trent

The White Hare is safely moored up in Droitwich after our maiden journey bringing her back from Whilton Marina. We started out on 27th December, and arrived at Droitwich early yesterday morning. A few experiences from the trip: Buckby Locks - like all locks as far as we can see on the GU, hard work! Braunston Tunnel - Long and slightly kinky! Watch out for the air vents in wet weather, you'll get drenched.Hatton Locks - don't believe anyone who tells you you can't moor up overnight, there is ample room right up until the delightfully named Ugly Bridge Road. Kingswood Junction/ Lapworth Locks - what a beautiful village, lovely locks, good dinner, if a tad expensive, at The Boot. Top end of Stratford canal, bit iffy, quite a lot of debris in the canal. Someone has been hard at work cutting trees up there too, there are piles of logs everywhere. Tardebigge, on New Years Morning. A steep learning curve. Our mate from Hanbury, Barry, had come up to help us out. On the way, he saw that several top gates were open, and pounds were empty. In order to get down, we had to let some water in and follow it down. Of course, this only stored up problems then further down below the reservoir, where the pounds were already full to overflowing. An old chap about halfway down greeted us with the comment "you're the first boat down the flight this year" I'd not thought of it like that, but think we should be entitled to some sort of badge! Anyway, the water levels in the pounds kept rising, and we then had to let some water down just to open the top gates. My wife, riding the crest of a wave, came steaming into the lock, hit the gate, and knocked me flying into the full lock. For a fairly big bloke, I was out of there like a shot, but wife had quickly slammed into reverse. Disaster avoided! Just a soaking and a dented pride. Barry and wife laughing their socks off once they saw I was okay. Eventually made the end of Tardebigge, one last night on the boat and into Droitwich Marina yesterday morning. An eventful trip, and our boat is now twenty minutes from home. looking forward to some good weather so I can get across and do a few of those niggling little jobs.

Having recently bought our boat from Whilton Marina, we have to get it back to Droitwich during the Christmas holidays, so it will be a bit of a slog for us. We have a week to do it before the locks at Stoke and Aston are serviced. Looking forward to it though, our "maiden voyage".