Spiders begone!

Friday 21st September; Stourport outskirts to Hawford Junction

We got up in lovely sunshine but the clouds soon came across and it was chilly as we made our way down to Stourport.  There is a massive construction site near the town installing a new water intake and pumping station and laying a 25km pipeline to Frankley in Birmingham.  It will take water from the Severn and is part of the Birmingham Resilience Project.  Severn Trent Water says this:

‘For over 100 years Birmingham’s water has travelled 72 miles from Wales through the Elan Valley Aqueduct (EVA) and we want to make sure customers continue to enjoy this wonderful water. After decades of use the Aqueduct needs care and maintenance to keep it in service. To carry out repair work, we need to take the Aqueduct out of action for a few weeks each year so our engineers can get inside. During these times a backup supply, sourced from across our region, will be used to keep water flowing for customers.’

So now you know.

There are a couple of interesting things to see on the way into town.  The Railway Basin is a short arm next to the railway bridge, and there is a turning device (I assume) for the horse-drawn boats to pull boats out of the arm and turn them as required.

At Gilgal bridge is an aquatic centre, with what looked like koi carp in the outdoor tanks by the canal.  We like the name.

While we waited for a boat to go down the lock into the basins, I nipped up to the Co-op in the town for some milk and the paper, and Dave checked out the facilities below the lock.  A boat came up, and as Dave brought Chuffed into the lock I got chatting to the crew of the boat waiting below, who warned us about the wind in the basin!  After a hasty rush back to get my waterproofs as it started to rain, we were down and doing our best to get tied up on the fuel wharf.  It took some doing in the strong crosswind.  It took a while to hunt out someone to serve us, by which time the rain was easing off again.  Then the wind changed; instead of blowing us away from the wharf it now pinned us to it.  We managed to get across to the other side to empty a cassette and for Dave to make a quick visit to the chandlery.  Then we were on our way crabbing through the basins, having left a decent interval to make sure the boat in front had cleared the first lock landing.  It had, but it was still a challenge to get Chuffed secured so that I could set the lock.  There is no way Dave would have wanted to float about while he waited!  The four locks down onto the Severn are in the form of two staircases, with a nasty change in direction between the two and no lock landings to speak of, so it’s wise to get the bottom pair ready before the boat leaves the top pair.  The fun fair looked a bit closed up this time of the morning.  The wind felt a bit strong for safe operation of some of those rides.

There were no volunteers around to help with the locks, so I had a lot of walking between the two staircases.  We did meet one earlier who was litter-picking, and he told us that navigation on the river was ok.  The electronic indicator board showed amber with the levels going down (safe to navigate with care), and the reach below Lincomb, the first river lock, was green (normal conditions for navigation).

The green was just a few inches below the water level.  While the lock emptied, we got our lifejackets on, having attached the anchor before we started our descent.  Below the bottom lock there is space to get safely back onto your boat, without using the ladder, and it’s far enough from the river not to be affected by wind or current.

We have never gone upstream from here – you can’t get very far, only about half a mile.

For the first time we saw the wide locks in operation – a smart cruiser was going up onto the basin.

Expecting it to be cold on the river we had full waterproofs on, but the rain stopped and the sun came out.  The river twisted around in and out of the wind, so we alternated between being too hot and then almost too cold.  The two river locks were ready for us; interestingly the electronic indicator board at Lincomb showed the next reach to be in the amber rather than green, and the green had moved further downstream.  The same happened at Holt Fleet – we were clearly moving with the flood water.  We were soon approaching Hawford Junction to join the Droitwich Barge canal.  Just before the junction the river Salwarpe, which joins the canal for a short stretch the other side of Droitwich, meets the Severn.

Salwarpe confluence with the Severn

There is apparently a boatyard up the river, but it’s only accessible for boats up to a length of 30’.  We waited a short while for a boat to come out of the bottom lock at Hawford Junction; we indicated we were turning in to the lock so they went downstream to give us plenty of room.  In the event the strong wind didn’t make it difficult and as we arrived at the lock landing they completed their turn and headed off up-river.  There are no moorings until you are above the second lock, because when the Severn is in flood the bottom pound floods too.

We had made good time on the river, and were tied up by 3 o’clock, so we set to with some cleaning - inside, and the brasses - and touching up the blacking above the rubbing strake on the port side.  The place on the other side of the canal, which we thought was some kind of activity centre, turns out to be an independent day school, King’s Hawford, part of the King’s school in Worcester.  It looks a wonderful place to be educated – I hope they realise how privileged they are to be able to be there.

I have been collecting conkers when I see them, for use as spider deterrents – some in Swindon, and some from a tree between the Hawford locks this afternoon.  I should be able to get loads in Vines Park too.  Usually I just put a few on the shelves in the saloon – the spiders do seem to favour the rest of the boat, so I made a few little bags of some bits of net I had in my workbox at home so I could hang them from the curtain-rails in the rest of the boat, where there are no shelves.

Time will tell if they are effective.

There were a couple of sharp showers this evening, and more rain is forecast for the morning.

9 miles, 7 locks (5 single, including 2 staircases, 2 river locks, 2 doubles)