Day 10 – Sunday 15 July 2007 Tardebigge to Offerton (just passed Tibberton) 12 miles and 43 locks
I set the alarm fairly early to get off in front of the masses, but the locks were very quiet at this end, as most of the hireboats were at base. The rain woke me several times over night, as we were half under a tree, which made it sound much worse. I cancelled the alarm, but was up soon after it was suppose to go off. I decided there was no point being up, and getting behind a boat. Doing Tardebigge following a boat is bad enough, but in the rain it is painful. We left at 8:30am, and after doing the first couple of locks on my own, my sister Julie, came out to help. A couple of locks later Dad finally joined us, complaining about the early start. Apart from the rain we had a really good run down the locks. A few boats came up, but we didn't see any boats going our way until several locks below the main flight. Breakfast was had on the move. We did the main 29 locks (the first one was done yesterday – remember), in 2hours 15mins. Just before midday, we stopped to fill with water at Stoke Works, and an hour later we left again (after lunch, or brunch in Julie's case). At Hanbury Wharf we had a look at the Droitwich canal. There are three very nice looking locks there, just waiting to be used. I noticed that there are side pounds on them since they are so deep – are these the only narrow locks with such? We stopped for diesel at Dunhampstead, filling the tank, and a 5 gallon container we placed in the tank near Shardlow. The bloke running it said that the Severn was closed again, even though the BW woman in the second to last Astwood lock said it was open – though she did say they don't tell her anything as she is in a different region. We stopped at Tibberton Bridge, but the TV signal was unwatchable, and Dad could not get the satellite to work because of the trees, so decided to move the boat again. I told him there was no more places to stop, but he moved anyway. We ended up on a short pound between the second and third lock on the Offerton flight. -- Michael Askin http://shoestring_DOT_zapto_DOT_org/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/canals-list/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/canals-list/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
