On the Friday we continued on through a further 11 locks over 2.5 miles, stopping just a mile and a half short of the turn to Droitwich. We were pretty tired by then; with Robin's damaged leg and Jo's back both being painful and annoying. As a result, on Saturday we decided to stay put in our rural mooring and do some resting and cleaning. Jo had a sort out of the inside and Robin managed about a third of the outside between the 'showers' (more like heavy rain!). He and Scooby had an eventful walk later in the day, deciding to try the footpaths around the nearby Hanbury Park estate owned by the National Trust. Having got thoroughly excited going through a sheep field, Scooby was then attacked by two cock reeves pheasants who were guarding a wood containing release pens. Scooby is always kept on a lead, but the pheasants clearly didn't like the look of him and aggressively followed man and dog. At one point they went for Scooby's face with beak and talons. It was a very overwrought Scooby and very tired Robin who eventually made it safely back to the boat!
On Sunday we decided to make for Droitwich Spa. The day was chilly but sunny and we made our way to the Hanbury junction and turned right for Droitwich (straight on would have taken us to Worcester).
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| Droitwich this way! |
Immediately we met a flight of 3 locks. We were surprised to find it still a narrow gauge. There were two lock-keepers who helped us with these three. From here we were on a canalised part of the river Salwarpe and need to be mindful of water levels. All was green today though, so no worries so far. Next we encountered more locks, including a staircase of two which were very deep.
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| In the second of the staircase locks. Its a long way up there! |
We had been told that there was a very low tunnel under the M5 and it was immediately after these locks. We stopped at the lock moorings and measured our air draught (height above the water) and found we needed to remove some things from the roof, including the paddleboard, in order to get through. This done (the paddleboard stowed inside on the sofa) we proceeded with caution.
It was indeed a tight fit!
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| Approaching the tunnel - will our preparations be enough?! |
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| A tight fit! |
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| The challenge of steering down the sides. |
After another lock we meandered through a Great Ashby style housing estate and then into the centre of Droitwich and a park area with a flood lock and swing bridges, quite difficult to operate and with lots of school holidaying families watching (of course). The mooring was just past here and Robin reversed skilfully onto a pontoon just about 3pm. After a quick nip to Waitrose for treat pizzas and milk (which we had run out of) and putting the paddleboard etc back on the roof, we could relax for the evening. We couldn't get the BBC on the telly for some reason. But that did leave time to do the blog, so its not all bad news!
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| Settled comfortably on the pontoons in Droitwich. |
Tomorrow we will potter and stock up at Morrisons. You never know there may be more delights in Droitwich Spa than immediately meet the eye. We'll also check with the lock-keepers on the Severn to see if we can get up the river to Stourport and the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal the next day.
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