The Tardebigge flight in two and a half hours?? Actually, no.

Friday 10^th July; Tardebigge flight to Hopwood

What a lovely sight to greet you as you pull back the covers on a sunny morning!

My wet gloves from yesterday had nearly dried overnight.  I had thought it would be safer to use gloves for locking to avoid infection, but gloves don’t stop you touching your face or pushing your lockdown hair out of your eyes, so I don’t think I’ll carry on.  I will be wearing a mask in shops though.

Half an hour later in brilliant sunshine Meg was ready to go.  We set off at 8.30.

Luckily for us, but not so much for water levels, most of the Tardebigge locks empty themselves overnight, so locking ahead was a doddle.  Although the sun was out the breeze was chilly.

One down, 24 to go

With our tried and tested system we made steady progress.  The locks are not too deep, so Dave can easily climb the ladder to deal with the offside gates and paddles, leaving me free to open the next lock.  We were almost at Halfway House bridge when the first volunteer arrived, hurray!  Ed is the perfect volunteer, he asks you what you would like him to do and is extremely cheerful too.  He was with us for the rest of the locks and we fairly sped up.

There are several plum trees along the flight, but nowhere near ripe enough to use.

As we came round the side of the reservoir (levels well down unfortunately) we realised we were getting closer to the first boat coming down, and at lock 51 we could have a bit of a breather - they were in the lock above.

The boat coming down had a wonderful name with the subject conveniently posing in the window..

And then, just as we were filling the last lock before the long top pound, another boat appeared below the bridge.  Perfect!  We said goodbye to Ed and moored up for a coffee – it was only 11 o’clock after all!  Two and a half hours and 25 locks, so not the complete flight, and we did have help …. But it was a surprisingly easy morning all the same.  We had lunch and decided to move on, just as a boat came past – we gave them 15 minutes and there they were, just about to leave the top lock as we approached.  They said they had started from the Queen’s Head at 8 o’clock, so if we’d stayed at the bottom last night they would probably have beaten us to the early start.

When you see this sight, you know the work is nearly done – or has only just started.

We drifted over to the facilities to empty a cassette and dispose of rubbish, then it was into the tunnel.  Tardebigge tunnel south portal is round a bend and if you approach from the facilities side you can’t see past the willow tree.

But no-one was coming and we were soon through, Shortwood tunnel likewise.  Both of them are a bit drippy at one end, but nothing to be bothered about.  Between the two tunnels there is no mooring – the banks are full of vegetation and the towpath very narrow. 

There is a lot of floating vegetation too – Water Plantain and the Yellow Water-Lily, aka Brandy-bottle from the shape of its seed-pods.

Alvechurch hire-base seemed to have almost all its boats in, narrowing the channel with its boats on both sides.  The visitor moorings were pretty busy and we decided to go on to Hopwood.  At the end of the Bittell reservoir moorings there was a pretty Siamese cat flat on its belly and stalking something with immense concentration and speed.  We thought there must be some poor little bird or duckling about to get its chips, but the object of its intentions – a preening duck -was unattainable several feet away in the water. 

Of course, when it realised, the cat immediately pretended it hadn’t been stalking at all, as cats do.  The Hopwood moorings were busy too, but the 48-hour stretch is too near to the noisy road for us.  We moored much closer to the next bridge – a touch too much vegetation, but perfectly acceptable on a sunny dry evening.

Dave washed the starboard side of the boat.  After 9 months inattention, it was covered with grey powder – we assume a mixture of wax, paint and dust?  Anyway, following the wash, and attention with Farecla G3 has made it all shiny again.

25 locks, 8 miles, sunshine.