Stourport to Stourport

via Droitwich, Beverley and Bridgenorth

Normally when we hire a car we quite often end up with a van, sometimes we hire a van and end up with a car, but on Friday Mick returned with a car which was the actual plan. Only this car brought out his more feminine side. Okay so it was blue, but a Renault Twingo in powder blue is not at all masculine and with all the white trimmed interior! We have spent the weekend hoping that nobody we knew saw us.

Friday evening we headed to Droitwich (by Twingo), which should have been our destination (by boat) a week ago. We were wanting to remind ourselves about the length of stay on the moorings in town, how cat friendly they might be and have a check out of the restaurants. Mick has a significant birthday on it’s way so we want to find a suitable place for a family get together next month.

The canal enters Droitwich from the River Severn then a lock takes you onto a stretch of the River Salwarp, it was in the amber when we were there. The level here is important as there is a tunnel under the M5 which is quite tight height wise on the best of days! Our route may not necessitate limboing under the M5 in May, but you never know.

Fish and chips seems to be very popular around the town on a Friday evening, every shop having a queue, not quite the right thing for a family gathering though. A walk around town to look for suitable restaurants gave us a short list. We decided to try one out that we felt was the top choice, but by the time we left after some very nice food, we had decided to discount it. So it looks like we’ll have to return to check out the next one on the list.

Saturday morning came along with a lot of activity around the basin. Narrowboats were coming down the lock to fill with water and then return, a cruiser appeared reversing with two chaps wearing hard hats. We then noticed that there was a crane returning lots of cruisers to the water after wintering on hard standing. After breakfast it was our turn to move, not far, just over onto the proper moorings where we could plug in and leave Oleanna for a night behind a locked gate.

Once we’d moved, avoiding cruisers we packed our bags for a night away. Just as we were ready we could see that the biggest of the cruisers was descending the top broad lock, so we decided to check on the river and see what was happening before we left. The bottom broad lock onto the river had it’s top gates open and the bottom paddles raised, they were having to lower the pound between locks to get this monster of a boat out of the lock and under the bridge. It looked like there was only a couple of inches to spare width and height wise, good job they had plenty of people around to help.

The level board showed that the river had dropped around 16inches from it’s highest. So we left Stourport with hope that we might be able to move on after the weekend.

The roads round here along with not the best suspension on the Twingo made for a bumpy ride across the country. When we reached the Howden turn off on the M62 it was a very strange feeling to be carrying straight on and not turning to cross over the Wolds to Scarborough. We were on our way to Beverley. Our B&B at The Windmill Inn seemed to have it’s water supplied from the water point at Hillmorton, rinsing shampoo out of ones hair took rather a long time!

A bus ride out of town to an East Riding village with one of the best and biggest ponds in the area. Storm (NB Blackbird) was celebrating his birthday, the village hall was already filling up with a queue of people wanting to pass on their birthday greetings.

It was lovely to see them again and get to meet their family and friends whom we’ve heard so much about. Much of the time we didn’t need introducing as we were recognised from photos from Bridgets blog. We have even been offered use of an address should we need one in the next couple of months whilst we’re around the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal. Plenty of food, booze and conversation until the band struck up, then there was plenty of dancing going on.

The sound of the kitchen extractors just before 8am made sure we knew that breakfast would soon be served downstairs. This did mean that we were fed, watered, checked out and stood waiting for Boyes to open it’s doors at 10am. I wanted to get some curtain lining (I have no idea how the holes happened, one minute I was stood there the next I was facing the other way round and there were these big holes) to do a repair and have some spare should the need arise again!

The bells at the Minster were doing their Sunday morning warm up as we walked back towards the car through the pretty streets. It was a shame we couldn’t stay longer but we had other things we wanted to do whilst we had a car Twingo.

Back across the country to have another recky for Mick’s birthday weekend. This time to Bridgnorth, another pretty town along the River Severn. Bridgnorth sits high on a hill in between the river and the Severn Valley Railway (which will bring us here next month).

A good Sunday lunch was what we were looking for and ease of access from the Station. Peering through pub windows gave us two options for food and both could cater for a group. So we just need to check through their menus and make the decision. With that sorted some chilled medication was in order, I have a painful back at the moment and I needed some medication to help with the final leg in the car, honest!

