Tardebigge again!!

 

We left Venice.... I mean Birmingham, refreshed and warmer after our comfortable city break there, and headed down towards King's Norton Junction.  We were now in familiar territory again, and very aware that after having done no locks for four or five days, we had 52 to do before arriving back at Worcester.  The city is flooded so there was no chance of going via the river.  

Autumn has arrived.  The canals are quiet and there is an air of peace as we travel with no engine trouble, experienced crew and a luxury boat. One hazard of the Autumn leaves is that they keep getting caught in the bow and the weed hatch is troubled with Withey weed everywhere.  This required a bit of stopping and clearing, but nothing to difficult.

We moored up outside Bourneville train station in order to visit the Cadbury chocolate factory.  

This was a very disappointing choice. When we thought we had found the factory we were wrong.  This was the staff shop only, and it was about a mile of walking to find the actual factory, only to discover that it was 25 quid each to get in and it was being renovated so you couldn't see half of it.  We decided not to spend the money and returned to the boat having wasted some much needed energy on a Commercial rip-off.  Perhaps when it's been renovated it would be worth it.

More Withey weed. And Autumn Leaves are all very well....

But..

Isn't England beautiful?

We moored overnight just before the Junction and got ready mentally for the arduous Tardebigge,.... 36 Locks in 4 miles.  But we are now much better equipped with our system of doing Locks together.  

1. We take it in turns to drive the boat.

2.  the crew goes ashore to fill the lock open the gates

3. The captain drives in, and closes the far paddle while the crew closes the gate.

4. The Captain opens the far Bow paddle and jumps back on the boat before it drops down.

5. The crew opens the near paddle and waits while the water fills the lock.

6.  the crew opens the gates when lock is full, and steps across to close other gate and lower paddle.

7. Swap over and repeat 36 times.

After 29 locks we got to the Queen's Head feeling very proud of ourselves and not nearly so exhausted as the first time we did this stretch.  We still enjoyed a lovely dinner at the pub and a few bubbly drinks. 

Next day we continued towards Droitwich.  The flooding in Worcester was now starting to become more obvious.  There was a bunch of Uni Students on a hire boat behind us.  We realised that every time we were in a lock, the water kept filling up again like an overflowing bath.  Unbenown to the drunk students, when they were emptying their lock, ours was refilling.

Narrowboating really does throw up some unusual phenomenae.  We ended up asking the Students to go on ahead as it was going to be quite difficult to explain that their water was slowing us down.  There wasn't a lot of experience among the 9 youngsters. But they were having a lot of fun.  this delayed us quite a bit, and now with the shorter days we found it hard to find a pleasant enough spot to moor.  We know the areas around Worcester quite well, and there was nowhere we wanted to stop until it was almost dark.  Shorter days!...

But we did find a spot.  Next day we had the short trip back to Diglis basin.  We had travelled for 6 weeks in quite challenging conditions, and we were certainly glad to get back, plug into power and fill the water tank without having to think again for a while about where to stop and fill something up or empty something out, and groceries so easy to come by.

Thank you Double 0 for a great trip.  Thank You England for having canals to cruise along.  Thank you all for listening!!!!!