The weekend is winding down.

Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th September.

The weekend is winding down.

Like most events organised the Shackerstone Festival was not the only one to fall by the way side due to the weather. But we have made the best of it, spending time chatting to other boaters, making new friends, and chatting with old friends. We even spent Friday evening in the beer tent, having had our evening meal at The Rising Sun. We joined friends on their boat first of all, before all of us walked gingerly to the beer tent. The ground was absolutely sodden, so it was clear there was no way they could of held the festival.
Saturday morning things were no better weather wise, it was still raining. But we were not deterred, having had breakfast we headed off to Shackerstone Railway Station for our concessionary ride on the steam train. Getting there was a bit of an ordeal as the towpath near the historic boats was just awful. You really had to be careful where you put your feet, otherwise it would have been so easy to slip over.As we made slow progress to the station, we chatted to the boat owners, who all seemed in good cheer, even though it was chucking it down again. But the way I look at it is. If you have the right foot wear and water proof clothing it does not matter.
We arrived at the station and paid just £3 each for our trip on the steam train. Today it was Mayflower running.Seeing the steam train, reminded me of the film The Railway Children. We had to get on the train at platform 2, so we crossed over the track on the bridge and boarded the train. The trip is only about 20 minutes there, and 20 minutes back, but it was really nice to be out of the rain, which was hammering on the roof. Due to the rain you could see little out of the carriage windows, but it did not matter. Sadly the Market Bosworth signal box had been destroyed by vandals, so the ticket collector was also collecting donations for the rebuilding of the signal box. The thugs who did this awful deed, should be made to help out with the restoration of this signal box, then they may well appreciate, the dedication these volunteers put into the railway. I get so angry when I see things like this happen. They think nothing of destroying a bit of this countries history. Once back at the station I spent £1 on some raffle ticket and won a tea towel. It’s not often I win anything.
To get to and from the station you have to cross over the aqueduct, which a small stream runs under. Due to all the rain this stream was now a raging river.Not only was it bursting its banks, the aqueduct could not cope with the flow of the water and was backing up under the arches.We had heard the river had flooded into the beer tent, so they had to take the bar down and move it. But compared to a lot of place in the UK we were getting off very lightly.
On the way back to Hadar we got chatting to other working boat owners, it was actually a lovely picture seeing all the chimneys smoking on such an awful day.It was also nice to catch up with Viv off of Monarch, the boat has had her paint work done and looks absolutely fabulous. We look forward to seeing Viv again soon, she is such a lovely lady.
Whilst chatting I just could not resist this photo of the fenders. All backed up to each other as if holding a conversation. If only they could talk, what a tale they would tell. The remainder of the day was spent back onboard Hadar, watching a film and enjoying our sausage casserole with dumplings. We were in bed at 11.30pm having watch King Kong, but it took a while to go to sleep as the pub had live music going on. It sounded like heavy rock, I felt for the neighbours as we could hear every word from inside the boat, they must have all been deaf.

Sunday and things had not improved much when we got up, it was drizzling. Many of the boats have left today, including most of the historic boats, we on the other hand are staying put, we may move tomorrow as we need to empty the loo’s cassettes and possibly take on water. The rain finally stopped so we donned our coats and boots and headed out for a walk, we have spent the morning once again chatting to boaters, we also caught up with Roger, Martin and Teresa Fuller before they head off home. With a lot of the boats gone it feels a little lonely here now. But we have enjoyed our time here, and the cancellation of the festival did not spoil our weekend at all. We will more than likely come next year, if our calendar allows