Day 32 and 33. Change of plans.

Hello friends and followers.

Yesterday Wednesday, we stayed at Tardibigge for the day. I wanted to walk up to St. Bartholomew Church up the hill above the top lock. We did all the morning boat jobs, which included lighting the back cabin stove, because the boat was chilly, especially according to Marmite. She does not do chilly and definitely does not do cold. I am sure if she could she would ring Cats Protection and complain that she lives on a cold boat with people who do not care hahahaha. With the stove lit, she made herself very comfortable in the back cabin on the side bed.

Having kept Marmite happy we closed the boat up and set off along the towpath and across the field with Ewes and Lambs in.

St. Bartholomew's Church is so pretty.

Unfortunately the church was locked so we did not get to see inside, but maybe next time.
It was a fabulous day, with a brisk breeze, which was nippy at times.

We then walked down to the Tardibigge Lime Kilns.
The rest of the day was spent relaxing.

This morning, it was leaving day and my first time doing the Tardibigge Flight of 30 locks. I was looking forward to doing them, but this soon turned to disappointment, when a boat which had gone down before us left all the first 11 lock's bottom gates open, making my job longer and harder. To say I was miffed was an understatement. I did think perhaps the boater was a single hander, because I had seen the gentleman when I walked Paddy, but at lock 48 we met up with the lock volunteers, who told us that he was not single handing, so this made me very cross.

The lockies were brilliant and were only to happy to help us to the bottom of the flight.

This section of the Worcester and Birmingham Canal is so very pretty and the locks are easy to operate. The lock cottages are very picturesque as well.

At midday we stopped at Stoke Prior and I cooked a curry lunch. After lunch we decided to carry on. We wanted to get past the boat that had been in front of us which left all the bottom gates open for the first 11 locks, until the volunteers who helped them down put a stop to that thankfully. They were moored at Stoke Pound, probably in the Queen's Head having lunch.
We had a volunteer lock keeper to help us down the 6 Stoke locks. We took on water at Stoke Works, and whilst there a boat came up, so the 6 Astwood locks were in our favour. We have moored above the bottom lock, a nice countryside mooring with views as can be seen in the last 3 photos. 41 locks in all, 5 miles in 6 hours 10 minutes. The sun was shining and I am now going to put my feet up after tea.
We have a change of plan. We were going down the Droitwich Canal to the festival, but we will not get under the road bridge, as we are to high at the bow, so we are now going down onto the Severn and will come up the Droitwich Canal from the river. I do love and change of plan.

Pop back soon xxx