Back at Oleanna all was well, Tilly had only managed to remove the cover from the overflow on the bathroom sink which was easily mended. Once we’d off loaded the car Twingo it was a walk down to check on the river levels. A little bit disappointing, the flow was a lot less fierce but the level in two days had only dropped by about 5 inches and seemed to be levelling out again. We need it to drop by another meter before we’ll be able to see green on the boards again.

0 locks, 250ft, 1 girlie car, 1 restaurant a bit too much, 1 board in the amber, 48hr moorings, 1 yoghurt pot, 1 board still in the red, 1 humungous boat, 1 very big shoe horn needed, 1 twisted back due to cat litter! 1 dribble of a shower, 1 bus, 1 jolly birthday celebration, 1 very good band, 1 taxi to Old Waste, 7.56am kitchen turned on, 2 cooked breakfasts, 12 bells, 1.5 lining, 1 dead phone, 1 high up town, 2 steaming engines, 2 pubs, 2 chilled medications, £10 meal deal from M&S, 1 fishing heron, 1 transfixed cat, 1 river still very much RED!

Stourport

A year ago today we handed over the last payment for NB Oleanna and in return we were handed her keys.

Originally our plan was to cruise for a full year once we had our new boat, built to our spec. This took us almost five years for our dream to come true, three of those living on NB Lillyanne (Lillian) our lovely yellow boat.

In the last year Oleanna and her crew have:

Cruised from Sheffield to Crick, Sheffield and Tinsley, Stainforth and Keadby, River Trent, River Soar and the Grand Union Leicester Section, where we moved on board fully from Lillian;

Down the Grand Union to London, along the Paddington Arm into Paddington, The Regents Canal, followed by the Hertford Union and the River Lee Navigation;

We retraced our steps back to the Grand Union and cruised her down the Hanwell flight, stopping short of reaching Brentford;

Back up to Crick to hand over the keys of Lillian to her new owners in July;

Then up onto the Oxford Canal, through Rugby and onto the Coventry Canal to Fradley where we joined the Trent and Mersey heading northwards;

At Great Haywood we turned left onto the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal turning right onto the Shropshire Union at Autherely Junction;

At Barbridge we turned onto the Middlewich Branch of the Shropshire Union and then headed northwards on the Trent and Mersey to the Bridgewater Canal and then the Leeds Liverpool Canal;

Oleanna spent a full week in Salthouse Dock in Liverpool before we headed for the Rufford Branch meeting up with Bridget and Storm on NB Blackbird;

From here both boats crossed the Ribble link and spent most of August and a bit more of September than planned on the Lancaster Canal before we returned to the ‘Main Land’;

Back down the Bridgewater and Trent and Mersey until our plans changed, so we turned round and headed back northwards turning onto the Caldon Canal going to both Leek and as near to Froghall as we could;

Back over the Middlewich Branch stopping off to watch the fireworks on Bonfire night;

Up onto the Llangollen Canal where we spent Christmas and New Year;

A brief trip onto the Montgomery Canal;

Then back onto the Shropshire Union and to Chester and Ellesmere Port before turning round and working our way back to Autherely Junction where we turned onto the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal;

We have almost reached the end of the Staff and Worcester, just two staircases of two to go onto the River Severn.

Oleanna has ticked off two of the Seven Wonders of the Waterways, The Barton Swing Aqueduct and the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. She’s been to the most northerly and westerly parts of the canal network.

We’ve welcomed family, friends, old and new on board. Seen sunsets, sunrises and numerous Kingfishers. Been up early to avoid the heat, been snowed on and iced in.

It has been a great year.

Now what?

Well ….  now you see, Oleanna still isn’t quite finished. She may have travelled a lot lot further than most boats in her first year, but she is still waiting to have her proper batteries installed. So have we had that year of cruising yet or not? We don’t think so. In fact the clock counting down that year hasn’t even started to tick yet!

Since 7th April 2017

Total distance is 1313 miles, 3 3/4 furlongs and 795 locks. There are at least 115 moveable bridges of which 12 are usually left open; 327 small aqueducts or underbridges; 41 tunnels and 3 major aqueducts.

