Saturday
1st July:
The original plan was for me &
Teri to drive down to Saul,
stay the weekend in our VW camper
and be able to help exhibit the boats.
This became impossible due to Teri’s
work commitments.
Plan B was the possibility
of a lift down on Friday night with
Mark Burt & family, who
had volunteered to show the boats for
the weekend. Mark then had
to pull out a few days before, due to
family illness.
Fortunately, there was a Plan
C!
I had met NBT members Mark Collins
and Ian & Marianne Douglas
at the Braunston Working Boat
show the previous weekend,
where Ian had offered to pick
me up from Leicester Forest
East Services on Saturday evening,
take me to Braunston
where I would stay with Mark on
his boat. Ian & Marianne
would then drive us all to Saul
on Sunday morning.
So I ended up having a few pints of
Tanglefoot in The Wheatsheaf,
Braunston with Mark,
followed by a Chinese take-away and
an early night.
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Sunday
2nd July:
I was awake by 6am and as it
was too hot to go back to sleep,
went for a walk up the towpath
to the top lock. It was so quiet
and peaceful and Braunston
still has an atmosphere when
it’s quiet.
After bacon sandwiches we set
off around 10am, arriving at
Saul around
1.30pm. By this time we it was
absolutely scorching. After
a long walk from the carpark
and a phone call to Keith
Norfolk, (who had moored
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his Dutch Barge next to
our boats and was keeping an eye
on them) we eventually stowed
our kit by around 2pm to be told
by Keith there was a
boat procession at 3pm. Well,
we thought we better do it and
by the time we had sorted gas,
electricity, stopcocks and engine
checks, it was time to go.
We had to go South for about ½
mile to wind before returning
through the festival site with
the likes of Lynx, Bellatrix,
etc
Just a couple of hours on the
boats in that heat and we both
felt a bit woozy.
Off to the Frog &
Bottle beer tent to sample
the ales and a belated look around
the site.
We were both very impressed with
the whole thing, especially the
free entertainment and particularly
the One-Man Show of E
Temple Thurston’s Flower
of Gloster, probably
the first canal travelogue, presented
by Henry The Horse Theatre
Co, starring Neil Gore
– we were absolutely
entranced, both of us having never
read the book, but still recognising
descriptions of canal places even
after over 150 years.
On the way back to the boats and
bed, we independentally came across
a free music session in a small
marquee by the Junction, with
banjo, guitars, accordion and
singers playing a sort of cross
between Bluegrass and Country
Swing – not my usual
taste, but they were so good I
was once agai |
Monday
3rd July:
I awoke at 3am, 4.30am, 5.30am
and eventually gave up and was
up by 7am. Mark was not
long following me and the boats
were ready to go when the bridge
keepers came on duty at 8am.
We both enjoyed and were impressed
with The Gloucester &
Sharpness Canal |
Gloucester’s
inland port being particularly
interesting with some excellent
redevelopment of old warehouses
contrasting with the usual
insensitive “luxury
waterside apartments”.
Through Gloucester Lock
by 10.30am, we loosed by the
BW Working Boats Project
single motor Sagitta
and 4 crew, singling out for
more speed on the tedious River
Severn.
By
3.30pm the heat and blazing
sun were too much, so we stopped
for a pint at the riverside
Anchor pub at Upton
– it was the nearest!
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Restarting
at 4.45pm, the only point
of interest was the gravel
barges passing and unloading
just North of Tewkesbury.
We
managed to persuade the
lock-keeper at Diglis
Lock to hang on
for us and were through
by 5.07pm. (last boat through
4.50pm) |
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Arriving
at the locks into Diglis
Basin. We met the lock-keeper
who said we were too late to go
through but he could let us moor
overnight at the lock mooring pontoon.
Not the best mooring, as there was
no shade and we were next to a building
site, but we’d had enough
for one day.
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We
trekked through the building site
that is Diglis
at the moment up to The
Bridge Inn, opposite
the under-restoration Commandery
for beer, before cooking an excellent
Spag Bol on Brighton.
On the way up the Severn,
Mark had a hacking cough,
while I often found myself blinded
by a combination of hay-fever,
sweat, sunblock and diesel exhaust
running into my eyes. The motor
seemed to be pumping out a lot
of exhaust, even allowing for
a bashed and therefore ill-fitting
exhaust pipe.
(37 miles, 2 locks, 6 moveable
bridges.) |
Tuesday
4th July:
I was up by 5.30am, as the cabin
was already steaming, so decided
to cycle into Worcester
to find a bank. Mark emerged
as I was leaving and said he’d
have the boats ready to go by the
time I got back.
We were in the first of the locks
into Diglis Basin
by 7.45 am, waiting for the lock
keeper to arrive at 8.am.
He was bang on time and we were
soon chatting about the state of
the basin and the road further on
– he said he would catch us
up and give a hand.
