Destination Droitwich Day 2
Botterham to Kinver
April 2014
A boating day nearing perfection - Warm, sunny, almost no other boats and great company!
I thought boat volumes were picking up when two came through Botterham staircase before 9.30 but it was not to be. Maybe I passed five boats all day, certainly no more. Effectively we had the canal to ourselves and I indulged in a spot of Wild Garlic and Nettle picking at the boat sat in the lock with little fear of interruption.
Bluebells on the Staffs and Worcester Canal
Things were also slow at Bratch. The asst lock keeper, and my recovery crew for this trip, advised that they had seen just five boats by lunch time.
Helen was busy below decks working on 20 jars of Wild Garlic Jelly followed by 20 jars of Red Onion Marmalade with a couple of loads of Nettle Cordial on the way. None of this is for sale at Droitwich as he have no label printer aboard so these will come home with us ready for our trip to Eritrea (sorry Helen struggles with Etruria!) at the end of May.
So we drifted along, mostly with me working the locks solo but at the back of my mind I keep expecting to see Phil Clayton on Marsh Harrier ploughing up the canal behind me, also on the way to Droitwich. There are some similarities between us - we do jam whereas he is a musician and likes to jam!
Rock outcrops alongside the canal
Good news on the Butty front - Montgomery will be ready for collection on the 17th May. I cant help but keep glancing over my shoulder and wonder how it will be with 24ft of iron and steel hanging behind us.
So we rocked into Kinver at 4.00pm and with Helen busy cooking I set to on the right hand side of the boat, working away hard with G3 compound which stripped off the dull layer of green and brought it up like new. Its a bit of a sweat but beats repainting the side. I will leave you with my final photo of the day - one I have just taken as I sit here in the bed and type up today's blog post.
Kinver orse ole
5 comments:
Are you going to be at Crick this year?
Hi Adam
No - whilst it was a good event from a trade point of view it was all a bit too much like real work. Instead we are having a bank holiday off. I will be attending a BCNS photographic workshop and Wand'ring Bark will be heading to Etruria in the hand of one of our relief crews.
That's a shame. We were hoping to catch up with you both.
Adam - are you there all weekend? We may come as punters rather than exhibitionists!
We are -- and we're taking BR as well, so should be fairly easy to find.
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