The Early Birds

Thursday 27^th May; Tardebigge

I have got terribly behind with the blog, but ther's a good reason which will become clear over the next few posts.

Well, two weeks ago now the sun woke us at 6, so up we got, had breakfast and were casting off just after 7.  The weather was fabulous, unbroken sunshine and no wind, though it was still a bit nippy at that hour and the dew was heavy.  My windlass was so cold it hurt my fingers, so it was definitely gloves on for the first hour.  The remnants of a little overnight mist were still wisping at the wood edges and the contrast between strong sunlight and deep dark woods was striking.

 

There’s a bright golden haze on the … broad beans

I locked ahead and we slipped at once into our lock flight routine.  Dave brings Chuffed into the empty lock, I close my bottom gate while he climbs the steps and looks after his side.  I slowly open my ground paddle at the top, then leave him to fill the lock and open the gate while I go up to the next lock, then back I go to close up.  

 

Reflections

We knew that most of the locks would be empty, at least at the bottom of the flight, as boats had come down the afternoon before and the locks mostly drain overnight anyway.  So by the time Dave had opened his top gate, I was already walking back from opening the next bottom gates.  We cracked along at a fair old pace even though we weren’t hurrying.  A few locks later there were a couple of workboats where they had been renovating the towpath edge with some Armco, but it was far too early for any activity.

About half an hour later I was surprised to see what looked like a heavy frost or light snow on the ramp up to a lock.  Mornings are certainly still a little chilly, but surely not that cold?

 

Willow fluff

On we went, with not even a dog walker or early runner going by in the lovely sunshine.  Just before 8, we passed under the bridge with the car park, where the workmen (all men) were sitting in their hut just having their morning conference/cup of tea before starting work.

 

Some of the fields along the flight had a strip planted for wildlife around the edge of the crop.  I recently read an article saying that not only does this benefit pollinators and other wildlife, it also seems to result in a healthier crop and the same yield as if the strip had been cultivated.  This is proper university research, so let’s hope it’s true as that means winners all round.

Quire early on we saw the CRT man on duty as he pedalled down the flight, then back up again, checking the water levels.  We met one boat who had started down early, but they hadn’t spotted us coming up as they locked ahead because we were hidden by a bridge.  So I walked up to ask them to leave the bottom gates open, and went back to change into dry socks and trainers as the grass had been so wet earlier on. Shorts too for the first time this year!  We even managed a welcome cup of tea while we waited.  We were nearly at the reservoir before the volunteers came on duty and were lucky enough to have three for a while, then two, then one as the others went off to help other boats.  We were all glad to see that the reservoir was properly full, unlike last year.  We crossed with a couple more boats who were just starting down, and were moored up in plenty of time for elevenses.  Pretty slick I thought with that little wait in the middle, though we had started five locks up!  It felt good though, we are very fond of this flight.

 

Someone else after their elevenses!

Should we go further?  Nah, let’s relax for a while.  There were a few things to do and some thinking and planning too.  So Dave got on with a couple of jobs while I washed the starboard side and cleaned the windows, including toothbrush work to clear the winter’s growth of algae from the frames, before we decided we'd done enough for one day and chilled.

2 miles 24 locks