Narrowboat Vegvisir

On our way around 9am, boating through Worcester Bar and Gas Street basin.  I love the contrast between the old wharves and painted boats, with the modern city springing up behind. Lots of boats on the move.. of course, half term. So filled up with water, and headed for Selly Oak where we paused for a few supplies:  then past Bourneville where the railway station is painted in Cadbury colours . Greenery returning as we arrived at King's Norton (lovely canal House on the junction, being restored, very good to see) where we turned sharp left onto the Stratford Canal. 55 locks in our future, but not today, only this one which has been decommissioned for decades. Wiggly canal, this, quirky like this boat, and the bottom a bit near the top. We had a few groundings and went a bit further than we had hoped as we couldn't get in to the side. By half 3 Andrew had more than had enough and was...

Our lovely neighbours were due to be moving on at around 9.30am so we were up in good time to let them out from the bank. As it happened the next boat along had already gone when we poked our noses outside. So it was easy for us to pull into their space, freeing nb Augustus to leave at their convenience.  Before too long we wandered into the city centre, taking our rubbish to the boaters' facilities just round the corner from Gas Street basin.  It's the little red block by the white house. Just around the corner are private moorings in a small basin and the flight called Farmers Locks. It's been a long time since any farming went on here! We explored the Rag Market, the Indoor market, the Outdoor market, TK Maxx.. with our hands in our pockets, finally flashing the cash for a coffee. More exploration, Chinatown this time, before having lunch at  Chung Ying restaurant.  Lovely! From there a gentle walk to the boat, a few jobs and a lot of TV. A...

Sunday 21st May, and nothing to do. A lie in and a few jobs around the boat. Gin and tonic on the stern deck with our neighbours,  Susan and Clive from nb Carpe Duem, soaking up the sunshine. At 4pm it was time to drop the marquee. Many hands make light work. Then a huge heap of salad for dinner, and out for a walk to stretch our legs. By now quite a few of the Explorers have slipped away and the remainder, apart from us, on Monday. So I had an early start to get back to Llandudo for an appointment that couldn't be shifted. On the way to the station, I saw the canal was very low and told CRT about it It shouldn't look like that! Meanwhile Andrew was off walking to a distant B&Q which turned out to be close to our mooring 10 days ago: Coombeswood Basin. When he came back we had the moorings all to ourselves.  I was able to get an earlier set of trains to return - just as well, since the original one was delayed. We soon realised that we w...

The fun just keeps coming! Next morning was a Rally, with stalls, info from the BCNS and CRT, then a convoy headed up by an old working boat with VIP passengers, going up from Titford Pumphouse up to the Titford Pools. The same trip I made last night with nb Isabel, but rather different. Nine boats for a start. The problem is that the boat with the VIPS, nb Atlas, drew a minimum of 36" whereas nb Isabel was 31". So it got stuck. Stuck fast. They tried pushing, pulling, rocking, getting to the side to get the VIPs off: nothing worked. Here they're trying to turn it round in a winding hole, with a tug pushing and another boat pulling in reverse.. the rest of the convoy all backed up, having lunch. But once Atlas was out of the way, our 25" draught managed pretty well and all of us  had a blast doing zoomies in the Pools. Made it! Then we came closer to the side so ADS could leap to the bank and pop to Aldi 50 ...

Wednesday morning,  and retracing yesterday, returning to the Black Country Museum at Dudley. Up early,  to make sure we had enough time to do it justice. It did not disappoint! First, though, we took the trip through the Dudley tunnels, built by Lord Dudley to get limestone and coal from his (originally) driftmine works out into Birmingham and R. Severn via Stourport.  Before Brindleys Main Line, it was madly busy despite being a narrow rat hole with no towpath. So there were leggers, running against the walls in the pitch Black, having to get speed up to coast across the open caverns like this. It had a roof on then so was dark, with one lamp illuminating a cavern with 5 exits. There must have been many crashes. Life expectancy was dire, especially for the 9 year olds, left to make sure the home made fuses didn't go out when bringing down a hanging stack of coal. The owners were utterly callous about their workers. Never forget, they ...