People often ask about shopping… usually as we’re going through locks and they stop to watch, or via the blog (thanks Martine) or as we moor in what seems the middle of nowhere and they walk past with their dogs.
There’s always a wicked (or wistful) temptation to say we live from the woods and fields around us but although we do forage mushrooms, berries and fruits mainly, we certainly couldn’t live on what we pick. (Although we do end up drinking quite a bit of foraged delights!).
It’s the standard shops for us that everyone uses but we do have the advantage that we are shopping local most of the time. Some boaters get supermarket deliveries to bridges or mooring points, but we’ve never seen the need for that yet.
Google maps supplements the canal maps (which is a good thing as some of our physical canal maps are 20+ years old and a weeny bit out of date), and online canal plans. That way we can see what’s coming up or around where we are moored, and then it’s on with the backpack stuffed with extra bags and a walk with the dog to the nearest shop.
This week I’ve kept track of our shopping habits as we’ve travelled from the Black Country out through Shropshire’s sandstone cuttings and into Cheshire with its rolling vistas and dairy cows.
There was the mile walk from the mooring at the Dudley Canal and Tunnel museum to an Aldi on the edge of Dudley – ideal for restocking with what we could carry. Now having a fridge on board makes it much easier to keep food and we don’t need to shop as often. The small freezer section within it helps keep food longer too.
We combined a morning dog walk of a couple of a miles into Brewood (pron. Brood) from a mooring amid the noisiest owls we’ve heard for a long time. Whenever one of us woke in the night we could hear the tawny owls calling from the pine trees on one side of the canal to friends in the oaks on the other. They kept up a delightfully conversational natter through, it seemed, much of the night. Our shopping trip from their home took us along towpaths with trips to the shops, finding footpaths on the way back as we returned with milk, bread and a happy dog.
Sometimes we support local producers through farmers markets or regular weekly markets but this was a week unlike many others because of the Queen’s funeral, so many suspended their normal routines. Market places stood solemnly empty as a result.
The lock flight at Audlem, 15 locks taking us down 93ft, come with a real treat we know. Going up it’s a reward for labour, going down it’s a collection of treats at the top to form rewards when we’ve finished. It’s a farm stall with delicious homemade pies, pastries, cakes, scones, ice creams and they even do drinks for walkers.
We see many people walking the 3-mile out and back from Audlem, visiting the stall, and enjoying their goodies at the picnic benches by the second lock down before heading back to the village. The stall is at the edge of a large mixed but mainly dairy farm, outside a newish built house. This is the home of the now retired farmers, their children and grandchildren now living in the original farmhouse and running the farm. Retirement in rural farming life doesn’t mean relaxation fortunately so the stall with its honesty box is stocked daily. They also take cards!
Goodies from there kept us going deliciously in treats and a meal or two for a couple of days. Almost at the bottom of the Audlem flight we found desserts for several days more!
Then into Nantwich and a chance for restocking with heavy goods like tins. That resulted in a bit of weight training and the odd collapsing bag – all in the torrential rain! Steve also took a trip to Screwfix ( a 4-mile walk but he is a dedicated Screwfix user like so many boaters!).
Before we leave Nantwich where we will be for some time now, we have coalboat Bargus calling with diesel for us (119litres, £158.27 and 2 slices of bread for a sandwich!).
We will be fetching our car for a week as we have family commitments to meet and work in Buckinghamshire at un-train-friendly times/locations. While we have the car we will restock heavy bulky shopping and then move on once more without wheels. We restocked with gas from coalboat Roach when we were the other side of Birmingham and are burning the fuel we didn’t use last winter.
Amazon orders can be delivered to collection boxes or local shops en route if required and bigger locations provide shopping trip opportunities which become highlights on this life where the journey is the delight as well as the destinations!
Pickingupducks 