Today was a gloriously hot day! We sought the shade and so moored somewhat precariously under some trees. And it's Kathy's birthday, so obviously that meant cake.
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The fabulously framed Hunts Lock (a little south of Northwich) deserves a mini-gallery all of its own, above. Once through, it was down on towards Winsford (which also gets its own gallery, see below), where we braved it by going beyond CRT's jurisdiction and headed out to the Winsford Flash mooring arm, just round the corner from the lake proper, where we saw a half-sunken narrowboat... Grim.
Avid followers will know that we have "done" the Anderton Boat Lift before, around Easter 2018, but then we went up it. This year, we've gone down it! We've been joined by Becky's parents, Dan & Kathy.
Boating is usually a thing of beauty. But of course its origins were not quite so aesthetically inclined, being the cargo haulage means of its day. And the industrial works that in various places still line its banks retain (or have even augmented) their original unsightliness. Today we came across a particularly ugly beast, just outside Northwich.
Having successfully obtained our Certificate of Seaworthiness at Barbridge so as to go on the Manchester Ship Canal next week, we turned right onto the Middlewich Branch of the Shropshire Union canal. Along with about a zillion other boats. It's pretty, the Middlewich, but unfortunately, everybody seems to think so. (Plus all the hire boaters wanting to do the Four Counties ring...)
Having collected Grandma Newman from Wolverhampton train station, we have travelled on the Wyrley and Essington canal to meet her cousin Roy who lives nearby. Our voyage has been sorely beset by overgrown weed but Tom's trips down the weed hatch were not in vain - it was lovely to have a pub lunch and boat trip with Grandma and Roy. One of the best things about travelling on less popular canals is that people are often wonderfully surprised and delighted to see a boat on the move! Three children were particularly excited to see us today - they came running over at the sight of the boat, caught a glimpse of Grandma sitting in the stern and shouted 'IT'S THE QUEEN!' Grandma has been waving rather elegantly. Tom fell into the canal! He was mooring at Bournville so that his new boss could disembark from the boat and catch a train. One foot on bank, the other on boat, heavy rain and SPLASH, then stinky, soggy but thankfully unhurt Tom.
We're off. We've moored up on the Gloucester & Sharpness just beyond Saul Junction. Becky has work tomorrow and Tuesday, and Tom can't wait for that, so has drafted in mates to get the journey well underway.
Super engineer Pete from Upton eventually sorted us out on Thursday. The diagnosis? Air in the engine. Phew! Had it been water in the fuel or the dreaded 'diesel bug', it would have been a much nastier, longer, more expensive job, so we were very relieved. Anyway, after a glorious morning's trip back to Gloucester Docks, and a day's rest there, we're glad to say that we're finally back. Upton-upon-Severn. Couldn't be marooned in a nicer place. But marooned we are. Having left Diglis Lock just south of Worcester, our normally trusty Isuzu engine started making some uncomfortable noises. It sounded like it wasn't sure whether or not it wanted to continue chugging, and Becky got ready with the anchor. But we made it to Upton, where we've been very kindly accommodated by the jolly folk at Upton Marina awaiting further inspection...
There is just something very special about the River Severn. And it seems that no journey (and accompanying blog posts) of ours is complete without a nice picture of her at Stourport. So here you go.
We're not sure it's even possible to go boating without at some point entering Staffordshire... Well, we're here again! And on what must be about our fourth visit to the pretty village of Kinver, or at least its beautiful nearby "high heath and woodland escarpment" (thanks Wiki) Kinver Edge, we finally found Nanny's Rock, a large cave where a lady may have once lived in the 17th century!
Having navigated the entire length of the Dudley No.2 and No.1 canals in a single day, we were hoping to stop at rather an obscure mooring which we knew to be up a tiny, little-used canal called the Stourbridge Extension Canal, before tackling the rather imposing "Stourbridge Sixteen", a lock flight of, yes, sixteen locks, down to Stourbridge. Only the CRT had different ideas... The Dudley No.1 canal goes through other suburbs of Dudley. It's not the prettiest we've been on, that's for sure!
As Netherton Tunnel passes so deep underground, under the hilly suburbs of Dudley, it seems to act like a bit of a portal between two worlds. We began in Birmingham (or so it seemed), and 45 minutes later emerged into 'the Black Country'. Despite the rather suspect geography there, one change that definitely did happen was the transition from the Birmingham Canal Network to the Dudley Canals, most exciting because this was a waterway system we'd never yet navigated! We headed westwards out of Birmingham proper towards the Black Country along the BCN Mainline, keeping to the New mainline where the Old diverged. There were so many photos, we've put together a 'gallery' - you can see the captions if you click on it.
Tardebigge - the longest lock flight in the UK - consists of 30 locks in pretty quick succession. This was the third time we'd done it, and our second ascent, but our quickest, due to the awesome help given by Tom's old boss Charlie Butler and his family. |