Tuesday 8th February - Diglis to Perdiswell
A beautiful sunny morning and what better than a short cruise out on our boat? We have spent a few days getting the boat ready, cleaning the inside, filling the water tank, replacing the gas cylinder, putting on appropriate clothing for a mid winter cruise and sorting out wood and kindling for the wood burner, I’m sure we will be lighting it this time! Mike, who looks after the Marina, kindly opened the moveable bridge for us and we began our journey.
Three sets of 2 locks later and we arrived at Perdiswell Leisure Park. This is the first time we have ever stopped here, we normally carry on to Oddingley, but this time we decided to stop. There is another boat moored, always a good sign, and we pulled in ahead of the boat. Whilst I walked Toby and Dave put the hood up, the occupant of the boat came for a chat, he was leaving his boat and returning to Torquay for 10 days! Must be a very safe place to leave your boat unattended for that amount of time!
We often drive to Perdiswell and walk Toby around the park, he loves the open ground and when it is warmer he is allowed to swim in the canal. The leisure centre has a lovely swimming pool which we have used occasionally. 2.5 miles, 1 moveable bridge, 6 locks, 2 hrs 4 mins cruising.
Wednesday 9th February - Perdiswell to Tibberton
Today we woke to a grey morning with light drizzle in the air. We waited until it had dried up before beginning our trip for the day. We soon passed some people working on improving the towpath, it meant that the towpath was closed for a short stretch, good job I didn’t try to walk Toby!
As we left Tolladine Lock Dave noticed that the pound of water was very low and at times he was scraping along the bottom of the canal. As he very slowly approached Offerton Bottom Lock we saw a Canal and River Trust employee running water through the lock to fill the pound. Dave had to wait below the lock until the levels were good again and then we could ascend the lock.
There are six locks in the Offerton flight and each of the pounds needed to be filled as we worked our way up the flight. We asked if they knew why it was a problem but there didn’t seem to be an answer! Could be a bit of a problem when the new season starts! This is Graham with his beautiful Saluki called Cruz, he was filling the pounds as we worked our way up the flight of locks. We continued on our way and decided to stop at Tibberton, again we have never stopped here before, but the Wifi signal looked extremely strong so we thought we would give it a go!
3.25 miles, 8 locks, 2 hrs 42 mins cruising.
Thursday 10th February - Tibberton to Hanbury Wharf
A lazy start this morning, it was quite cold but the sun was shining, so we prepared the boat and set off for Hanbury. On the roof of the boat Dave has put the Six Nations bunting, it is merrily blowing in the breeze as we pootle gently along.
This is Oddingley, where we always moor overnight. It is well known for a rather gruesome set of murders. At around five o' clock in the afternoon on the long summer's day that marked the feast of St John the Baptist - Midsummer's Day - in the year 1806, reverend George Parker of Oddingley parish was heading across a field to fetch his herd of cattle when he was suddenly met by an unexpected figure, clothed in a thick leather coat despite the heat of the day. Without warning, the stranger drew a shotgun from the coat and shot the parson, who let out a yell of pain and panic, falling to the ground. But the assailant, not willing to risk his survival, picked up a large stick from the ground and began to bludgeon the dying priest upon the head.Two butchers by the names of Giles and Lynch, though, who had been walking along the lane beside the field on their way from Worcester to Droitwich, had heard Parker's cry, and were now approaching the scene. The murderer dropped the stick and fled across the fields. Giles leapt after him in pursuit, whilst Lynch returned to Oddingley to seek help, leaving the parson alone in the field as his life ebbed away. Giles was forced to give up the chase when the murderer turned the barrel of the gun towards his pursuer and threatened him. So it was that Parker died, and the culprit vanished into the countryside, seemingly heading towards Worcester. The story goes on but no one was ever brought to justice, today you can follow a walk known as the Oddingley Murders Walk! https://www.oddingleychurch.org/history/murders/
We pulled in at Hanbury Wharf and topped up with diesel, filled up water bottles and Jackie kindly gave Dave a couple of tablespoons of peanut butter for our recipe, Veggie Satay Noodles, for dinner tonight!
After some lunch we went for a walk along the canal to Lock 19 which is closed due to the replacement of the lock gates. Below Lock 18 is a working boat which has the old gates and lock beams in, ready to be removed from the site.
