Docked for the day

Tuesday 12 May
Jamie and Taryn decided not to attempt driving (and from some of the awful driving I’ve been doing I think they probably made the correct choice!), but did have some fun working the locks together. After a while though they made the most of the beautiful blue sky day and caught some sunshine on the roof, though the wind chill factor meant they still needed a blanket to keep warm!

Just like a James Bond Film

Lovely sunny day on the Staffordshire - Worcestershire canal

Sandra the good samaratin helping someone with the lock

Jamie & Taryn the 'lock girls'

Lunch at the tearooms in Stourton

A slow day, not the best of stops in comparison to those we have previously had which was a disappointment as we wanted Jamie to see some of the more colourful canal sights. But there was some lovely countryside along the way, and the most amazing garden – I think it was just outside of Stourton.

Entrance to a cave next to the lock

This house and garden are below the level of the canal

We were warned not to moor up at Kidderminster, the town where I lived for 3 and a half years while I did my nurse training from 1978 to 1981, but to stay 2 miles north or south. So we moored at Wolverly overnight and had dinner in The Lock, a quiet little pub funnily enough right by the lock! I had driven through the lock a short while before and there were loads of people around – one of the few times when I have driven into the lock without banging the sides on entry! Once in there were half a dozen or so people taking photographs and people in the pub came to watch too, it was a bizarre experience, I’m not sure how famous people get on with that happening to them all the time!!!

The church at Kidderminster, 'Damn those bells'

Following the lock photo marathon, I managed to run the boat aground once again trying to moor it up. Barry and I had a bit of a communication breakdown, I thought I was mooring one end of the boats and he thought I was mooring somewhere else, so by the time we realised this I’d almost missed the stop! Some heavy manoeuvring later by Barry and the poor man whose boat I nearly crashed into, and me trying to reverse away from the canal bank on the other side where the rear of the boat (is that the stern???) got stuck in the mud ,and all was well again though I was just a bit of a wreck. I think the menopause may be catching up with me, or at least that’s my excuse for some very stressed out behaviour recently when a few things happen all at once!! Or maybe I’m just not taking to this like a duck to water?!

Wednesday 14 May
Jamie and Taryn went to Straford-Upon-Avon today on the train. We were never going to get there on the boat in the time they have with us and they’d seen enough green fields and sheep to last them a lifetime apparently!! So up at the crack of dawn to motor on down to Kidderminster and moor up for a brisk walk to the station and a 2 hour train journey.

Jesting with the besta Jester

Barry has made the most of the day fixing things on the boat and repairing the broken bilge pump, while I took advantage of Marks and Spencers and Sainsbury’s while I had access to them! My mum and dad came for lunch so I treated us all to a lovely haddock mornay with boiled new potatoes and asparagus, followed by strawberries and chocolate éclairs, yumy scrumy!!

Mother goose with the procession

A chilled day with Jamie

Monday 11 May

We had a lovely day meandering along the Staffs and Worcs canal from Wolverhampton with Jamie. We decided early on that getting to Stratford by the weekend was probably not an impossibility but would have entailed steaming along daily for about 9 hours which would have been horrid and again, missing the point of ‘being’ here. It would also have entailed travelling through a lot of built up areas for a few days and as Jamie is living in London, we felt that seeing some of the British countryside would probably be much more of a positive experience for her than the Black Country could ever be! So we’re heading south once more towards Worcester & Tewkesbury and have moored tonight at Wombourne having spent a slow day chilling amongst some lovely countryside and meeting lots of lovely people. A couple I spoke with had just returned from visiting their daughter who lives in Auckland and saw our NZ flag zo came to chat with me while Jamie and Barry worked the staircase Bratch Locks.

Jamie soon got the hang of the locks

Even had no fear of heights

Sandra in control at Bratch Locks. Lock keepers office above

Most impressive structure. Water drops 31 feet in 3 locks

Beautiful heron not worried at all!

Barry scratching his head

British Waterways boat Scorpio and butty Leo who passed us at the lock. They are heading to Stourport for a boating festival this weekend

Taking on a little unwanted canal water at the lock

They were built in the 1930's and now used for BW promotions

Today we think we passed by the narrowboat we had a deposit on last year, Val De Frejus - a little more upmarket than the one we now have as that one cost almost 3 times as much and was only 2 years old rather than 20! But we do love our little Northern Pride. We also passed by 'Plan B' the narrowboat that was on the photo we used for our NZ leaving party - I took that photo in Stourport last year.

A lovely lock at Wombourne

Jamie’s Australian friend Taryn (she's actually very nice so we will forgive her for being an Ozzie I think!) has now joined us, so we have 4 people on out tiny boat until the weekend.

Jamie's done a few locks today, but is yet to experience driving the boat, maybe tomorrow…

We're beached 'bro!