This is made up of 524 miles, ¾ furlong of narrow canals; 645 miles, 6¼ furlongs of broad canals; 22 miles, 4 ¾ furlongs of commercial waterways; 32 miles, 4¾ furlongs of small rivers; 28 miles, 7½ furlongs of large rivers; 59 miles, 4 furlongs of tidal rivers; 375 narrow locks; 403 broad locks; 16 large locks.

Engine hours 1294.3

PS The River Severn peaked at 12.45am yesterday at 3.25m and is now on it’s way down. Hopefully we’ll be on our way again soon.

Although it is raining this morning!

Still Stourport

We woke to a bright blue sky shortly followed by being pounced on by Tilly. After a solid nights sleep on the sofa she was just about back to her normal self. We vaguely remember her annual injection knocking her sideways for a day last year too, but all was back to normal today.

After breakfast we made our now normal saunter down to look at the levels on the river and watch it zoom past. Yesterday the level had read just below the 11ft mark, but this morning it was 11ft 6. Hopefully a day of sunshine would help.

We needed a few things from town along with Tilly’s flea spot-ons that the vet had ordered in for her, so Mick headed off into town whilst I got the buckets out. The well deck and stern still needed a good wash. Today would also be a good day to get a coat of Woodskin on the wood above the morse control and on the stern locker lids.

So before I started to wash anything down I gave the wood a sand down. For sometime there have been a couple of patches where the finish had worn down to the wood. Once sanded and washed down I removed the locker lids, gave them a wash, cleaned out the gutters around the openings and washed the semitrad stern. When we first got Oleanna the locker lids were a touch too big and a lot of bumps and scrapes happened when ever we wanted anything from the lockers. This has now been remedied. So there is little point in polishing the paint work back here as when the weather is settled and we’re not chomping at the bit to be moving I will be repainting most of it.

The front bulk head had a thorough wash along with the starboard side well deck locker. There was too much stuff to move including the anchor to get the rest of it squeaky clean, so that will have to wait.

With a coat of Woodskin applied we were free for the remainder of the day to go for a walk.

Heading down stream along the river bank we were glad the level wasn’t an inch or so higher as this would have necessitated us wearing wellies. Houses along the path had the front gates blocked with flood barriers but as yet hadn’t brought out the ones to cover their front doors. The river zoomed past us carrying quite a bit of drift wood.

Some moorings came into view, with an assortment of boats. From narrowboats, to cruisers, to steel shells of old work boats (similar to a Leeds Liverpool Short boat, just bigger), to vessels even bigger.

By the wharf there were a couple of what we first assumed were Yellow Wagtails, their body movement and colouring giving us that idea. But checking later on they were actually Grey Wagtails, with a UK conservation status of red. We’ve had morning visits by the boat of Pied Wagtails that have kept Tilly amused in the window, but they seem to be two a penny compared to the grey ones.

The river glistened as it zoomed past, red sandstone cliffs grew on the far bank. The orange buoys of the weir came into view, not much of a height difference today and hardly any noise. Here Lincomb Lock cut takes the navigation to the side. All the lights were red, hardly surprising! On the top side there is no pontoon, just ladders up the wall should you need to stop. These locks can only be operated by C&RT staff and have opening hours. You call or radio ahead so that they can set the lock for you to save having to moor up.

Despite the river being closed the lock is still manned. Today the Lock Keeper was sat in the sun chatting away to a chap from the Environment Agency. We had a good chat with them both. She was not looking forward to getting to Holt Lock tomorrow as the road is cut off by flood water at the moment, so she would have to wade there. The Environment Agency chap had been along the Severn and Avon today, at Tewksbury (I do like a good Tewksbury!*) the world seems to be under water. He and the other Environment Agency staff are trying to work out how to remove a lot of the debris that is being washed down stream and getting caught on bridges and weirs. The good news was that the river had peaked in Shrewsbury and they were expecting it to peak in Stourport later in the day, with the river reopening, they hope, on Sunday or Monday if there’s no more rain.

We’d decided on a different route back away from the river. Across a bridge giving us a great view down the river and then the path hugged the red sandstone cliff into a static caravan park. Mick had the local O/S map up on his phone which showed a footpath leading out from the park, but large hedges and caravans stood in our way no matter where we looked. This had happened the other day too, north of Stourport where an estate had been built with no gaps for the footpath still to exist. So we had no choice but to carry on through the park where we tried to find the path again, still no luck.

