Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 September 2015

Raining again - I'm still waiting for summer to arrive and it's already autumn!  We left Tibberton at 8am.  14 locks and six miles took us just short of four hours passing through countryside, suburbia and city.

Found the dry dock in Diglis Basin and we were soon in, water drained and prop re-secured with a new split pin and nut tightened.  Refilled the dry dock started the engine engaged gear - knocking noise still there!  Further examination and we need new engine mounts but it is now Saturday afternoon.  Jason, the boat engineer will order them today so hopefully they will be here Monday and we can stay alongside his boat right in the marina - there are worse places you can be stuck! 

Another great city that I don't remember ever having been to before.  The architecture here is stunning even if some of the people are a little strange! They probably feel the same about us too!

At least the sun shone all day Sunday - typical when we are not cruising!  We have worked out where A&E is and may be paying them a visit before we leave as Steve is still scratching badly with five days of steroids and antibiotics inside him...

Fingers crossed we will have our engine mounts tomorrow and can carry on with our journey.

Leaving Tibberton in the rain.

Under the M5 (that's what I could hear last night and this morning!)

This stretch of towpath seems to have become a bit of a dumping ground by the CRT office.

The bulrushes don't seem to mind the rain!

Another bottom lock!

What are these guys up to?  Rugby training I think!

Outskirts of town - Saturday morning football!

Suburbia!

 

Commuter belt......I still don't miss that!

The entrance to Lowesmoor Basin.

Entering the industrial part of town.

Busy balcony!

We're here - Diglis Basin and it's stopped raining!

Haven't seen a heron for a while!

There's the dry dock.

Our prop!

Out of the water!

Filling the dry dock back up.

There we are - moored for the weekend.

Arms houses.

Lots of interesting buildings.

Lovely streets - nice little pub too!

The Guildhall.

And the Cathedral.

Friday 4 September 2015

Happy Birthday Jay.

We had a slow start today and only got rained on once! 

More of the same – lovely countryside, very peaceful but we have still got the knocking sound so phoned ahead to a boatyard who said they would have a look at it for us.  12 locks and a tunnel to get there.  When we got there they thought it was coming from the propeller so they had a feel and said the split pin had somehow fallen down in the hole and the bolt on the back was really loose – they can’t do anything but they phoned ahead to another boatyard in Worcester with a dry dock so we are booked in there tomorrow.  It should take us about four hours to get there – they told us just to take it easy and not to make any sudden gear changes.

On our travels today we also passed Brian Timberley and his wife, a couple that live on their boat called Marie Claire, who spend the winter months in Ely.  Steve and his dad also know Brian from their Lodge days.

We stopped at a place called Tiberton for the night as the guys in the boat yard told us that once we pass there we come to another flight of six locks and at the bottom of that flight there is a site housing our traveller friends and they didn’t recommend stopping there!

We're going the long way round to Birmingham!

We've seen so many top and bottom locks that I have lost count!



I didn't see that when I took the photo...

It's no wonder that every time you get to a lock you have to empty or fill it - the gates all leak badly.

Essential water stop.

Stoke Prior - funny place - lots of houses and industrial places but only one Cost Cutter shop a mile walk from the canal!

Another off duty volunteer that helped me through this lock.

Unusual sight - cows and sheep in together!

Brian and Mrs Timberley!

The entrance to the Droitwich canal but we are going to join from the other end on the River Severn.

The Great Escape.

Wide beams!!  they must be built here and put on a low loader to take them to other waterways as they won't be able to get through the locks on this canal! 

Pretty garden gnome!

Our nephew - and it's his birthday today!

This is a narrow bit - it reminds us of Reach Lode off the Great Ouse.

Through Dunhampstead Tunnel - 230 yards.

Standing on one leg!

It's very lovely round here.

Checking the prop!

 

Thursday 3 September 2015

It seems like it rained for most the night although it is was not raining when we got up but everything was soaking wet!  We had 21 locks to do today to get to Stoke Pound which is where we decided to stop for the night.  We pulled pins at 9am and by 9.15am it was raining again!  Steve started doing the locks as he decided that if he had something to do it would stop him from itching.  We swapped half way through as it is quite hard going on this flight - whilst the lock that we are in is emptying the person doing the locks runs on to the next one and opens the paddles to fill it up then runs back to the lock that we are in to open the gates, let the boat out then close the gates behind, and run back to the next lock which is hopefully full by now so the gate can be opened! 

There are lots of locks on this stretch of the canal and we only saw two other boats yesterday and today we didn't see any other than the ones moored at the pub where we have stopped for the night.

We were just eating our dinner this evening when there was a rap on the side of the boat making us both jump out of our skin - it was the police looking for a guy called Ian who they had been told was hiding on a green or blue boat and they wanted to look inside - typical I've got the washing hanging in the bathroom and bedroom! They wouldn't tell us why but said that we had no reason to be worried!  Never a dull moment – shame the same can’t be said for the weather!

Setting off - first lock of 21 today!

More rolling countryside

Jumping the gates - this speeds the locking process up, even though I have to think about it before doing it because my legs just aren't quite long enough!

Looking back up the flight.

Closing the paddles.

Civilisation!

and the last of the flight today - we haven't seen a single boat going up or coming down!  Steve did say at one point - imagine how hard this is for older people - perhaps that's why we haven't seen any on this stretch.

The locks are fairly mossy - thankfully we don't need to push off the walls!

And suddenly there is this huge pub - and what a nice pub it is too!

A walk round the village - lovely cottages.

Another great country scene.

Is that smoke?  yes 3 September and we have lit the fire....