Up, Up, Up and Away
Up, Up, Up and Away
Saturday, 29th September
A great day--we set off at last. The geese watched us go.
We said goodbye to Ian, the Superintendent at the Saltisford Canal Centre. He gave us a last pump out before we left. His pump outs are brilliant! Funny how one can get so enthusiastic about such a basic task; but he spent about 40 minutes pumping out the tank and flushing it clean................
Then we set off up the Grand Union, straight to the bottom of the Hatton Flight of twenty-one locks! Cherry's daughter Hannah and partner Alan had said they would come and help, and, sure enough, at the third lock they turned up, full of enthusiasm and youthful vigour! Just what we needed!
We had an excellent trip up the flight. There were no other boats about, and all the locks were in our favour. It took us about two and a half hours to do the flight, and then we moored up for lunch. We thanked our valiant friends, who assured us they had really enjoyed it, and then continued on our way. We had an important appointment to keep.
We were due to meet our friend Don. He's just had a new boat built, and we wanted to see it. We travelled for a couple of miles and there, sure enough, was Don, waiting for us. We travelled along together, through Shrewley Tunnel and moored up on Rowington Embankment for the night. Then we got a chance to view Don's boat. It's small and cosy with everything one could need all fitted in to 37'. I envied him its manoeuverability; he could turn it round in the middle of the canal, without looking for a winding hole.
We walked down to The Cock Horse together for a bar snack, taking our life in our hands on the return trip, as we had to walk along a busy main road in the dark.
Sunday, 30th September
In the morning we had breakfast together and set off for Kingswood Junction, the place where The Grand Union meets The Stratford-on-Avon Canal. Don came with us as far as the junction, then turned round and set off back to his moorings. The more observant amongst you might have noticed that something is missing from all of these ramblings----Cherry! She was due to join us in Warwick, but then remembered a pressing engagement. The things some people will do to get out of doing a flight of locks!!!! No, not really, I'm joking. She had forgotten that she had a long standing arrangement on Saturday, but Hannah and Alan brought her to join us on Sunday.
Then we were off again, this time up the Lapworth flight of nineteen locks. These are narrow locks, but it was much busier today, and it took us a long to complete them. We moored up quite late, it was getting dusk. But we'd had a good day: we'd had breakfast with Don, picked up Cherry, given Hannah and Alan a ride, visited a friend who has just moved to live in a house near the canal, done nineteen locks and about five miles of canal, picked up loads of wood from the hedgerows ready for the fire and seen a mink!
Monday, 1st October
Today we travelled all the way into the centre of Birmingham. There were no more locks, just a junction at King's Norton, where the Worcester and Birmingham Canal branches off to the left. We passed by Cadbury's World and Birmingham University and eventually moored up outside Seaworld. It's a great feeling to arrive in the city in our own boat and to be able to moor up and visit so many places.
Tuesday, 2nd October
A busy day today. We all went our separate ways; Cherry visited the Art Gallery, I caught a bus to visit a patchwork shop and Trev went sightseeing. We all met up for lunch at a Thai restaurant, and Catharine and Mamdooh joined us, complete with the post. We had an excellent meal, and then retired to the boat for coffee.
C&M left later in the afternoon, and we all grabbed forty winks before setting out for the Birmingham Rep to see "Brief Encounter". I've never seen the film, but Cherry had and said the play bore little remblance to it! It was quite a good production, but the best part was the skills of the actors. Not only could they act, they could also sing and play musical instruments very well. As we came out Trev decided he was hungry again! So we ended up going for a pizza. How am I ever going to lose weight?
Wednesday, 4th Ooctober
Well, we'd had our allotted mooring time in Birmingham, (boats are only allowed forty-eight hours) so we set off along the Birmingham 'main line' canal for Wolverhampton. It was a long day; twelve and a half miles from Birmingham to Wolverhampton, then twenty-one locks down the other side of Wolverhampton, and then left at Aldersley Junction onto the Staffs and Worcs Canal for four miles to moor up ready to meet some of Trev's relations. We've been really lucky with the weather ever since we left Warwick. Some of the days have been glorious, and even the dull ones stayed fine.
We had a bit of excitement when we were on the fourth lock out of Wolverhampton. Trev dropped the handcuff key in the canal! The handcuff key releases a special anti-vandal lock on the lock paddle. They're only used in trouble spots in urban areas. So, what to do? We couldn't go any further without one. When we had come through the centre of Wolverhampton, we had pulled into a BW yard and filled up with water. There was a BW man there, so Trev went back on the bike to see if he had a spare key, whilst Cherry and I fished in the canal with a magnet for the missing key. The BW man was there but didn't have any keys. He said BW staff weren't allowed to have them. If you can follow that one you're a better man than me Gungadin! However, the good news was that a person on a nearby residential boat WAS allowed to have them and she sold us one. Hooray. Cherry and I had no luck with our fishing expedition so were delighted to see Trev arrive complete with key.
On we went, eventually leaving the city behind and feasting our eyes on countryside once more. I had a slight altercation with a woman who was walking her dog along the towpath. It was an Alsatian dog, and was dropping piles of you know what in various places. I asked her if she would like a bag. She said No. So I asked her if she was going to clean it up, and she said No. So I asked if she was just going to leave it there for people to walk in, and she turned her back and walked on. It did occur to me that we were rather sitting ducks if she decided to fetch the heavy mob, we couldn't really run away, but fortuantely nothing happened.
So we finished the Wolverhampton flight, turned left at Aldersley Junction and moored up near Wightwick Manor. In the evening Cherry treated us all to a pub meal at The Mermaid, a very nice pub on the Bridgnorth Road. This is a nice quiet mooring, yet within five minutes' walk there is a busy main road.
Thursday, 5th October
We visited Wighwick Manor today, a National Trust property just a few hundred yards away. It's one of the youngest properties the Trust owns. It was built in the 1880's by the Mander family, who were paint manufacturers and who had a chain of paint and wallpaper shops. It's in the Arts and Crafts Movement style, with lots of William Morris fabrics and wall hangings, and de Morgan ceramics. It really is a delightful place, it has a warm, comfortable, lived in feeling to it. We also enjoyed the cream teas!
Friday, 6th October
Today we hired a car, from good old Enterprise, and took Cherry home. We also had some business to attend to and were out all day. This weekend we have visitors, so will stay put, and then on Monday, we shall turn the boat round and set off back to Aldersley Junction and Autherley Junction. We shall stay on the Staffs and Worcs Canal all the way to its junction with the Trent & Mersey Canal at Great Haywood. On the way we shall go through Penkridge and visit Trev's cousin Ann and her husband Graham. It's all go. You need a strong constitution to survive this regime, I can tell you!