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Did I mean to be here?
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Monday was forecast to be
the best day of the week and as we needed to move this week, Buddy and I set
off for a cruise in the morning. Monday is also washing day so it worked out well, as it meant the washing could be on
whilst we were cruising. We need the
engine on to power the washing machine therefore it’s more efficient to do it
when we are cruising rather than moored up.
I set off just at the
wrong time – a couple of boats were going down the Astwood flight in front of
me so every lock was set against me.
Anyway, as it was a lovely morning it didn’t matter and I took my time,
chatting to the passing walkers. At the
fourth lock, a boat was coming up so it meant I could go straight in once they came out.
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Waiting for a boat to come
up so I could go down
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You may have read the
other day that we are facing the wrong way.
A couple of weeks ago I went up to Stoke Wharf to get a pump out, turned
around, and came back to our spot opposite the Boat and Railway. This meant that we had to find somewhere to
turn again and get back to facing the right direction.
There was a winding hole after
the fourth lock but it didn’t seem well used – I suspect winding holes aren’t often
used in the middle of lock flights. It
was quite silted up so I wondered whether we would have managed to turn our old
boat there as she was 13 feet longer.
This explains the picture at the top, we are in the middle of turning.
As we had just come down
the locks I thought that they would all be set for us on the way back. No such luck, I had forgotten we had passed a
boat at the fourth lock down.
The locks on the flight
have been repaired many times over the last two hundred years. The coping
stones are a mixture of modern, precision cut stone, old railway engineering
brick style and original coping stone bocks about eight feet long. How they used to move those massive blocks is
mind boggling – it must have involved pulleys and a lot of brute force.
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Lock showing the different
coping stones used over the years. Right
side has the modern blocks. The left has
the engineering bricks and one original block closest to the camera.
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Going up the locks
involves a different routine for Buddy. As we go into the lock he leaps off
onto the lock steps and runs to the top of the lock.
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Buddy leaping off the boat onto the
lock steps
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I don’t bother using the
steps on single locks but wait until the boat is in and then climb up the lock
ladder. On wide locked canals like the
Grand Union then I tend to use the steps, taking a line with me which I then
have to lift over the open lock gate before tying off to a bollard.
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Racing me to the top
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We moored up opposite the
Boat and Railway where we were two weeks ago.
We will probably stay here until we go up the Tardebigge flight towards
Birmingham in a couple of weeks. It’s
really quite handy as we are next to a water point and also a spot where Karen
can park the car.
During our afternoon walk
we met two delightful retired couples on holiday on a time share boat. We had a long chat, exchanging stories of
trips both domestic and foreign. They
were particularly interested in our current lifestyle. They were sort of nomadic in that they have
lots of holidays, including one on a narrowboat each year, and several houses
abroad so don’t feel at home at any particular place. One couple were white South Africans so I can
understand that having had to leave their home country would make them feel
like that. The other couple, Murray and
Lyndsey, were keen adventurers so of the type where it’s not natural to have
roots.
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