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Geraniums growing well in
our Moet & Chandon box which Karen lined with plastic before planting
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On Tuesday I realised I
needed to get out of Worcester and into the open countryside again. Towns are not the place for dogs and Buddy needs
some good runs and I need to be walking out in the countryside again. So, the plan for the next few days is to head
north east to the Droitwich area.
For the longer term (over
the next six weeks or so) we plan to be back in Lapworth which is in easy
striking distance of Karen’s office.
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Route for the next six
weeks or so. Worcester, bottom left. Birmingham, top. Warwick & Leamington, right
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The red rectangle is where
there are 35 locks in under three miles and Mike and Lesley are going to join
us in four weeks to do this flight as it is one of their (and our
favourites). In the meantime, I will be moving
up and down between the outskirts of Worcester up to the red rectangle. I will need to move to get water every so
often and to keep within the licence limit of no more than two weeks in any one
location.
So, on Tuesday Buddy and I
set off mid-morning. By lunchtime we had
covered 2 ½ miles and gone up six locks.
Every lock was against us unfortunately but at least I talked a guy into
closing the top gates for me at one lock.
He was explaining to his kids how locks work so I nabbed the opportunity
for him to show off and explain how it’s too dangerous for children to do lock
work 😊
The locks on the Worcester
& Birmingham canal are narrow locks and it’s been a couple of months since
we’ve been through any so I had almost forgotten how narrow they are.
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The first lock of the day
– Sidbury lock – not far from the cathedral
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On the way out of
Worcester we passed all sorts of scenery:
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Industrial units…
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…allotments…
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…Victorian terraced houses…
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…what were once,
architecturally pleasing buildings, with fancy brickwork…
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…and many modern or brand
new apartments
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It’s the apartments that
cause all the parking problems. There
are far more cars in an acre of apartment blocks than in an acre of a housing
estate so parking restrictions are put in place. This makes finding spots for us to park more
difficult.
Anyway, back to
locks. This canal has the name of each
lock on the lockside and usually the number on a balance beam.
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Lock number on balance beam
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Name board
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I was just about to leave
the lock above when I noticed that the next lock didn’t have any bollards for a
lock landing so I reversed back and left the boat in the lock and walked up to
get the next lock ready.
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No lock landing – no good
for single handers ☹
|
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The fourth lock of the
journey- no Buddy
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One railway bridge was
interesting as it had a double arch on one of the spans. The only other time I’ve seen this is on the
Shropshire Union canal where a canal bridge looks like this but has a telegraph
pole in the top arch.
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Railway
bridge with a double arch on the left span
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A new sandstone milestone had been
placed at the appropriate point
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I moored above Bilford Top
lock which is right next to a sports centre.
It looks a good place for Karen to park and she just has to walk across
the lock to get home to the boat. I
checked the car park opening times and they open at 5.30 in the morning so she
won’t get locked in overnight.
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Our new mooring
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It was good to be back on
a canal and have a towpath that Buddy can have a run along so we went for a
good walk after having lunch.
I noticed that there was a
council dump nearby so we walked over there to see if they would take my old engine
oil. They said they would so I managed
to clear some space in my engine bay and get rid of some bottles of old oil.
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| Tomatoes - still go into the cratch at night though |
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| Chilli plants in the small pots - they still go inside at night too |
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| Our trusty rosemary, chives and thyme which never seem to die from one year to the next |
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| Sweet peas growing like mad but not ready to flower yet |
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Nasturtiums grown from
seed – ready for potting out
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