Our heaviest day of locks so far on this boat. We got our act together and were ready to go a bit after 8am — we weren’t the first boat to set off as the boat ahead left about 7.45, but our main priority was to be ahead of a single hander who arrived yesterday evening! I went up to set the bottom lock while Adrian brought the boat, and we weren’t under way at 8.15.
A couple of locks up there’s a Landmark Trust cottage.
The conditions for tackling a long flight of locks were pretty good — dry, not too warm, and not windy. And they’re close enough together that it’s easy to go and set the next one up while the one you’re in is filling. At about 9.30 a volunteer lock keeper appeared; he knew we were coming, because a fellow Braidbar owner, Mike, is a volunteer here and had let people know on their chat group. The people ahead of us had also requested help, so I said he should go and give them a hand. Another lockie turned up a bit later, but to be honest didn’t fill us with confidence. I’d lifted the bottom paddles on the lock above to drain it and had then walked back to the lock we weren’t under way in. Rather than just opening the gates, he started filling the lock again, then dropped one of the bottom paddles, then opened it again. A lock of so later we crossed with a single hander going down, so suggested to the lockie that he might need his help more than us.
After about 17 locks we swapped over for a bit, partly because Adrian was feeling a bit chilly and thought some lock work would warm him up. It’s also nice to share the work. One of my favourite parts of the flight is by the reservoir. I couldn’t resist going up the steps up the reservoir bank and looking down on the lock and bridge. I always think it looks like a model.
We swapped roles again at this lock, and the next couple are next to the reservoir meaning you gradually rise to the level of the water.
Shortly after this one of my former BBC colleagues, Gail, arrived with her husband Fusao. He was particularly keen to get to work, so we soon had him pushing gates and winding paddles.
At the same time, Macc had woken up so Adrian got him out and put him in his bed on the rear slide. He still wasn’t that keen on people walking away from the boat, but I think he’s getting the idea that we always come back. We’d planned to stop above the penultimate lock, and we did that one almost exactly four hours after we’d started. All the rings on the moorings here are wrongly spaced (aren’t they always?) so we’re on one ring and one mooring stake. We gave Gail and Fusao a tour of KV and then had lunch followed by some of Gail’s lovely ginger cake. It was really great to see her and finally meet Fusao.
When it was time for our guests to leave, I walked with them up to the church where they’d parked their car. The spire of Tardebigge church can be seen for miles around, and it’s a very pretty one.
The view from the churchyard is also quite special. A really nice place to be buried, although once you’re in the ground you probably don’t appreciate it so much.
While it had been pretty cloudy to start with, the sun had come out and we’d chosen a nice sunny mooring spot. We’d done the whole flight on electric propulsion, and used about 3 per cent of our battery capacity. The solar has already put that back in, and more. And having done so many locks today, we must now have the biggest difference between miles and lock of any trip we’ve ever been on!
2 miles, 29 locks. (8 miles, 49 locks)