Tardebigge Locks

07.40 start for us on Thursday last week from our mooring at Tardebigge Wharf.  It was supposed to be fine until after lunch ...

… but the rain started within a minute or so of setting off to the first (no.58) of 30 locks today.

All the locks were against us and by 20 past 8 we’d come through the top 4 ...

20 to 10 and we’ve done a total of 12 so far, not bad, we’re taking it easy ...

This is when I looked back and saw that a boat was catching us … putting a bit of pressure on George to keep at least one lock ahead of them.  It was a hire boat with 4 gents onboard one of whom helped by opening and closing the bottom gates of each lock as I left while George was busy ahead setting the next one down.

A keen radio ham must live in this lock cottage, I wonder who he’s listening to?

In the pound (stretch of water between two locks) between locks 38 and 37 I pull over to allow working boat Comet pass by.  This is the 3rd Harland and Wolff GUCCC Start class boat built in 1935 that we’ve seen in the last few days.

Plenty of water coming down too!

More receiving and transmitting going on here too.

11.25 and that’s the 30 locks under our belt in 3.75 hours - the help given to us by the crew of the boat following us must have saved us at least an hour and we thanked them profusely! 

We moored up just below the flight at Stoke Pound … and we’re off the The Queen’s Head for dinner this evening ...

Lovely place, friendly staff, very efficient service, great food (if a little pricey) and a fantastic atmosphere.

What a brilliant time we had!

We shall stay here until Sunday as the weather forecast for the next few days is wet, wet, wet and windy too!