CHUMS AND DIRTY LAUNDRY

MONDAY 5TH MAY 2008

We were having a late breakfast, as again it was raining hard. Still moored opposite the Crown Inn, and there was Waterway Routes cruising back down towards us, so Paul came alongside and we had a lovely chat with him and family. They have a permanent mooring in the Birmingham area, so naturally knows where the no go areas are and said not to hesitate to email him if we needed some advice. We checked his website and found that he had posted several pictures of Skyy on his blog. Paul did note that my most recent blog had been posted at 4am, I don’t know how that could of have happened, I can assure all interested parties, that both I and Jacquie were well tucked in at that time. Thanks for your interest Paul.

We moved into the Hop House area, to await the arrival of Phil, Lynne and Stanley the puppie and on route, Jacquie got too loads through the washing machine, the sun was now shining and both loads were dry by 7pm., courtesy of the whirligig dryer, set up on the stern deck. We filled with water, turned at the winding hole and moored up a few boat lengths up from the tap so that we can fill up again on Wednesday morning. What planning!!!!

MUD MUD GLORIOUS MUD

SUNDAY 4TH MAY 2008

Our chums Phil & Lynne phoned to say that their new Border Collie puppy, would have it’s last jab on Tuesday and they would then be able to bring him to meet up with us on Wednesday. Rather than travelling on into Birmingham, we decided to stay in the area of Alvechurch, as it was so attractive and we walked in the rain up a very muddy towpath towards the Hop House Pub to check if it would be OK for Phil & Lynne to park there for a couple of nights, “no prob” said the young barman and as it is only about half a mile from junction 2 on the M42 it would be perfect.

Did get a picture of a heron, but missed him actually plucking a fish out of the cut.

As we were mud plugging who should we see coming towards us but Waterway Routes with Paul at the helm, we checked with him that the Hop House pub was not too far ahead and he was quite upset that he couldn’t offer us a lift as he was going in the opposite direction. Paul who makes DVD’s of canal journeys from his silent and vibration free, electric driven boat had previously added our blog as a link from his website, WWW.waterwayroutes.com Good to meet up with Paul and wife Christine and Susan their lovely daughter.

GOOD FRIENDS AND PRETTY PANNIERS

SATURDAY 3RD MAY 2008

This morning we cycled back in for supplies and returned with our panniers adorned with Busy Lizzies, much to the amusement of passing residents.

Angela a school friend of Jacquie’s and her husband John, who live close by, joined us in the afternoon. As the weather was so good we were able to enjoy a glass or two on the towpath before setting of for a very nice supper at the Red Lion in Alvechurch.

FIRE BUT NO SMOKE

FRIDAY 2ND MAY 2008

We eased our way through the last lock with the intention of tying at the BW workshops just after the lock for water, but the Fire Brigade got there first and a huge jet of water was arching across the canal, we slowed down and asked if it was OK to pull in there, so they pulled out their suction pipe and helped us to tie up. They were doing a bi-annual check of their pumps and a training session for the newest recruit.

I told one of the crew that our smoke alarm kept going off for no apparent reason and he went and got a new one, complete with battery for us. Nice Guys and Gal. I nearly lost Jacquie to one them. What is it about firemen?

Alvechurch was our destination, 3 miles and no locks. We found a lovely mooring right opposite the Crown Inn, just before the railway bridge, The trains travelled this stretch quite slowly and didn’t disturb us.

We walked all the way around the town before we eventually found the centre, which was a very pleasant surprise. On returning to our mooring we popped into the Crown Inn and although it had a good atmosphere the eating area was very crowded.

I just thought that I should mention that we had a problem getting the computer to recognise the T -Mobile Web & Walk modem, Keith from Quidditch said that he has burnt out two connecting cables, and we had previously smelt hot plastic, but couldn't identify where the smell could be coming from. Ashley had been watching TV via the internet and it seems possible that with high transfer rates the cable could overheat. I tried the same cable with the camera and sure enough the computer didn't recognise it. A new cable resolved the problem.

THE FLIGHT OF OUR LIFE

THURSDAY 1ST MAY 2008

Ha !! 35 locks!! Nothing, a doddle!! Wednesday, as forecasted, was very wet, so it was a good decision to stay put. However we got off to an early start for us, on Thursday, at 8am and by the time we stopped for lunch we had done about twenty of them.

We got into a good rhythm eventually, as soon as the top paddles were raised to fill the lock that Skyy was in, one of us walked up to the next lock and began to empty that, and as soon as the bottom gates could be opened, whoever was on Skyy opened the top gate and cruised out of the lock, straight into the awaiting next lock, in the meantime, the lock person walked back to the vacated lock and closed the gate, before walking back to close the gates behind Skyy and start the process all over again, does that sound complicated? Not really in reality, but the person operating the locks does walk the same piece of towpath 3 times, but good for the muscles.

The sceanery all the way up was delightful, with little cottages siding on to the canal at locks and bridges and a tranquil reservoir just before the summit.

We stopped at about 5 pm just before the top lock, thought that we should leave something for tomorrow and celebrated with beer and wine and sun shone all the while.

DINNER AND SAUSAGES

TUESDAY 29TH APRIL 2008

On Monday we just pottered, catching up on boat work, when Tug from Golden Eagle invited us to dinner that evening, he did eventually clear this invite with his wife Kirsty. Again, another example of impromptu canal hospitality.

Tuesday morning, we got away slightly the worse for the amount of wine drank with Tug & Kirsty, thanks guys for the splendid curry. The six locks of the Astwood flight were nothing, but just following those is the 30 lock flight of Tardebigge, this is the final lift to the level approach to Birmingham. The weather turned very wet and the forecast for Wednesday was also wet, so we pushed in the pins at Stoke Works and decided to stay put until the weather improved before tackling this major climb.

Tug had suggested that we did not go through narrow locks with our sausage fenders down and as we had got hung up in a lock when one of these fenders got caught in the lock ladder and coming through the Stratford locks, the fit was so tight that we ripped off one fender and cut another in half, we thought this was good advice and bought 3 karabiners ( spring clippy things as used by mountaniers) so that we can simple clip on the sausages when we moor up.

13 LOCKS

SUNDAY 27TH APRIL 2008

Today we rose up out of Worcester, through 13 locks. Quite an achievement, they were narrow locks, so they don’t take so long to fill, but this was the first time that just the two of us had worked through so many locks. Jacquie proved herself more than capable of bringing the boat into and out of the locks and sharing the lock work meant that it didn’t feel at all like hard work.

This lovely foal appeared as we rose up through Offerton Top Lock.



The last lock is just before the M5 and half a mile passed that is the village of Tibberton were we stayed for two nights.