Stourport

This morning we finished breakfast and topped up the water tank. Tilly’s escape pod came out of storage and was zipped into three dimensions. This comes out when we are going on rivers, just in case. I also wanted her to get used to it again as she is due her annual injections. She moved straight back in and was ready for the Severn. Please make the outside change to a different one!

Before we set off we decided to walk down to the river to look at the level lights. These new boards were installed last year and show you what the levels are like up stream of the locks onto the river and below the next lock. When we arrived we’d had a wonder down and all lights were green, the old fashioned boards in the river were also. This morning however there was one red light and an amber, Falling water levels. We were going nowhere.

Maybe we should have got our act together quicker yesterday, but we didn’t so we shall have to wait.

When we got back to Oleanna we decided to push over to the diesel point to fill the tank and buy some more coal, we were down to our last bag, summer levels! So we took a risk on loosing our mooring, but we needn’t have worried as traffic would only be coming one way and not one boat appeared from the lock. So we pushed off and reversed back into the slot we’d left. Tomorrow the extended winter visitor mooring rules stop and if the river is still in the red we think we should be alright staying put for another day before having to move.

We discussed going the long way round to Droitwich, this would mean back tracking and heading up into Birmingham. But this is a very long way round!

Original route  14 miles, 14 locks, travel time 6 hours 55 minutes

Long Way Round 56 miles, 90 locks, travel time 36 hours 18 minutes

This afternoon the levels have risen more, the Amber light is now indicating Rising water levels. With no rain today and none forecast for tomorrow we have our fingers crossed that the levels will drop and give us a window of opportunity tomorrow afternoon before more rain arrives over night. If not then we’ll be limbering up to go the long way round.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 foot up, 1 cat ready and waiting, 18 inches up, 1 Saturday paper, 1 average pork pie, 45.8 litres diesel, 3 bags of Taybrite (not used that for years), 5 hot paw buns in the making, 14 or 90! 8 fingers crossed, 4 paws crossed.