Saturday 12th April
Bright and fairly early this morning we got ready to leave Droitwich Spa Marina. As we had now to go down the Droitwich Canal we had to negotiate the very low motorway bridge. This necessitated the removal of everything from the roof – 9 bags of coal, tv aerial and pole, parasol stand, satellite dish, spare set of steps, matching luggage, fondue set, cuddly toy!
After filling with water and emptying the loo we had intended to get diesel but the facilitator was busy elsewhere so, not being desperate for diesel, we got away. We have travelled the great distance of 1.5 miles today and are moored in the canal basin in the town centre.
I should point out at this juncture that in that 1.5 miles we had to do 5 locks, 4 of which were narrow locks and included a staircase with terribly stiff paddles, one of which was a wide lock with a swing bridge over it, a further 2 swing bridges, which proved to be very difficult to unlock and of course the dreaded motorway bridge! I did take some photos of us negotiating all of this but unfortunately my memory card seems to have given up the ghost and I have lost the files.
It took quite some time to get to the canal basin and as there were plenty of spaces we decided to stop for the weekend. There are quite a few reasons why this is a good idea – we can make sure the batteries are charging properly before leaving the area, we can go shopping at Morrison’s again, we can watch the football Sat and Sun lunchtimes in the pub and it’s a nice mooring.
After we moored up I had the added treat of having to clean the roof before we put everything back on! We then went off to town for a paper and a few pints of Adnams would you believe, in the Star and Garter, where we also watched a cracking game of football.
This afternoon and evening the remaining decent length mooring spaces filled with hire boats from, Anglo Welsh, Viking Adrift and Black Prince. With the closure of Tardebigge this canal has become very popular! There are a few really short pontoons still empty but it is difficult to moor a full sized narrow boat on them really.
After dinner we had to come to the assistance of another hire boat from Dunhampsted when they became wedged between us and the bank while trying to get on to one of these short pontoons but finding it too hard. There was a space beside us but it was a bit of a job for them to get in to it from where they were. We told them to reverse up and Ken got on the back of our boat and took the front rope off them. I got on our roof, took the rope, walked along the roof to the front with it to guide them in to the space. A rather large group of other hire boaters stood watching thanking God it wasn’t them I expect! After this two more Black Prince arrived, one went on the short pontoons and the other went in a space on the permit holder moorings.
Tomorrow we are staying here and then going off to Stourport on Monday.
