A lovely (wet) day

Thursday July 10th; Droitwich Spa Marina to Tardebigge flight

After the best night’s sleep we’ve had since lockdown we were up soon after 7.  I had miscalculated our milk requirements so I drove down to Waitrose and did some extra shopping too – it was easy to spend enough to get a free paper!  By the time I had stashed everything away to quarantine itself in the back of a cupboard, or wiped stuff down if it was to be used in the next couple of days, we still managed to leave just after 9.  It was grey but not raining, and the wind was just gentle enough not to hinder us getting out of our berth.  We plan to be coming back here – we don’t want Dave to have to use public transport to fetch the car if we can avoid it.

Back in a week or two

It’s 9 months since we were last cruising, and I felt clumsy and fumble-fingered as I cast off.  The locks up to Hanbury junction were very heavy, and though I forgot the prop which holds one of the gates open, the technique returned at once and we fell into our work-sharing routine as though there had never been a Coronavirus hiatus.  The volunteers at Hanbury aren’t returning till next week.

We were soon at the Astwood flight, where we had a bit of a delay at the second lock – a pair of swans was poking around under the bridge and as they had a small cygnet with them we had to get them away from the lock.  I had to throw daisies into the water to persuade the cob away, then the others followed looking for a free meal. 

We later discovered that these are probably new parents breeding for the first time.  First-timers often have smaller clutches than average and this one had had 3 – and lost two within a few days.  I hope they will be able to rear the survivor successfully.  The garden at the lock cottage is full of flowers.

It's a good year for roses

On we went, with the drizzle coming and going as the morning wore on.  At Stoke Prior the house building opposite the industrial units has continued; they are advertised as ‘canalside properties’ in spite of the not-so-lovely view of the industrial units.  On the chain link fence is a series of silver-coloured designs, made using the folded foil cases from cup cakes and bakewell tarts (which are not the same as the real thing, I know that)

Mr Kipling makes exceedingly good designs

We decided we could make at to the Queen’s Head moorings by lunchtime, so carried on through the thick drizzle.  On the empty moorings we could bag pole position for starting the flight in the morning, and were surprised to see the hire boat which had been behind us in the Stoke locks carry on in the rain and start up the bottom lock.  We thought later they might have been boat movers, as there were only two of them and they had been catching us up all morning. 

We had a relaxed lunch, then in a dry spell Dave walked Meg up the first few locks to scope out the stretch of Armco above lock 33.  It was empty, and as it had been so quiet boat-wise we took the chance and moved on up.  A tent had been pitched on the bottom lock landing – I hope the resident isn’t hoping to stay there all summer, he might find it gets rather crowded.

Of course the rain started again, though not heavy enough to need waterproof trousers.  Once we had closed up the back though, there was a heavy shower, so we made it just in time.  We were right away from the pub too (no chance of us going in there this trip) and we felt we had made a good move for a more relaxed start in the morning.  Just one boat came past, at 7 o’clock – with a very wet hire-boat crew.

4 miles, 19 locks, and wet, but we didn’t mind.