Thursday 7 May
Today we travelled south further expecting to get a fair distance, but after half an hour or so we pasesd a little village called Audlum, and stopped to check out the lockside craft shop (where I bought myself some cross stitch to do much to Barry’s amusement, he thinks I’m turning into an old woman!) and the famous ‘Shroppie Fly’ pub. What a shame we hadn’t moored up here last night as it looked like such a lovely pub though at 11 O’clock in the morning we couldn’t really justify going in for pint! We were going to just stay for a short while, but decided to moor the boat and go and explore as we realised that if we just steamed along without stopping in places we liked the look of, we were actually missing the whole point of us being in England on a canal boat! I think we were starting to get ‘canal rage’ – missing the journey and just looking only at the destination! Although we needed to get a certain distance to meet up with Kim and for Jamie, we decided we could compromise, slow down a bit and possibly rearrange our planned itinerary!

A run of locks can certainly slow you down

The countryside is worth slowing down for

We walked into Audlum, bought fresh fruit and veg, and had lunch at The Bridge Inn – we’d been informed by a lovely girl walking her beautiful white dog (and normally I wouldn’t say it was beautiful, dogs are not my cup of tea, but this one really was beautiful in looks and temperament!) along the towpath that they served the best fish and chips ever. It turned out to be the hugest plate of battered cod, potato wedges, tartar sauce and mushy peas you’ve ever seen! Barry managed to finish his plate (not the mushy peas, though we did try some in case they really were delicious!), but it beat me into submision!

Having thought we would be living off beans on toast much of the holiday, it actually turns out that we’re eating better than ever as we have the time to shop at the local butchers and greengrocers so we’re having fabulous, tasty food along with lots of fresh (and boy is it fresh!) air and exercise.

The Shroppie Fly pub, originally a warehouse

A quaint pub in Audlum

Picture from the front steps of the church. Barry had to wait as the vicar arrived in his van and parked right in front of him on the double yellow line. Sandra nearly wet herself laughing!

Fish and chips special at the Bridge Inn

The metal bridge protectors worn away by the tow ropes from the original canal boats being pulled by horses

Then off for some more locks

And more locks...
Oh no, not more locks!

We had to work our way through 20 locks so took it in turns to do the locks or drive the boat. I thought I was doing really well and getting the hang of it until I beached the boat at one of the locks! The overflow coming from one side and a gust of wind blew me off course, and to compensate instead of reversing I went faster to try and steer out of the disaster, but to no avail! I’m afraid the flag almost lost it, but it is still living to fight another day – you may have to send a replacement soon Deb!!! Poor Barry had to walk across the bridge and traverse an electric fence and barbed wire to climb down the bank and release the boat – embarrassing as another boat was waiting for us to come through the lock! I veered between panic and wanting to cry and seeing the funny side; luckily I realised that I really wasn’t in danger of falling into a black hole at the bottom of the canal and laughed about it. I have to say I think Barry is one of the most patient men I have ever met, I have never seen him lose his temper or get stressed about anything and he was as calm as during the whole thing bless him, what a treasure I have.



It's hard to believe but it took us all day to travel 10 miles and we were more or less flat out after our stop in Audlum! We moored at Market Drayton and decided to remain there for Kim and Joe to travel to Friday evening.

Lisa came to see us on her way home from work, and Barry and I walked along a very busy road (the A53 I think!) to meet her at ‘The Gingerbread Man’ where Barry and I shared a chicken salad as we were still full of fish and chips!!



Friday 8 May
Following a stroll into Market Drayton, we took the bus into Shrewsbury and had a lovely day out exploring and getting our broadband top up for the month. After spending almost 10 pounds to go to Shrewsbury we discovered that a shop in Market Drayton sold the top ups so we needn’t have travelled so far! Never mind, it was worth the trip as Barry found many sights he had missed on our last visit to Shrewsbury.

One of the many bridges surrounding Shrewsbury

Trying to arrange for people to visit the boat is not as easy as it sounds we are discovering, but we're finding solutions to the challenge daily! Today’s challenge had a number of twists and turns too complex to even try to explain, but eventually all worked out and Kim and Joe arrived at 2330 and we found a car parking place. The stingy Landlord of the Talbot Inn at Market Drayton, despite having a huge empty car park, declined ‘allowing’ us to park a car there for 2 nights. I’m sure he had his reasons, though it would have been good to know what they were as it was very difficult to comprehend. Ah well, I put a hex on him and I suspect he had a very poor nights sleep last night! We will not be honouring him with our presence in his otherwise lovely little tavern…

The lovely Kim and Joe

Saturday 9 May 2009
Motoring towards Wolverhampton with Kim and Joe, a very pretty part of the canal system. Kim and Joe shared the driving and locks, and unfortunately Kim experienced the overflow challenge and beached the boat once more! But the day was saved again by boatman Barry of course!

Kim in the 'beached' boat!

Joe doing the locks

We moored overnight at Gnosall (silent ‘g’!) and had a pub crawl to the 2 pubs on the towpath, The Navigation and The Boat. The Boat was filled with the most amazingly unique and colourful characters and Joe and Barry played pool with 2 of them. A dog was in the pub and everyone, including the bar staff took turns throwing the ball, yes in the pub, to the dog!!! Often they would put the ball up on a table or behind a seat and he would always find it, very cute!



Sunday 10 May 2009




Today we travelled to the end of the Shropshire Union Canal to Napton Locks at Wolverhampton where we met up with my mum and dad for lunch.

Must be getting closer to Wolverhampton!

People put the strangest things on their boats, very cute!

Jamie arrived around 7pm and we looked at which way to go next...