No 3g signal on our way up the Worcs & B'ham canal but some real sunshine which caused the engine to overheat as we entered Stoke Bottom Lock - after a bit of TLC and a good talking to it now seems to be behaving itself.
Totals to day 71 (Wednesday 11 June) are
Memorable events 12 and Cappucinno's 16 no recent changes to either
Lift bridges 28, wide river locks 5, narrow locks 278 and 443 miles
We left Worcester last Saturday and started our way up the W&B and towards its lock flights and tunnels. Our latest visitors were Ray and Lesley who are kindly looking after the house and came to join us as we went up the 5 Astwood locks in glorious sunshine on Monday.
Tuesday was the big one, we left Stoke Pound at 09.00 to go up the Tardebigge 30 arriving at the very top at 13.00 - the weather was sunny but not as warm as the previous day. Anne did marvellously developing her muscles as she did all the lock gates and paddles- while I just did the easy bit of getting the boat into the very very narrow lock chambers!
Today we left at 07.00 to complete the W&B last little gem the Wast Hill Tunnel (2726yards) around the outskirts of Kings Norton and then onto the Stratford Canal.
We just have the Lapworth 19 , the Hatton 21 ,the Stockton 8 plus a few others and we are back to our marina at Wigrams and home probably by the end of next week.
The defunct guillotine stop lock that separated the waters of the W&B from the Stratford's.
The top of the Tardebigge flight has a very special relationship with our current waterways. Its where in 1945 Mr Aickman met the author of "Narrowboat" Tom Rolt and founded the Inland Waterways Association. Without their foresight we would not have the system we have today- thank you both very much. ( if you enlarge the picture it states 1946 which Mr Aickman thought it was- it was in fact 1945 which was only corrected in August 2005 its 60th anniversary)
I was sitting in the cratch writing up the ships log when Daffy Duck appeared
The Tardebigge flight raises the canal over 250ft - this is the view part way up looking back over Worcestershire. You never really aprreciate the number of locks you are going up as you never see more than 5/6 at any one time.
