Left at 09:30
arrived at 14:30.
Slightly dodgy night,
I didn’t sleep too well so unfortunately neither did Derek. Up as usual though, moved kids into our bed,
cleared a few chairs in the saloon, Derek did usual stuff, dogs, paper and
water we had breakfast and decided to set off with kids in our bed. There are a good few locks today and its
raining on and off, we think it will be like this all day, so wet weather gear
at the ready. The first lock was at the
Commandery? It was Charles the II headquarters in the Civil War, the Battle of
Worcester 1651. It was a lovely
building, very well kept and had a metal sculpture of lances/pike staffs and
roundhead helmets on the road/walking bridge.
A family, Mum, Dad, Grandma, Grandad and two small children, were just
doing the lock, coming down, beyond the building were some moorings, so we both
made a mental note, it seemed a good spot.
We went through the lock with no problems, the next one was set for us
as the hire boat had just come down. I
went up to open the gates, shouts from beyond the tunnel/bridge leading into
the lock(by now the gongoozlers were standing on the bridge too) I went to see
what Derek was shouting about, he was stuck.
I let a little bit of water down with the ground paddle, one of the
bottom gates blew shut, I had to go down to hold it open.! He managed to get into
the beginning of the lock under the bridge, stuck again? I let more water down,
he finally managed to get in to the lock, I closed one gate, the gongoozlers
shut the other, we finally got on our way.
This was only the 4th lock we had done since the girls joined
us and we were already having fun and games.
A young man came up to do the lock for his boat so I got on board and he
closed the gate and I got on the boat. The
rest of the canal was quite pretty with lots of reeds/bulrushes, I was
disappointed again, still haven’t found
that baby!!!? Amelia was up and
in the shower, Charlotte laid in bed, its still warm but we keep getting a few
spots of rain. The last channel was
really shallow and reedy and we became the African Queen again. Did Gregory Top lock and a family coming down
so it worked out nicely, I’m really sluggish this morning but Derek is giving a
hand, the gates aren’t too bad and the paddles are ok once started. Coming up to Bilford lock there was a lovely plant at the water side, I ve never seen one
like it before, long spade shaped leaves at the top of a very long stalk, with
blue spear like flowers, it was gorgeous, we must find out what it is it would
go well in the water trough at home. At
Blackpole lock Derek got in the lock and when he neared the top he had a look
at the prop, it was being a bit sluggish, a pair of tracksuit bottoms were
wrapped round it, it went a lot better once they were removed??? We finally reached Offerton Top Lock No 16 (our
14th) at 2:30, it was very warm and slow going ( I think, its mostly
me) We had only met 1 full and one half
full lock, the previous user had left the ground paddle open a little way, I didn’t
notice till it was nearly empty and bubbling up, I put it down, they were very
hard to do. He had moored just after the
lock so really ought to have known better and noticed the lock filled up by
itself?? Derek had been climbing up
the side of the lock, leading the boat in, shutting the bottom gates and near
the end when I was tiring, had been opening the very hard ground paddles
closing his side down when the water was level, I then opened the single gate
let him out and shut the paddle on my side, usually walking to the next
lock. We were at Tibberton for 2 3ish,
Amelia was happy we had ducks and 2 families of Moorhens to keep her amused,
feeding them and taking pics. We had a
rest and then decided to have tea at the pub, we’re moored just below it so a 2
minute walk, it was lovely, the pub was nice and the food well presented, the
kids meals were massive, we are now back at the boat, no tele so we will be
watching DVDs me and the kids laying on the bed, Derek can therefore have the
saloon to himself.
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