TIMBER!!!!!

 

Gosh it seems a long time ago now………….. it must have been a long day……………..but this morning we left Stourbridge and arrived at the bottom the 16 locks to find one boat just leaving the first lock and another just about to go in.  So we followed them both up the flight, and of course met no one coming down. 

 

 

We like this flight, it is pretty and not too hard, we got to the top at about 12.30, time to make lunch to eat on the move before we got to the next flight, Delph locks.

However approaching Brierley Bridge on the Dudley No.1 canal, the two boats in front of us were stopped and putting in pins, so we had to do the same.

There was a tree down, blocking the cut, and C&RT had been called, so we would have to just be patient and wait……….

 

Or maybe have a go ourselves………..

 

 

Sitting on the bow of nb Fragil, Ian had a go with the bow saw and several branches were removed and thrown on to the bank.

 

 

 

 

But it wasn’t long before the real men arrived with the real tools and got on with the real job of cutting and clearing the tree.

 

They were very quick and efficient and by 3pm all was clear and we could get through, after nb Fragil and collected some of the bigger bits, which the timber men had cut into small logs for them.

 

At Delph locks we again followed, nb Fragil and Angel’s Whisper up the flight, and now we had another boat behind us, quite a convoy of us.

 

The wind began to pick up and the darker clouds were gathering, but it was still dry and when the other crews stopped at Merry Hill, we carried on as our plan had been to get to Hawne Basin, but with the delay we would have to see how far we could get before it got too dark.

And that meant we stopped at Bumble Hole, where we are being rocked by the increasing wind, but are hopefully not too close to trees which may fall!

 

8 miles, 25 locks