops but there was enough to keep us entertained. We especially liked Tamworth Castle and its grounds which are maintained as parkland, with the River Anker flowing through them. The castle was closed but we climbed the path up to it and there were some great views.

While taking in the sights Will got a call from Ian the Eberspacher engineer. He'd trudged along the muddy towpath to where we had been moored but we'd shuffled along the canal a few hundred metres to escape the mud. We hightailed it back to Rainboat and Ian programmed a hard reset with his laptop which did the trick! He reckoned some air had got into the fuel line. Whislt Will's repair had solved the initial problem, it required the software to tell the unit it was safe to run 🥴 It cost £90 but we were relieved to have central heating again.

With Christmas fast approaching we spent part of our last day walking the 25 minutes to the Ventura Retail Park to get some present shopping in. Being on the move with only a boat for transport does necessitate a bit of extra time researching which of the shops within walking distance might have what we need. Thankfully Tamworth provided nearly everything on our list.Leggi altro