Saturday 4th July - Diglis Basin to Oddingley
Today we are allowed to stay overnight on our boat for the first time since the lockdown began. So we have decided to begin our first cruise with a gentle cruise up the Worcester and Birmingham canal to Oddingley.
We left our mooring and headed out to fill up with water before setting off. Dave used the new cycle to go ahead to the lock and set it for me so I could go straight in.
A very young foal in a field alongside one of the locks, it was very inquisitive and was keen to come and investigate our antics.
Our mooring at Oddingley, we shared it with three other boats, and through out the day’s cruising we saw 6 boats moving, a mixture of shared boats, owners and hirers. We didn’t need to queue at locks and everyone was friendly and chatty. Generally I think people were pleased to be able to go out and use their boats for cruising.
7 miles, 14 locks, 6 hours cruising.
Sunday 5th July - Oddingley to Stoke Works
Today it was very windy and we were undecided whether to cruise or not. Eventually the wind seemed to calm down a little so we decided to make a move. It seemed that several other boats had the same idea!
There were two boats ahead of us and one coming towards us, the sedge growing along the edge of the canal was making visibility quite difficult as well and made the cruising channel even narrower.
One tunnel today, Dunhampstead Tunnel, a two way working tunnel but fortunately we didn’t meet anything as we went through.
We liked the look of this boat, it belongs to the people who run Hanbury Wharf where we always buy our diesel and marine supplies. It was named after a 1935 film, starring George Formby.
We stopped about a mile from Stoke Wharf as the wind had got up again and we were hungry and tired, so a late start and an early finish today.
5.25 miles, 6 locks, 4 hours 6 minutes cruising.
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