Do squirrels sink or swim?

It wasn’t mother’s day yesterday as her Pimms took a flying leap off the dining room table, with some impressive assistance from her backside. We commiserated with wine, curry and a good movie.

Today the weather decided to play with us, changing by the minute from sunny and hot, to icy and wet, to hot and wet, to sunny and icy, with the odd spot of random hailstones to keep us on our toes. It should be noted that the adverse element prompted the Cook to provide a rum-topped hot drink (hic!). 

We braved Harecastle Tunnel today. Over a mile and a half of narrow canal, with a very low ceiling in parts, that had us crouching down to avoid accidental decapitation. This tunnel is not for claustrophobes or those afraid of ghosts – when the fans which keep the air moving, stop and start again after the tunnel doors lock you inside the tunnel, a ghostly mist forms, cocooning the boat and blocking any views of the outside world.

There were a number of new boaters out and about today, from the bloke who clearly thought the canal was too narrow for just his boat, let alone two passing, to the bloke whose boat appeared unable to turn right without the use of a punting pole.

We passed through Stoke-on-Trent, and through one of the locks there, we passed a beautiful boat called Pipedream, which has been lovingly looked after for nearly 15 years – I might be just a little bit in love with her.

Mother wasn’t looking forward to Stoke, because the locks were very difficult (strangely, she managed to be very busy washing her hair when we passed through those, but we’ll forgive her because of the rum) and the canal had been very dirty and grotty the last time she had been. Today it was quite lovely, with just a couple of beer bottles and a coke can in the water to spoil it.

There aren’t that many homeless people along the canal, so it was a bit of a surprise to find a gentleman of lesser means in his very posh sleeping bag under a bridge, listening to a radio.

Wildlife has not disappointed, with a small bat flying out of his tower and across the canal and back.

We were happily pootling along when we thought we saw a water vole swimming across the canal in front of us. A very long water vole with a very long tail. As it happened, its trajectory matched ours, and we could see that it was in fact a squirrel. It met our hull, and attempted to board us. It kept attempting all the way along, until it came to the back end of our boat, at which point it struck out for the bank it had been aiming for in the first place. As we moved on, we were pleased to see that it reached the bank, scaled the short concrete step and scampered safely into the trees.

We moored up next to a family of swans – two parents and two over-grown cygnets, fully grown, but still grey feathered, with their nobbly bits not yet grown. I was so distracted by these, that I nearly forgot my Pimms.