Monday 9th November - Hockley Heath to Kings Norton
We set off from Hockley Heath and cruised gently towards the mooring for Wedges Bakery. Moored for a short time on a very, very muddy towpath and Dave went and bought cake and sandwiches, always delicious!
At the end of the Stratford Canal is the guillotine lock, well decorated with graffiti now, and looking very colourful.
The junction at the end of the Stratford Canal is with the Worcester and Birmingham Canal. Under the bridge the canal goes to Birmingham, but we turn left and head towards Worcester. We moored up for the night just after the turn alongside Kings Norton Park and Playing Fields.
9.75 miles, 1 lift bridge, 4 hrs 24 mins
Tuesday 10th November - Kings Norton to Tardebigge Top Lock
Coming to the end of the tunnel with a clear view of the end of the tunnel. I can’t decide whether there is a kink in the tunnel or not, when we entered we couldn’t see the other end, so was it due to the slight mist in the air or is the end obscured by a slight bend?
Looking back at the portal as we left the tunnel, quite a deceptive view. Taking 23 years to build, the canal took coal and industrial products south and brought grain, farm produce and building materials to Birmingham. The Wast Hill Tunnel is 2492m (1.55 miles) long and took us 20 minutes to complete.
Wednesday 11th November - Tardebigge Top Lock to Stoke Prior Top Lock
Wednesday morning we woke to a lovely day and some very welcome help from Tom, a volunteer with Canal and River Trust, who went ahead of us and filled and opened the locks.
Clare and Pete from nbBilly, who are moored in Diglis Basin, also came out to help us down the flight of 30 locks. Dave and I took it in turns to drive the boat, which meant three people were around to get us through the locks as fast as possible. We were delighted to find that we completed the flight in 2 hours 20 minutes, another record for us, many thanks to everyone for their much appreciated help!
2.5 miles, 30 locks, 2 hrs 48 minutes
Thursday 12th November - Stoke Prior Top Lock to Oddingley
We set off from Stoke Prior Top Lock and made our way down to the hire base at the bottom lock, we had to wind our way through the masses of hire boats moored up because of the lockdown and the end of the season. There was plenty of evidence of work being carried out on the boats ready for the start of the new season.
We pulled over opposite the Boat and Railway to top up with water before carrying on to our last mooring of the cruise at Oddingley, where we started with our first mooring almost 5 weeks ago.
We went for a walk up to the church and stopped to take a photo of Ella moored up, there was one other boat ahead of us, but usually this is quite a busy and popular mooring.
6.5 miles, 11 locks, 1 tunnel, 4 hrs 42 mins
Friday 13th November - Oddingley to Diglis Basin
We woke to a beautiful blue sky, stunning sunshine and light winds for our last day of cruising. Toby enjoys the quiet of the towpath, no one to bark at, no swans to warn off, he loves checking out his own private stretch of canal!
As we got to Tibberton we found that the towpath was closed all the way down to the lock besides Sixways Stadium. A team of workers were digging up the towpath ready for tarmac to be put down. I do wonder why, and I suspect it is for cyclists, so they can go even faster!!! I was not impressed!
As we approached the final two locks, Clare (nbBilly) joined us to help us through the locks and then to open the swing bridge into the Basin. This was a real bonus for us as it meant Dave could cruise this stretch for the first time as he usually walks from Sidbury Lock to open the swing bridge! We moored up back on our pontoon and settled the boat in for the next few months until we are off again, hopefully about March/April next year!
Some thoughts -
- a delightful cruise through the changing of the seasons, autumn through to the start of winter
- a new destination and new waterways visited, Market Harborough and the Leicester line
- experiencing the Watford and Foxton Staircase Locks and meeting some super volunteer lock keepers.
- the odd sensation of cruising when virtually no one else is, quite an eerie feeling, but I have to say most enjoyable!
- an out and back cruise rather than a circular, through necessity rather than choice.
Statistics
Miles - 196.25
Locks - 290
Hours - 125.75
Tunnels - 14
Moveable Bridges - 10
Dear Janet and Dave,
ReplyDeleteWhat a delightful account of a trip we have made many times now and a useful way of comparing notes. We have had many similar experiences!
Yes, Wedges Bakery is very good, mostly for cakes. We feel they could do with some more "solid" bread, maybe a bit of sourdough, not just bread good for slicing and toasting. This said, it's much better than many other breads one can buy at the odd supermarket.
We also moor at King's Norton before the tunnel, very nice place. We try to avoid mooring under trees though -- not easy -- as we have had a couple of heavy branches fall on our roof :-) And we start the engine early so that it is up to temperature when we reach Wast Hill Tunnel: It is one of the rare occasions when we can really rev up the engine to decoke it. To make it in 20' you mst have gunned it as much as we do :-)
Then Tardebigge. We're surprised you had volunteers so late in the year, we did them this November 6-7 and there was no one in sight. Oh well... We find the cutting below Deep Lock a bit claustrophobic and no internet with 3) so our favourite way is doing a few locks and mooring in a pound. Going down it's between locks 55-56, wonderful views over the fields botgh ways and bollards to moor on. In any case, 2h20 must be a record, congratulations! You must have had a good crew.
Yes, we love the mooring just below the most beautiful mansion at Oddingsley, such a wonderful place.
And yes again, cruising at this time of year is great. Even without lockdown there are very few boats around and you have the canal practically to yourself. We moored in Birmingham at the beginning of the month opposite Legoland and there was just one more boat besides us!
Finally, a quick thought on "there and back" cruising. We find that the canal looks different when cruising one way and then the other. We did that this year again, Droitwich, Fazeley, Coventry, Rugby and back the same way and dometimes we had difficulty recognising places we had gone past just a few weeks before! Out and back does wonders for consolidating memories! :-)
Best greetings from Brussels, same as you we mothballed Galene for the winter, who knows when we can be back, so let's just say: see you hopefully in spring! We are very happy to have met you.
Have a great winter,
Dimitrios & carine
It was a real pleasure following your splendid isolation cruise. It is a pity that we have to wait so many months for the next cruise.Thank you very much and stay stong and healthy. Peter and Gundel
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