Note (sorry that this was posted late - I've had connection problems - a bit of a problem in the middle of the countryside)Alan woke early and went for a walk while I continued to doze. By 8:00 he was back at the boat and ready to get going, as we thought it would take a long time to get out of Birmingham and into the open countryside.
Chalice moored near the Sea Life centre
As it looked like being a dry day I decided to tackle the backlog of washing that had built up. I'm still very impressed with our tiny twin tub - it gets the washing very clean, and reasonably dry. I then festooned the front of the boat with a rack of drying t-shirts, which does nothing for Chalice's appearance.
It's a long way to the first three locks, then another several miles before you meet the Wolverhampton 21. As we got to the top of this flight Alan decided that we had collected something around the prop - so he went down the weed hatch and pulled out a mass of tangled plastic bags and rags. A boater coming up the flight told us that it had taken them three and a half hours - so we thought that we should not be boating too late into the evening.
As it was we found that we had a working boat behind us, with the crew pushing us hard. I don't like to give in if we aren't slowing someone down so we pulled out all the stops, Alan and David working the boat, and me lock-wheeling ahead. As it was we finished the flight in 2 hours 20 minutes.
Then onto the Staffs and Worcs canal, through the very narrow cutting, which has only a few designated passing places, and then try to get a few miles done and find a mooring that wasn't too near the motorway or railway.Passing through the cutting.
We moored in the middle of a field not far south of Hatherton, fairly near to a bridge. Then Alan and I went for a walk, where we found these amazing striped caterpillars - they are the caterpillars of the cinnabar moth, and they eat ragwort - which they help to control.
Back at the boat we watched as hire boat after hire boat hit the bridge hole. All the Viking Aground boats hooted their horns repeatedly at every slight bend - possibly they are being given an unrealistic view of things by the hire company?
The scariest was a boat which came past at full throttle, with four children fighting constantly on the roof, while wrapped in the boat's duvets. I did wonder for their safety.
Miles: 20.8 , Locks: 24
Total Miles:124.5 , Total Locks: 144
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