Day 9 – Saturday 14 July 2007
Minsworth to Tardebigge
24 miles 28 locks

Rather annoyingly the first boat of the day managed to get by us, before I set off. They were quite quick through the locks, but slow along the canal. They were going along the GU, so pulled off up to Bordesley, and we went up the Aston locks. We had a good run, even though many were full, or at least not empty. We did Aston in 1 hour 20mins, and Farmers Bridge in 1 hour 15mins.

Birmingham was heaving, and Dad for some reason wanted to stop right outside the mailbox. On the floating jetty opposite the Birmingham Mission boat was moored. What didn't help was someone visiting the mission by boat, and squeezing by both boats. He didn't make a very good job of reversing his 27 foot fibre glass boat back out again.

We finally set off 1.5 hours later, and reached Bournville just over an hour later where my sister joined us after leaving her car at a friend's place. We then had a good run down to the top of Tardebigge after pausing for tea just through Alvechurch. We moored on the stretch below the s lock, but it was a nice evening, and I wanted to continue, but everyone else wanted to stop. After seeing the weather forecast later that night I wished we had continued.

I set the alarm fairly early to get off in front of the masses, but the locks were very quiet at this end, as most of the hireboats were at base. The rain woke me several times over night, as we were half under a tree, which made it sound much worse. I cancelled the alarm, but was up soon after it was suppose to go off. I decided there was no point being up, and getting behind a boat. Doing Tardebigge following a boat is bad enough, but in the rain it is painful.

We left at 8:30am, and after doing the first couple of locks on my own, my sister Julie, came out to help. A couple of locks later Dad finally joined us, complaining about the early start. Apart from the rain we had a really good run down the locks. A few boats came up, but we didn't see any boats going our way until several locks below the main flight. Breakfast was had on the move. We did the main 29 locks (the first one was done yesterday – remember), in 2hours 15mins. Just before midday, we stopped to fill with water at Stoke Works, and an hour later we left again (after lunch, or brunch in Julie's case).

At Hanbury Wharf we had a look at the Droitwich canal. There are three very nice looking locks there, just waiting to be used. I noticed that there are side pounds on them since they are so deep – are these the only narrow locks with such?

We stopped for diesel at Dunhampstead, filling the tank, and a 5 gallon container we placed in the tank near Shardlow. The bloke running it said that the Severn was closed again, even though the BW woman in the second to last Astwood lock said it was open – though she did say they don't tell her anything as she is in a different region.

We stopped at Tibberton Bridge, but the TV signal was unwatchable, and Dad could not get the satellite to work because of the trees, so decided to move the boat again. I told him there was no more places to stop, but he moved anyway. We ended up on a short pound between the second and third lock on the Offerton flight.

Day 11 – Monday 16 July 2007
Offerton to Tewkesbury
22 miles

We set off, after a rather large procession of historic, and RW Davis boats – including Clover. We reached Worcester at 13:15, and had a pizza for lunch. We moored just above lock 4, but it wasn't a very good mooring, so after lunch we moved the boat back towards the town centre moorings near the main road bridge. As we pulled in, a bloke standing in the small garden of a block of flats said we could not moor here. “Oh, why?”, I asked. “This bit is a private bank”, he replied. After some discussion, he said that they had signed an agreement with BW to stop people mooring there. I queried it, and he then said it was going to be signed in a weeks time. I nearly said, well I'll stay here till then, but he asked if I could move up, and since it didn't matter to me, I moved the boat up to an empty slot, about 50ft away – this moved the engine right next to his flat, so I was happy!

While this was happening, Dad was on the phone to Gloucester BW, to ask if the river was open. They said it was, if we waived our rights, and so we decided it might be a good idea to get down the river in case it came up after yesterday's rain. The lockie at Diglis said it was OK, but have a look at the river first. I guess he was hoping we'd look at it, and decide against it, but it was hardly what you could call fast, and the debris in the river wasn't as bad as was made out to be. In fact we usually get far worse on the River Hull.

