Staffs & Worcester Canal, River Severn and Droitwich Barge Canal 19 Locks
The day started bright and sunny at 6.45am. James is that little bit older now, so there are no demands to “put the bed in the shower”. There is still a lot of wiggling & jiggling, however. After a yummy breakfast of “cracky eggs” we set off at 8.30. A steady,pleasant cruise down to Kidderminster, where we made another pit stop at Sainsbury’s and Marcus made another dive into the engine to fix the hot water. A pain in the backside to keep doing it, but the steaming hot shower at the end of the day is soooooo worth him getting greasy; well that’s what I think, anyway.
A leisurely lunch, followed by getting underway again by 2.00. and a pleasant cruise down to Stourport locks and passage onto the River Severn, except that all the lights are showing a Red warning: Do Not Proceed!! The river was high and fast- flowing, but not a raging torrent, by any means. I called the lock keeper at Lincomb Lock and asked him if we were ok to come though; he was just letting 2 narrowboats up- river, so he told us to proceed with caution and be aware of fast flowing river. The bottom lock that emptied into the Severn only needed to be emptied of about 4 feet of water, such was the height of the river. We made James stay in the boat; the last thing we needed was the distraction of keeping an eye on him. For the next 10 minutes, Aqua Roma flew down the river. We passed the 2 aforementioned boats and were glad to think that we were not the only ones ignoring Red Warnings- they were coming upstream as well- a far more laborious task!!
We got through the next 2 locks safely- the fastest we have ever moved- and were glad to reach the first lock of the Droitwich. Marcus executed the most perfect manoevre to get us off the river and facing toward the lock- pity James didn’t see it, he may realise that after 2 days winding lock, he does not need to keep telling Marcus what to do!!
2 locks up on the the DB canal and hard to find a mooring spot, as there are tall reeds growing either side of the bank- we made it eventually, by mooring just below lock 3, with our nose nudging the lock moorings and we are taking up the last bollard- simply too tired to get through the next lock and then not knowing what lies ahead, so forgive us any “lock mooring only” purists out there!
Lovely passage under the specially dug tunnel that carries the canal under the main road- amazing what can be done!