So a stretch of main road before we found a path again. This however was not the nicest of paths. The locals it seems have gardening/tree clearing businesses and feel that it is okay to dump any waste on this waste ground, aptly named! At least branches and twigs are natural things to dump, but there were plenty of washing machines and general rubbish as well. Not the most romantic of walks back to the boat.

0 locks, 0 miles, 3.235m at 7pm, 1 hire boat, 1st coat Woodskin, 1 very creaky locker, 1 river walk, 1 Lockie, 1 Environment Agency, 3 to 4 days wait, 0 footpath, 1 filthy footpath, 17 broken bottles, 5738 ring pulls, 3 washing machines, 8m hose, 623 plastic bags, 400m of branches, 1 bright sunny day, 1 bright jolly cat, 4 flee treatments on top of the bathroom cupboard!

* ”I do like a good Tewksbury!” is a line that has stuck in my head from Knights in Plastic Armour written by Rob Shearman that I designed in Scarborough in the late 1990’s, a story centred around a battle re-enactment society. Rob Shearman is known for having written ‘Dalek’ which has the first appearance of the Daleks in the 21st Century revival of Dr Who. I apologise now as when ever Tewksbury is mentioned, I do like a good Tewksbury! I just can’t help myself.

Stourport

How Rude! I’d kept their toes warm in bed (as usual) whilst they sat drinking tea, had a couple of crunches of my morning dingding and just settled down for my morning snooze when along she comes and puts me into my Escape Pod. I don’t normally need encouragement to go in, I really quite like it in there, just so long as the door is left open! This morning the door was zipped closed!!!

I remember this happening several time before and is normally followed by quite a stressful day. Last time I was popped in the front of a large box, next to her and Tom . It rumbled. The outside moved in front of us not to the side as it does on Oleanna and it moved a lot lot quicker! Today there was no big box for us all to sit in, I was just walked past lots of the noisy smelly boxes all moving the outside with us all in it. No matter what I said it just didn’t stop.

Last time when the outside stopped moving I had a new inside, a new boat, worth all the stress, very exciting! This time it didn’t look like that was going to be the case. If it was a new boat then I didn’t want it as it was steamy and full of stinky panting woofers!!! Tom took me back into the outside whilst the woofers disappeared. After a while we came inside again and went through a door. Here my Escape Pod was opened up so that I could meet a man and a lady. They were both quite nice, she cooed and he gave me strokes and a good feel all over. He tapped on the computer, said how good and sharp my teeth were (all the better for murdering with), how shiny my coat was (to catch the sunlight), how much of a skinny minny I am (it’s all that tree climbing I used to do before we came to this Stourport place!). All of this was very good. He then jabbed my neck with something sharp, I started to be concerned.

Tom mentioned about the tear I often have in my eye, the man had a look. He then did that funny thing of rolling my eye ball around and put a big blob of BRIGHT YELLOW stuff in it. I’d liked him before he did that! Then he looked at my bottom a few too many times. Eventually he let me go so I went to see what I could see out of the window away from him. But this was all frosty like our bathroom window and there wasn’t even a chink to breath fresh air through.

They all stood around and chatted, the man had a look up my nose and said something about maybe having had flu when I was little. My teary eye doesn’t bother me, it actually gets me lots of attention when I sit in the window. With a couple of packets of stuff we went back into the other room. Here they stood and chatted again for ages! What could be so important? I just wanted to get back home now.

The outside on the way back was different, the canal, a little less noisy.

Throughout the day I started to feel a little bit ‘off colour’, she said. I agreed, when I looked through just my right eye I was very very yellow! The sofa and my bed beckoned where I stayed for much of the day. This evening it has been really hard to keep all four eyelids open, the inner ones just want to close. Maybe when they open again the world will be less yellow and I’ll have a new boat. Night night.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 vets appointment, 3 stinky woofers, 1 stupid boy! 1 check up, 1 injection, 4 pills, 4 spot ons (to collect tomorrow), 1 yellow eye, 1 passport stamped, 12 more months of shore leave granted, 0 new boat, 1 new mooring needed now.

Stourport

A bit of history whilst the river still rises!