The canal below the lock has been drained, and you can see that the canal really isn’t that deep at all. There was a selection of glass bottles and some huge stone slabs strewn along the bed of the canal. The new gates are already in place and new edging slabs have been put in along the edge of the lock. The canal is closed until 18th March and this work should make using this lock so much easier! This is the view through the bridge of Hanbury Wharf and we are the second boat moored on the left of the photo. Tomorrow we shall turn left at the junction and head towards Droitwich Spa and spend the weekend there.3.5 miles, 0 locks, 2 hrs 6 mins cruising.
Friday 11th February - Hanbury Wharf to Vines Park, Droitwich Spa
Another sparkling sunny day and we left our mooring and turned a sharp left turn on to the Droitwich Canal. We were almost immediately into the first of our 8 locks, all of which are very deep locks.The top 3 locks make use of side pounds for emptying and filling the lock. This means that about half a lock of water is saved into the side pound and reused for the next boat. In this photo the water is being emptied from the lock into the pound and once the water is level, the paddles are dropped and the rest of the water is emptied into the canal as normal.All of the locks have boxes planted up with spring bulbs, they will look beautiful in a few weeks time! It is good to see that they are being looked after well. At the bottom of the first 3 locks there is Droitwich Marina. We have friends who moor their boats here, and when we were thinking about moving to Worcester, this Marina was on our short list. After the Marina there is a staircase lock and I found this little copse with numerous bird feeders hanging from the branches. A polite notice asks that refills are always welcome, it was certainly very busy with many different varieties of little birds popping in for some food, none of which seemed bothered by myself and Toby watching them.
This is Ella in the second lock of the staircase, this allows for a drop of 5.1m in a short amount of space.The canal then goes under the M5 through a pre-existing culvert which is extremely low. The front of the boat only just misses the roof of the tunnel and we have to remove everything else from the centre of the roof. There only has to be a very slight change in the level of the water and we wouldn’t be able to use this tunnel (if you can call it a tunnel).
Our final approach to Droitwich uses a short stretch of The River Salwarpe, and the board shows that the river levels are indeed nice and low, so we can proceed safely. We needed to stop after this lock as the propeller had become jammed with twigs and Dave had to go down the weed hatch to clear the propeller.
We continued through Droitwich through three moveable bridges and finally arrived at Vines Park where there is safe and secure mooring on pontoons.1.75 miles, 8 locks, 3 moveable bridges, 1 tunnel, 2 hrs 54 mins.Saturday 12th February - Droitwich to Hanbury Wharf
This was our mooring overnight, it is gated and you need to use a British Waterways key in order to gain access. All very good, but it is very dark and when you need to take Toby out it is quite difficult to unlock and lock up the padlock! The forecast is for rain over the weekend, so we decided to leave Droitwich and head back through the culvert under the M5 and up to Hanbury.We worked our way through 2 moveable bridges and then a lock with a bridge in the middle, before coming to the very low tunnel under the M5. The water at the moment is very low and once you stray from the middle you quickly get stuck in some very gloopy mud! The River Salwarpe runs alongside and joins the canal a little further up. If there is persistent rainfall, the water level through the culvert is likely to rise, hence making the passage impassable. That is why we have decided to return to Hanbury before the levels rise and make the passage impossible for us.This time Dave sat at the front of the boat taking these photos and we actually had more headroom than we did yesterday, the combined weight of water and Dave brought the front of the boat down by about 2cm. However it doesn’t look like that in this photo but I can assure you we did get through comfortably.The light at the end of the tunnel, we went through very slowly and once out the other end, we managed to get stuck in the gloopy mud! Much reversing and forward movement meant we were able to get back into some deeper water and into the first lock. At the top of the lock we could see another boat coming down the staircase lock, so we waited patiently and watched them negotiate their way down. We arrived back onto the Worcester and Birmingham Canal and moored up outside The Eagle and Sun, where we shall stay for a couple of nights whilst the wet and windy weather passes. 1.75 miles, 8 locks, 3 moveable bridges, 1 tunnel, 2 hrs 48 mins.
Sunday 13th February - Hanbury Wharf
We made the right call, today has been non-stop rain, so we have spent the day on the boat. I spent the morning cleaning whilst Dave got a taxi back to the flat to pick some medication he had run out of. This afternoon we shall watch the rugby on the TV and wait and see what tomorrow brings!
