Tuesday 11 May 2010

May Cruise - Day 5

You'd think that a Monday night in Worcester would make for a nice quiet mooring.  But we were woken at 3am by some drunken lads running up and down the roof.  We didn't get a lot more sleep after that.

We left Worcester at 8.  It was sunny but very cold, and progress was a little slower against the flow of the Severn.  There were very few other boats about, but we joined one in Lincomb Lock, the last before Stourport.  They let us leave first, as they wanted to watch us enter the locks up to the basin so they knew where to go (although it wasn't an entirely successful plan, as they over-shot and had to double back to get into the bottom staircase).  Then it was up the York Road Lock, where we started meeting boats coming in the other direction, many of them Alvechurch hire boats. Although it was still cold, the sun came out for prolonged periods, making stretches of the canal really attractive, like Caldwall Lock.


At Kidderminster Lock we came up behind a Black Prince boat with a couple of South Africans on board who took everything very slowly.  They didn't like using the gate paddles, so each lock took an age.  At Wolverley Lock, there were boats all over the place, and we also met a boat in the narrow section just after Graham Booth's house (and boat) at Wolverley.

Our mooring for the night was at Kinver, where we saw our first moorhen chicks, on a nest on the other side of the canal.  They provided plenty of entertainment.  In the evening, we had a great meal at The Vine, next to Kinver Lock.

21 miles, 14 locks.  (75, 52)

6 comments:

Sue said...

Gosh Adam that is awful at Worcester. We only missed you by one day, being moored there until late morning on Monday.

We were moored before the footbridge going downstream just by the rowing and canoe club a bit further back from you I think.

I would urge you to email the council about what happened asking for cctv to be put in place. For sure I will be doing just that now.

We don't need Worcester to become yet another town/city not to stop in.

Hope the rest of your trip is drunkard free..

Anonymous said...

A few patches of vaseline on the roof will do the trick.

justheaven said...

We often moor overnight in Worcester. The best place is just upstream of the rowing clubs. It's much quieter there.

Steve
NB Just Heaven

Adam said...

Sue, Sorry to have missed you. In hindsight, back where you were moored would have been better, a little more off the route between town and housing.

Steve, I think you're talking about the same place as Sue. We saw your boat at Kinver today (and the other day as we went down), but there was no-one aboard either time. What a lovely mooring, though. Kinver is high up on our favourite places now.

Anon, good idea. Along with trip wires!

Sue said...

Adam,

I think Steve means the moorings the other side of the boat club upstream close to the grandstand.

It is much better there out of the site of the bridges, but we can't quite get our sat tv there.

Better for watching the racing on race days though ;-)

justheaven said...

Adam
I think we had gone for a walk when you came past JH on Sunday, pity to have missed you.

Sue
It is a good mooring for the races, but only if the weather is kind! see http://www.justheaven.org.uk/?p=456

Steve