Stourport began to grow around the canal basins at the Severn terminus of the Stafford and Worcester Canal, which was completed in 1768. In the following years and with the connection to the Birmingham Canal, Stourport became the principal distribution centre for goods to and from the West Midlands. The canal terminus was built on meadowland, first called Stourmouth, then Newport, the final name of Stourport was settled on by 1771.

The population of Stourport rose from about 12 in the 1760s to 1300 in 1795. Over twenty years the town grew from one house to several streets and as the trade increased towards the end of the century it is said to have double in size over a two year period.

Many fine Georgian buildings surround the basins, the finest is the Tontine. The Directors of the Staffs and Worcs Canal Company decided to have their headquarters and Commercial Hotel at Stourport, overlooking the River Severn. It opened in 1788 and was the Canal Company at its elegant best. 100 beds and a ballroom, business was conducted here followed by lavish meals containing only the very best meats and wines. However the large dividends that paid for everything came to an end with the coming of the railway in 1862 and by 1880 only a small inn was all that was left, the remainder of the building having been let out as houses.

Today £220,000 will buy you a slice of the Tontine, now a three bedroom house looking out over the basin.

There are five canal basins in Stourport. The two larger basins – the Clock Basin next to the Warehouse with its clock tower; the Upper Basin from where the canal heads towards Kidderminster; the smaller Lichfield Basin surrounded by a modern development with non-accessible moorings; the Lower Basin forms part of the broad beam canal structure enabling the larger and wider trows to gain access to and from the port from the River Severn, and finally the Engine Basin adjacent to the Engine House which once housed a steam pump that was used to pump water into the Basins helping to maintain an adequate water level. In 1781 a second link to the river was built with two pairs of staircase narrow locks. Today the street lights echo the shape of the cranes that once used to surround the basins.

The Warehouse building is the oldest in the Basin, built around 1770 when the canal and basins were being constructed. The clock in the tower is over 200 years old and was funded by 71 subscribers who raised £247: 16s: 0d around £6000 today. The clock was built with one large bell, another two were added to mark the quarter. Luckily for us it currently only chimes the hour, quite quickly, but every hour! The dials are now fiberglass replicas the original cast iron faces have been beavered away for safe keeping.

The hustle and bustle that was once all to do with transhipment of goods has been replaced with a day trippers, Stourport is now a destination for those from the Black Country. Cars speed round and through the town, crossing a road can take some time! Treasure Island, a funfair at the side of the Severn looks to have seen better days and no matter how much it tries to attract your attention with it’s flashing lights and flags we’ve only noticed one pair of legs spinning around at height since we’ve been here. Ice cream, arcades, take aways, music and barbers seem to fill the streets. It’s really Blackpool-on-Severn.

There are several websites with interesting information about Stourport. The most interesting I found to be Unlocking Stourports Past. Here unlisted buildings have been recorded, maps of the town through the ages and tales of the people who lived here. All very interesting. Just click on the door to enter.

0 locks, 0 miles, 2.563 river level and still rising!

Stourport

Last night it rained, this morning it rained, but then stopped. The forecast had been for plenty of rain and we’d imagined ourselves cosy inside Oleanna finding things to keep us occupied all day.

Checking on Gauge maps we already knew we’d not be in with any chance of heading out onto the river today. The rain that fell on the Welsh hills a couple of days ago had just started to reach us, this will be followed with what has fallen today, which will be more than we had here!

For something to do we wandered down to the river for a look. Sure enough the river was flowing faster and the level board by the broad lock was having it’s numbers covered. When we first arrived the level was below 8, this morning 10 was visible and by the afternoon that had been submerged too.

The bottom narrow lock is almost redundant, the river now almost level with the chamber above.

It looks like we’re going to be here for a while, unless we give up and go the long way round.

With nothing better to do we decided to start on a box set. Earlier in the year Bridget and Storm leant us Breaking Bad, which we’ve never seen. We’d been told to stick with it and then we’d be hooked running out of battery power wanting to watch the next episode. After two episodes it is amusing and we’ll certainly keep watching. If it does start to grip us we may have to go hunting for a new electric card as we only have a couple of units left!

0 locks, 0 miles, 12 to 14” up on yesterday, 2 red lights, 1 person on the soggy rides, 1 sock sorted, 2 episodes, 1 fire left to go out.

