Monday 18th June, First of all, last nights TV picture was pretty good. Lots of digital channels but not all coming through without break-up. The food in the Wagons and Horses was not as good as the service, sort of Harvester type fast food.
Today, blimey, we have had it all. We had a lie in, I know, we always have a lie in but this was proper lie in and we left eventually at 11.00am. It was quite bright and warm. The forecast is for rain this afternoon sometime but if past days are anything to go by, then the water will arrive as we moor up :-) 15 minutes or so go by and we reach the staircase lock.This is a proper staircase lock which has the top lock flowing directly into the next, unlike Bratch, which is 3 locks joined together. We are going down and even I would find it difficult to get it wrong. Going up, it's important to remember to have the top lock full before starting. Anyway, that's ok and we reach the nice little section that runs between locks Swindon and Hinksford. There are houses on either side and the gardens are pretty well groomed. On this occasion We find a chap looking puzzlingly at a small sunken powerboat. "that happened in the storms", enquire I, "not sure" says man looking understandably hacked off "just found it this morning". I move on. We are lucky with the locks, and most have a boat coming out as we arrive. At Greenforge lock it starts to rain, hard. That's not on, it's early. It's great through here, great high trees one side and fields to the other, water logged field's I might add. The canal now twists and turns and we are still lucky with the locks, either full or nearly full. I have seen a Kingfisher. It darted along just in front of the boat for quite a way and then disappeared into the safety of the bushes. We have seen lots of Heron's on this trip and today is no exception. There have also been rabbit's and squirrel's. See, I told you it was nice through here. At Stewpony lock a pair of boats are moored just up from the lock and passage is very tight. I clonck one as I pass. Most of the locks have very low bridges immediately after the exit and the back cabin chimney has been off all day. At Dursley Tunnel a branch sticks out and before we can do anything about it, twang one coolie from the saloon chimney top in the drink. Great! Approaching Kinver, the rain picks up again and thunder and lightening bash and crash all around. I think we need to moor up. Kinver visitor moorings are pretty full, so we press on, were wet now anyway. During this period Wendy has been on the phone to Avon lock in Tewkesbury. The news is bad. The Avon is shut, as is the River Severn. Outlook is for more rain and the anticipated opening is not for 3 days. We had hoped to be on the Severn no later than Thursday. Looks like we may be in Stourport for a few days. Hang on it's June, This can't be right! We arrive at Whittington lock and the sun has come out. British weather!. Coming out of the lock we run aground and we are 10 feet from the bank. What's going on, I have to get the pole out to free LT. 100 yards further on and the mooring looks ok and we get in right up to the bank. Boy am I glad we are here. It starts to rain, hard. TV picture is rubbish, but I did not expect anything else. Will just about be able to see the 2 corries tonight. Another interesting day. As I write this, we have an almost clear blue sky and the sun is out. All part of life's rich pageant on the canal. :-) Regards Andrew & Wendy from The Cut