We touched the river at 4:10pm, and quickly came to the Diglis river lock, after passing a narrowboat pushing up the river. The drop wasn't very far – about 2 foot, but the lady lockie mentioned how many people just don't understand rivers – one asking if they didn't like the locks, if they could go through the weirs! I guess they could have done a couple of weeks ago.

The flow on the river was about 2mph, which gave us 8mph across the ground. It wasn't long before reaching Upton (5:37pm) and by 6:24pm we reached the junction with the Avon. We did pass another boat on the river going upstream, and that makes it far busier than the Trent were we didn't see any other moving boats!

We stopped on the floating pontoon at the LANT's first lock (£3), and bought a joint 15day licence (£43). For some reason the lock keeper could not quite see why we wouldn't pay £2 for the 24 hour LANT licence, and the get the 15 day later (as we planned to continue down to Gloucester), but the 15 day is going to be longer than our holiday, so hopefully we won't need it all!

That evening, as we tried to watch Channel Five's Superstructures on the QM2, it rained that it never rained before, several times as the Thunderstorms passed over us.

Day 12 – Tuesday 17 July 2007
Tewkesbury to Gloucester

We didn't get off 'till late. We could not call Upper Lode lock, so we set off anyway. There are no moorings above this lock, just tall piles, and a couple of floating concrete blocks. We gave a blast on the horn, and someone came waltzing out.

It didn't take to long before we reached the 5 mile marker to Gloucester lock, and Dad gave them a call – unfortunately he called the main BW office, but they passed on the message. A few minutes later the lock came on the radio, and told us the tide was coming in (5.something metres) and had we met it yet. In fact while the flow reduced it never actually stopped flowing down (at a min of 0.5mph).

The lock was ready when we arrived, and I drove straight in. The water was starting to drop, but it wasn't flowing real fast. He locked us up, and we found the visitor moorings on the left.

After lunch we walked around the town, but didn't buy anything but a JML slicer. Julie went to one of the bars on the dock front and got a menu. We thought it would be nice, and went in. They didn't start food until 6:30pm, an hour later – OK, we thought, we'll come back in an hour. Julie and Dad bought several pints of bottled cider from the small supermarket near the church, and had one each while waiting. At at 6:30pm we went back, and then was told that the chef had just rung in ill ten minutes ago! We left looking for somewhere else.

Walking up to town, we found a small pub called Cafe Rene's, which nestled next to a church. They did stake, so Dad was happy, and Julie had Tortilla, while I had a Desperate Dan burger. Dad wasn't happy with his burnt steak, but had eaten most of it before complaining. Julie and I had desert there – I had the homemake cheesecake which was nice – but Dad wanted a McDonald's all day since he saw them, so we walked back and he got a bag of fries, and a McFlurry.

We did leave until late, and then Llanthony Bridge asked us to wait for the Trip Boat before going through. We followed the trip boat through Gloucester, he turned at the new bridge on the two mile bends, and we continued up to Saul.

We stopped in Saul for quite awhile, watching a film (Support Your Local Gun slinger), and then had a look around. It was 4:18pm when we set off again. At Splatt Bridge the bridge keeper told us that Shephards Patch bridge was shut because of high winds!

We continued up to the bridge, and moored up. We walked to the bridge, and while the office was open, and all the bridge keepers things were on the bridge, he was nowhere to be seen. We waited 10 minutes before calling the canalphone number. Just as we finished on the call, I could hear a lawnmower, and slow walking behind was the bridge keeper. He opened the bridge without problem, so I don't know what Splatt Bridge was talking about.

We stopped on the vistor moorings near the junction with the old arm, and after tea, I went to take some pictures around the docks. I walked right around the new dock lock, and watched as a mud disperser went through the lock, and go about it's business in the half tide lock. Just as I was leaving – it was getting dark – a coaster was turning in the dock, getting ready to leave.