Stourport

After our cuppa in bed and catching up on social media April Fools ( Jamie’s 1 ingredient cookery book and Heinz chocolate mayonnaise my favourites) we put our shoes on and headed down to check the levels on the river. We’d hoped that after a day of no rain we might just get a window of opportunity to head downstream.

No need to walk right to the board of lights we could see from a distance that there was still a red light and an amber, level falling. We’d not be heading off this morning! The red board by the broad lock suggested that the level was the same as yesterday. Sadly this didn’t make the second decision of the day easy. Cooked breakfast or not? It was a gorgeous morning, just the right sort of day for a cruise. We’d not be heading out onto the river but maybe we should start to make our way the long way round. Long debates about what we should do ensued. Mick really wasn’t keen on doing the 90 locks instead of 14, long days especially in the rain. But if we were to do it then we should make the most of the good weather today and be on our way. Backwards and forwards we went getting hungrier all the time!

We have reasons for wanting to be in Droitwich, but none of them too time sensitive and we can always venture there by bus instead should the river not play ball. Finally we made our minds up, Mick got the sausages and black pudding out, we were staying put.

Now that the winter visitor mooring 14 days rule had finished we wanted to check where would be okay for us to wait for the river to go down. So we headed to the small office by the top of the broad locks. Here a C&RT chap chatted away with us and he was fine for us to stay put where we are, after all there’d be no through traffic. It’s just a shame that he didn’t understand the difference with the Winter Moorings having ended on the 16th March and the Winter Visitor Moorings reverting to 14 days ending yesterday. But this didn’t matter now, he said we’d get no hassle from him to move on anyway.

As we were out and about we decided to have a look around Treasure Island. If we were back at home we’d have ‘Gone to the Seaside’, even though we already lived there. There were plenty of people enjoying or pretending to enjoy themselves. Not many were on the rides and some of those that were looked a touch green! Not our idea of fun.

Damp torn astro turf covered the floor held down by numerous figures, apes, pirates, dinosaurs. It’s a similar size to the fun fair in Scarborough but it also has arcades. I haven’t played ‘shove tuppenny’ for a long time and was surprised to see so many machines there were. What will happen when the 2p is taken out of circulation? Will these games still work with 2p’s which you get in bulk at the machines, or will they all become ‘shove tenpenny’? Glad to see the plastic prizes haven’t improved, but here if you got a black token you could win a goldfish! However they were limited to two per family!!

Once we’d had enough of being bombarded with all the lights, colours and noise we walked along the river, pleased that we’d escaped without spending any money what-so-ever.

The river was flowing fast. Rowers had been out earlier and the one narrowboat that had been moored on the pontoon had disappeared, we hope up the locks to the safety of the canal.

High on the hills above the opposite bank we could see lots of 4 x 4s. There seemed to be tracks through the woods for them to conquer, although one of the vehicles just couldn’t make it up what looked like a very very steep track no matter how hard they tried.

Bungalows and caravan sites surround the grand Lickhill Manor built in the 17th C. During WW2 the house was taken over for expectant mothers from Birmingham to have their babies in safety. In more recent years it has been a nursing home, although bad reports meant that it closed down in 2012. Hopefully it still has a use as it would be such a shame for a beautiful commanding building to fall into disrepair.

0 locks, 0 miles, 9 visible, 2 Easter eggs, 1 bunny, 1 cooked breakfast, 2 many decisions, 0 spent, 2ps, 2 goldfish per family, 4 x 4 because they can or can’t, 1 large roast chicken, 2 boaters who prefer Excel to Taybright, 1 cat who is so so so SO BORED!!!!!

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.

Stourport

Last night we realised that we still had quite a few things to do before heading off downstream on the River Severn. So we decided that we’d get them done this morning and then see what the weather was like before setting off. To make it to the Droitwich Barge Canal we wanted to be on our way by 2pm as there are locks on the river which are manned by Lock Keepers.

The anchor needed to be attached at the bow and set out for easy deployment should it be needed. It also needs to not be in the way of getting on and off at the bow.

Whilst Mick was sorting this I took the opportunity to take down the Saloon curtains. Being hooked up still meant the washing machine could be used. Our dark blue curtains have been up a year now and were in desperate need of a wash.

Because they are on poles at the top and bottom the brackets needed to be removed at either end. Tilly spends quite a bit of time using the curtains as a hammock, so that she can sit and be admired on the towpath side. She either backs into the corner or goes in head first and then does a pawstand to turn round.

