Ansty to Hawkesbury Junction (and a bike ride to get my 205)

In this vlog I discuss with you my future plans and how and why they have changed. In a previous vlog I walk the tow path from Ansty to Hawkesbury Junction, and now you can add ‘Boated’ and ‘Cycled’ to that list also. I hope you enjoy. Thank you for your continued support.

So, here we are leaving Ansty after all this time. There’s a little dingy up here. I got to watch out. I can see her pulling the uh cord of the engine but uh not going anywhere. Not starting is it? I sometimes think like willpower and thought positivity despite the fact of the mounting circumstance that it might not work. The power of your thought might get it to work this time. Good luck. I hope you make I hope it works. All right, I’ll see you in a bit. Bless them. They’re having a little bit of an issue with their uh outboard motor. Car is still back there. So, cycle ride by the road later on today most likely or tomorrow at least. They have a lot of food on board. So, going to trundle along at no particular speed. Let’s give you a better view. So, a lot of people will remember this little bit of a journey if you’ve watched the walking tour video, which I put out a couple days ago. Now, there’s the ugly graffiti, which I won’t be pointing out anymore, but you should know by now that I hate graffiti. Uh, including your Banksies, which I think is a a big load of postmodern wank. Um, the only thing he had going for it was that he was anonymous. Well, so’s thating there. That twat’s anonymous. We don’t value that artwork, do we? So, I find the ethics and the I don’t know, the aesthetics behind a Banksy completely devoid of any artistic merit whatsoever, apart from a gimmick. He’s like a graffiti artist version of Michael Bay. All concept and no depth. And here we are. I’ll sporadically keep turning the camera around. I had a comment on one of my um cruising videos from last year. You should use your 360 more. Uh unfortunately, I don’t have my 360 anymore. I don’t want to go on about cameras cuz I know that can bore some of my audience. So, just to say that there’s a lot of post-prouction that goes on with the 360. And while it’s wonderful to have all angles covered um and offer a nice variety of shots in one take, if you like, um the time it took to edit that and the thought process that I put into editing that and the views that they were receiving, i.e. not that many. I just wanted a point and shoot to be honest and I I’m very happy with this GoPro. a leisurely ramble through the Oxfordshire Warikshire. I’m not sure which border I’m on right now. Probably both of those canal, the North Oxford. All right, lovely lady thinking about Tik Tok. I start it. I test the water. I’m terrible with social media. I I I Unless you um suck Satan’s of uh social media, you’re you’re pretty much uh um pushed to the bottom ranks of uh of the algorithm. I just think social media is very much a of a a reflection of younger people, to be honest. middle-aged man by himself, no cats, no dogs, no other draw draw apart from his uh disdain for modern society and sarcasm for the current world we live in. So, Tik Tok’s probably going to go in the next couple of weeks. Terribly fickle when it comes to social media. I’ll try it and then I’ll I’ll be gone and you won’t see me back for maybe ever. I do it for myself. Uh keeps me editing, keeps me doing a bit of photography. It’s not very rewarding outside of that anymore. So, um, but I will keep YouTube going. Mage Dolby Cat will come back in the winter, which is uh when I excel because I think I’ll do every Saturday a live stream on Mage Doby’s Cat as I used to do. What I’ve decided with the canal life, it’s the third year of life on board. For the first year, I was really in a marina, so it wasn’t really. I’ve only had two years of cruising, and last year proved to be a little bit better than this year. Maybe this is a one-off, but I can’t help feel that it’s not a one-off. The rules and regulations that have come into to play, the closures, um the delays in fixing things or the CRT, none of this is going to get better because their funding is being reduced each and every year from 2027, I believe. So, it’s just going to get progressively more of a nightmare to be a continuous cruiser on the network. We are going to lose canals there. There there is no doubt in my mind that we will lose canals. The focus by the CRT is even if you go onto their social media, it’s just all about like people using the toe path and life’s better by the canal, but life’s generally not that great at the moment on the canal. I wish they would spend as much time working on the canal as they do by the canal. And I’ve noticed that’s getting more and more now, especially with social media. It’s like, you know, nothing to do this weekend. Bring the family down and we have so and so many cycle paths and and see from back there, you can see that the how far you have to moore away your back end of the boat. This is a common thing now on the canals is uh there’s no dredging going on anymore. As I’ve said, the logistics of the canal, the rules and regulations that are coming in, um the fact that I don’t see a bright future for continuous cruisers. In fact, I see a very frustrating one. To cut a long story short, I’m in the market for a VW 4×4 Synchro. I’m not young, but I’m not old. I still have a good 10 years of travel left in me. Where I originally thought those would be spent on the canals. I’m in the better position having been on the canal for three years to see the gradual decline of the canal system and the continuous cruiser. The odds are stacked against us. I think one of my friends said, “You going to sell it then?” And I said, “No, no, because that’s my home. It still be my home. It just means that I won’t be um cruising continuously.” What