where have all the kingfishers gone ?

enjoying your ride?

Foxxie mega-depressed after Amy left !

OK, your wait is over impatient cars at Shirley liftbridge

well, we just had to sample some of their wares!

in Tardebigge tunnel looking backwards

another shot in Tardebigge Tunnel looking forwards

someday my prince will come  (if only I could see the frog !)

What's that big top hole for in Bridge 10 by Lowesmoor Basin in Worcester ?

This week we have done …. back up to Kingswood Junction and carried on the Stratford to Norton Junction and took the Birmingham & Worcester Canal pointing towards Worcester where we arrived this afternoon and are currently moored close to the city centre. Zillions of locks this week - in fact, number of locks down now exceeds number of miles done! This is mainly because we came down the Tardebigge Flight of 30 locks on Monday.

oh, and I must praise British Waterways this week ---- at lock 33 on the Tardebigge Flight a narrowboat got stuck in as a piece of the metalwork on the bottom gate had fallen off and wedged the gate so it wouldn’t open fully. Along came the BW chaps and soon flushed the boat out and then stayed to help other boats through (including us) until they closed the lock to go down and sort it out which they did in record time as we moored at bottom of flight and they came down very soon after with mission accomplished.

Saw our first kingfisher since Setting Off ---- this last winter must have really decimated their numbers which is a huge shame as they are such beautiful birds you associate with canals.

Called at a super bakery about 50 yards from bridge 20 on the Stratford (see picture below) where we indulged in a sourdough loaf (and no, we didn’t pay £21 for it !!! - see this http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1284943/The-best-thing-sliced-bread-.html), pork pie, ham and a fruit pie.

Can anyone beat holding up 15 vehicles at a lift bridge? Well, that is a new record for us when we went through Shirley Liftbridge last Saturday.

Good thing this week was having a video call with our friends Ethan and Nancy who live near Boston in the USA. Used Skype for the first time ever and it was brilliant. We could talk and see each other live - what a brilliant free bit of internet magic.

Going to say in Worcester tomorrow as I want to wander round the shops without Dai nagging me to hurry up and why do I want to look in that shop and also take a look around Worcester Cathedral and hopefully the sun will shine all day just like it has today!

Since last blog we have done … 34 miles and 80 locks.
This makes total since Setting Off ….. 481 miles and 504 locks.