Just as well, because on entering
the bridge ‘ole just before
Sidbury Lock and
the Commandery,
the motor rose up and stopped. After
much pushing, pulling & shoving
to no avail, the keeper turned up
and I joined him in opening and
closing the paddles until we managed
to flush Nuneaton
off the obstruction. Not a pleasant
start to the day!
But more was to come – low
pounds plagued us coming up through
Worcester, making
bow-hauling more like mud dragging!
We had to drop the pound between
the Gregory’s Mill
Locks over 2” to
get Nuneaton
in the lock, as the sides had come
in by the bottom gates. We were
through by 11.30pm and now it was
really scorching! |
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Somewhere
around here we noticed we were being
followed by a young lad on a bike,
so we asked him to close the gates
after us and after a couple of locks
we had lent him a windless and he
was lock wheeling for us. He ended
up helping us for over 2 hours –
When he said he had to go, I put
my hand on my pocket but he said
“S’allright, Mark’s
already sorted me out.” Kids
today, etc!
Thanks Adam! |
We
were through Offerton Locks
by 3.55pm and decided to admit defeat
for the day and more at Tibberton.
We tried the canalside
Bridge Inn but
soon decided on the 16th Century
Speed the Plough
in the village, where we had been
advised by the friendly Post Office
that he Landlord had won awards
for his beer & cellar-keeping.
We soon found out why, as his Banks’
Bitter was the best I had
ever tasted – the food was
also good and reasonably priced.
Very friendly locals too and very
interested in our & the Trust’s
exploits. After sating our considerable
thirst and (due to the heat &
humidity), indifferent appetite,
we went to bed around 10pm, deciding
to make an early start to try and
beat the heat. We also vowed to
stop at whatever time and wherever
we were when the heat got too much
for us the next day.
(8 miles, 14 locks in 8 hours) |
Wednesday
5th July:
It was so hot in the cabins that
we were both awake by 4.30am and
let go at 5am with a gentle and
cooler two hour trip to our first
lock of many, on what we knew would
be a gruelling day.
By 9am it was already scorching
but help was at hand when friends
of Mark, Ruth, her daughter
Phoebe and boyfriend Simon
joined us at Stoke Bottom
lock around 10.30pm. |
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We
had decided for a well-deserved
lunch-time break at the Queens
Head at the bottom of Tardebigge,
but it was closed for renovations.
Unfortunately out temporary crew
had to leave us halfway up Tardebigge,
leaving us once again two handed
with 19 locks to go!
Once again we were beset with
low pounds and an uncommunicative
and unhelpful lock-keeper, who
just rode up and down the flight
a couple of times on his little
3-wheeler motorbike.
I think by now we had both become
delirious with the heat,
humidity and lack of beer; I had
now metamorphosised into Harry
H Corbett in The
Bargee, regularly crying
“ Don’ bang’em
abaht!” while Mark
became the Inspector from On
The Buses, adapting Blakey’s
catch phrase to the more appropriate
“I ‘ate you, Brighton!”
when we cross-winded the butty
in the entrance to most of the
locks, losing all our hardly-won
momentum.
Also somewhere on the slow and
arduous accent of Tardebigge,
I remember advising Mark
that the best way to approach
the multitude of locks still to
do, was to go into a Zen-like
trance, “like
the bloke in that Prisone Of War
film that remained standing with
full buckets of water in the blazing
afternoon Japanese sun, while
his mates collapsed around him”
Why we didn’t stop, I still
have no idea, even allowing for
our shared penchant for pints
of foaming ale at the end of a
hard working day!
We had Nuneaton
up to the penultimate lock by
5pm and walked down to bowhaul
Brighton
up the 19 locks, the pair eventually
united and through Tardebigge
top in the hazy dusk
at 10pm.
The view from here is still as
Rolt described it in
Narrowboat, over
50 years ago – beautiful
rolling Worcestershire countryside.
Using the possibility of a pint
in Alvechurch
as a carrot we decided to carry
on, although exhausted, with bad
backs, aches and pains, sunburn,
sweat rashes, sores and blisters.
We tied up opposite Alvechuch
Marina at 10.20pm and
staggered and stumbled to The
Weighbridge where we
both consumed 3 pints of first-class
ale in 20 minutes.
Mark had decided he had
had enough on this trip and would
go home in the morning - I could
not persuade him otherwise, although
I perfectly understood his decision.
We retired to the boats for a
tinned-stew and spuds.
(15miles 42 locks in 20 hours)
Thursday 6th July:
Probably the first night we had
something approaching a good night’s
sleep, we were up around 9am and
sorting and tidying the boats.
We got a new gas bottle and topped
up with diesel, before finding
a safe looking mooring 100yds
north of Bridge 60, heading
for the station, home and 18 hours
sleep, around lunchtime.
Dave
Davies. |
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