Needless to say the curtains, despite having been defurred only a short while ago, were covered in her fur again, there is also one tear (TILLY!!!). So out came the lint roller and a present we were sent by Joa (Tilly’s number one fan), an AmazeBrush. Using both of them I managed to remove a whole cat’s worth of fur before they went into the washing machine for a gentle 30C wash.

I tried to make her leave me just one curtain!

With the windows now easily accessible I decided to give the frames a good clean. The channels get gunked up somewhat, so a chance to clean them out and make sure the drainage holes were clear couldn’t be missed.

When they were finished in the machine the curtains were hung back up to dry on their poles. They all came up very well. Just a shame we’d put all the brackets into a mug along with the screws for safe keeping. Not all the brackets are the same, only a subtle difference in the diameter or depth of the hole that the pole sits in. So it was hard to get all the holes in the oak window trim to match up with the brackets. We managed to get it so that only one new set of holes needed to be made.

Plenty of boats were moving around the basin today, the start to peoples summer cruises going on. There were also plenty of people who stopped for a chat. By lunchtime we still had shopping to do, diesel and coal to get, so we wouldn’t make our 2pm deadline.

The bedroom curtains came down to be washed and I set off to the shops. Lidl is a short walk up the towpath and provided me with just about everything for a Sunday roast. I should have walked there via the shopping street as when I returned with my full bags I passed two butchers still with good looking joints on show in the late afternoon. A large Co-op has plenty to choose from including a deli counter, oh well our Sunday dinner will still be tasty.

0 locks, 0 miles, 11 curtains washed, 1 anchor attached and positioned, 1 so so bored cat, 0 sausage rolls left, 3 window frames spotless, 2 butchers, 1 greengrocers bypassed, 1 soggy wet afternoon.

Stourport

With more washing on the cards and an engine service imminent we got on with more chores today.

Mick got on with changing the oil and tightening the stern gland. Not sure if it was just a ‘boy look’ but Mick couldn’t find his oil funnel in the stern lockers, so he made a request to use the one we’d bought for topping up the water tank when the canal was frozen. This had been marked and stored away in the galley for safe keeping (I knew where my funnel was!). As we’re not likely to need it until next winter I let him use it.

There is just no point in even thinking about spending much time outside today. Anyway Tom still doesn’t want me to help him in the box at the back, so the doors stayed shut. So I just had to keep an eye on the wagtails from inside instead and help with the washing.

I got on with  a bit of research regarding paints. The other day Mick found a section of grab rail where the paint is starting to lift, I also came across a small bubble under one of the cleats on the grab rail. Even though I touched up the paint on Lillian a few times I wanted to double check on the right things to use for Oleanna. Being almost next door to Limekiln Chandlers it would be silly not to pick up anything that I needed. After reading and watching a couple of youtube videos it looks like I wasn’t just getting away with it, I just needed some more primer and some suitable undercoat. A quick dash through the rain and we were stocked up.

Oleanna had a sweep through and more loads of washing went through the machine.

About a month ago I was reprimanded by my friend Frank for the lack of sausage rolls being made onboard of late, apparently Steve has been missing the photos of them!

I’ve not been making them as often as I used to, mostly due to me trying to avoid normal pasty. But in Sainsburys the other day they had gluten free puff pastry, so we bought everything needed. Because Josh, my nephew won’t be eating them it meant that we could get pork and apple sausages and add red onion, instead of just using caramelised red onion sausages. Josh doesn’t like the strings of onion, he pulls them out! So for lunch I made a batch even though we weren’t planning on cruising anywhere.

Just for Steve I’ve included extra photos here of them being made. They smelt so good. Mick had just finished changing out of his oily clothes by the time they had cooled off enough to eat.

Verdict on the pastry. It was okay, nowhere near as puffy and flaky as normal pastry. I’ll do them again for us, but if we have visitors I’ll use normal and put up with the side effects myself as I wouldn’t be able to resist them.

0 locks, 0 miles, 3 more loads washing, 1 litre primer, 1 litre undercoat, 9 litres of oil, 1 funnel, 2 ramp visits, 16 sausage rolls, 2 days worth, 1 very soggy day, 1 year almost since Steve visited!