will happen is the boat will have a permanent mooring. I haven’t even discussed this with John at Northkworth Warf. I don’t I know he subscribes to the channel. Hello, John. I love your channel. Wolf Diaries, everybody. The community they’ve got there is wonderful. I love Andy to bits. I love John to bits. Um, and I think that that would be a a viable option for me to uh and also have a parking space. So my Synchro would be there and I would be basically just living on board my boat as a full-time home. Just take it out every so often. Europe, I’ve got places like I want to go to Croatia, Georgia, which I’ve seen is absolutely beautiful. As long as I can work from home, it doesn’t matter whether I’m on a boat in a van. It’s always been about exploring and I just find that having limitations on the canals this year is is a bit shitty to be honest. So, that’s my future plans. Looking for a left hand 4×4 Synchro, otherwise known as the T-25 type 3. Obviously, I’m 6’7, but I want a pop top. A pop top would be ideal because I can stand up in the middle of a pop top, which is normally at the highest point of a pop top on a sink row is where you’re cooking, which is the only reason I’d be standing up in the van. So, that makes a lot of sense. You see the people? There they are. This is that seat that I saw the other day. It’s a nice little seat to sit on. You’ve seen most of this journey if you’ve uh watched my walking video. So, uh what we’ll do is uh pick you up when we’re at Hawksbury. So, you join me back again Junction and the lock is free. People are chilling out. Slow down a bit. This will be me. That’s what I’ve been feeding them, by the way. Duck food. Let’s bring you down. All right. All right. Yeah, a little bit. Hello, mate. How are you? I remember meeting you on the walk um couple of um couple of weeks ago. Don’t know whether you remember or not. Yeah. What was your name again? It’s Owen. Owen. That was it. The oldwin with the really cool bike. I remember. I remember like Yeah, we did. I did a walk. I walked down here. Yeah, I saw you walking down. You said I’m 6’7 and 24 stone. I think I’m 6′ 7 and 23 stone. That walk nearly killed me. But yeah, I thought I’d uh thought I’d move the boat gradually, get onto the Ashb, and see what’s going on up there. I’ve got a boat coming down so I can’t spend too long chatting. So, make sure you’re well lined up when as you go under the bridge. Yeah. There ain’t no sideway unless you got B. Right, Owen, I better make a move cuz I’ve got a boat behind me talking to you again. Yeah, I’ll probably see you cuz I’ll be back down. I’m going to try and cycle this path back to um Anywhere where my car is. I will do, mate. I will do. You take care, mate. Nice to see you again. Yeah, nice. Funny how secrets travel. That’s true. That is very true. See how well I do this going into the lock landing. Really need it at the front of the boat, but see I bang it as I normally do. It’s always nice when somebody helps out. Seems to be a dying trade now, doesn’t it? It does. Yeah. Oh, you’re a legend. How kind of you. Thank you. Where are you headed now then? Anywhere. I think there’s problems everywhere. I think it’s a case of just tossing a coin and saying I’ll go that way. No, no, I’m going to going to go to the Ashb. Going to give it a chance. Okay. Monday. Is Atheist closed still? Uh, it’s open 10. Okay. Tomorrow. Oh, okay. So, it should be open in the afternoon. Okay. Oh, that’s 9:00 in the morning till Thank you. Okay. Thanks for that info, mate. Running out of ideas. We’re all running out of ideas. Really know where you can go. Was nice of the lady, wasn’t it? Nothing coming on port side at least. Don’t want to go to Coventry. Most dangerous city in Europe. Imagine that as a tourist spot. Europe’s most dangerous city. Go down there. Third part of the journey will be me on a bike. Oh, it’s all right. Going through very slowly. I’m hoping they’ll get here. Yeah, they normally move out the way. Yeah, they can sense something big’s coming down here. Babies. There they are. The little baby ducks. There’s the little baby ducks. Same as all the other little baby ducks. Greedy little buggers. Hello, mate. But I’m a sucker for him. Here you go. Oh. Oh, my camera’s just switched off. So, I’ll do the intro here cuz I don’t have my microphone. As you can see, it’s been raining and I didn’t really want to bring my Zoom recorder out. I’m cycling back to Anste [Music] picking before they all go off. You got to [Music] the rubbish in the [Music] Oh yeah. [Music] Shot. [Music] [Music] Oh yeah, thank you. Appreciate that. Set up Google maps and see by road how far Ads away. As the path carries on there, it gets progressively harder to cycle. [Music] Turn right. Nature park and local nature reserve. Put the mouse. Hawthorns. Hestrons. Emperor dragonflies. Azour dams and fly. Hey little duck. Hello. [Music] Elite industrial spect. This is center. [Music] Turn right onto Bryley Road. Then turn left onto Horn Road. [Music] Okay, so we made a little bit of a mistake there. It’s taking me to Any Road, not Ansty. Obviously, we need Any Road to meet with Anste. [Music] I’m not going around that roundabout. Okay. There’s no road around it, but around it, so I’m being forced to ride it. This is outside of my comfort zone. I can’t even pull out on the road. Christ, is it busy this one? [Music] There are the MC. [Music] [Music] Well, the battery ran out on the GoPro. I’ve just cycled 5.7 miles. relatively flat apart from a couple of places that took me breath away a bit, but um mainly the uh the road back there which was absolutely horrendous, but I got round it. Um anyway, I’m just about to get to the car. There it is. 205. Now to get the bike in the back of the 205 wheel bike 205. And I’ll see you in the next vlog. Isn’t she so sexy? Thanks for watching. [Music]