Droitwich, Droitwich Barge Canal

Oops!!  Forgot to publish this one yesterday.  Didn't make it very far from the dry dock at Tardebigge.

 After I published yesterday we got a knock on the boat and Katheryn and John from Golden Cross was there, they were just coming down the locks, so I grabbed a windlass and helped her with the next three locks.  They were followed closely by Tony on Trent 6.  No sooner had they gone past that Graham came by on Collingwood with a group of schoolchildren.  What are the odds of three boats from Gas Street/Sherborne Wharf travelling in convoy quite independently?

We left again at 0515.  Lovely warm sunshine.  The Astwood  lock cottage looking beautiful and well kept.  BW should have sold all the cottages with a caveat to keep them nice and pretty.

We reached the junction at Hanbury at 0800 and there was nowhere to moor up, so we were cheeky and untied the chain across the entrance to the Droitwich Juncton Canal and moored up just on the other side.

The BW workers arrived about 1010 (supposed to be 0930) and also one man specifically to look after the family of grey wagtails that had made a nest just below the waterline of the pound (when the pound is full).

We were the second boat down that day.  The canal was very pretty, oxeye daisies all along the banks, the new staircase (which was a surprise) and then the low tunnel under the M5.


We had about 3" to spare.  Pretty scary.  Then the lock down into the River Salwarpe and then a sharpish left turn up to the Barge Canal.  The canal now goes through a lovely park area with three swing bridges.

There were lots of boats here already and we were moored up abreast to Cousin Bob.  There is just about room for boats to get past.

I think we around around mid-day, but there were so many people around that we knew and got chatting to that I forgot to check the time.

I found some grungy brown, stripy paper which I matted onto silver card and then onto a blue card blank.

The skateboarder, I think, started out as a sticker which I stuck onto some card and then cut out, fixing it to the card with sticky fixers.