The Round Oak, B45 to Above Greensforge Lock
3.25 miles, 5 locks
As I am sure a lot of you will have gathered from my posts over the last few years, I do take great pleasure in admiring gardens that back on to canals, especially when the owners take a lot of effort and there were a lot of them we passed today.
But before we got to the gardens we went past Giggety (pronounced Jiggety) Wharf (another wonderful name) and this house
When we passed by in 2016 we had met the owners on their boat, Uranus, north of Stourport. Chris spoke to the lady yesterday and asked where the boat was - sadly advancing age had necessitated selling it, hence the empty mooring space above
And so to gardens
Nothing special I know, but it did occur to me that you would have to keep control of your lawn mower!
The plan had been to stop in Womborne, so I could pop in to Sainsburys. There are two moorings on rings and two boats already moored up. Someone was smiling down on us as one pulled out as we arrived. Off I went leaving Chris to go down the weed hatch, dip the diesel tank, clean the bilges and generally clean up the back deck. When I returned he was just starting to sweep the back deck. What on earth had he been doing? Chatting to the boat owner behind us! The boat was Montgomery Pickles Esq. Not a common name I am sure you would agree and there was a tale to tell.....!
Montgomery Pickles is, I gather, a very famous duck - well he would be if his story had been published, but to date it hasn't!! I gather he was a duck who wanted to enlist in WWI, but was sent packing because he was a duck. Could he join the messenger pigeons? No, he was a duck - too big and too slow! He went to France anyway hoping someone would take him on, but was still snubbed until the day there was just one pigeon left. A group of soldiers were trapped by the enemy and a message was needed to be sent urgently. The one remaining pigeon left with the message, but it was shot down. Montgomery Pickles had followed; he swooped down, retrieved the message and delivered it safely. Reserves were sent, the soldiers were saved, Montgomery flew back to France spotting, en route, that the pigeon was just wounded, so down he went to pick up the pigeon and carry it to safety. He was a hero. Then Chris also mentioned that Montgomery Pickles had been the boater's wife's goldfish!! Far more interesting than bilges and weed hatches! A tall tale maybe?? Whatever it was it was spellbinding and apparently much more interesting than bilges!
Jobs done we resumed our journey.
The first lock was a staircase of two. It was full, so we were able to sail straight in. My first job was to empty the bottom lock whilst Chris shut the top gate and was ready to open the paddles to descend from the first to the second lock.
The top lock has quite a serious leak at the top end
which runs all the way down well past the bottom lock
This was the view looking across the towpath to the distant fields - quite some conflagration somewhere
Moving on to the next lock and no my camera is not faulty. The smoke followed us both visually and aromatically most of the way to the next lock,
which was empty, so needed to be filled. There are warnings on all locks with gate paddles that they can cause turbulence, so ground paddles need to be opened first or boats will be bashed around all over the place. However, when the lock is empty you can go for it!
This is posted for Evelyn - she spotted him on the way north. I don't think he has caught any fish yet as his keep net is still empty!
More lovely gardens
Who could resist this really elegant heron
WARNING - if you go through Swindon Lock, beware this innocent looking little hole by the off side ground paddle! The surrounding bricks were bone dry before I raised the paddles. The 'fountain' effect was quite spectacular and made Monty move with great speed.
Two more gardens that caught my eye
Today we had a definite target as we have a very important appointment tomorrow. Some of you may remember that on the way north back in April we stopped at J&H Trimmings based in Ashwood Marina, Kingswingford for the boat to be measured us for a new cratch cover. Well tomorrow (Tuesday) they are going to fit it, so we needed to be in the vicinity. We knew there is one 48 hour mooring above Greensforge lock which was our mooring of choice, but the chances of it being available were slim. Our fall back was the rather narrow and dark bit of canal below the lock. We arrived at Greensforge to find the 48 hour mooring occupied, so we moored at the service area, connected the hose and turned the water on. Why is it when you want to grab a quick lunch and really would welcome a very slow tap, you find you have one of the strongest flows on the system! The tap was turned down to a slow trickle. We lunched, turned up the tap, got rid of the rubbish and yellow water and no one had arrived wanting water (there are two taps, so we reckoned we would be okay), so we got away with it.
We only had one boat go past us today. Compared to the Trent and Mersey it is deathly quiet round here and even once we had moored very few boats went past and only one called in for the services, so I guess we could have stayed there all night and no one would have noticed!
Back to the service point - once we had finished I walked down below the lock to see if there were any spaces. Whilst I was searching I got a call from Chris - the boat on the 48 hour mooring was moving on! By the time I got back, Chris had moved the boat back and was tying up. Someone was smiling down on us again. So tomorrow we have just one lock and about a quarter of a mile to go to get to J&H Trimmings for 10am.
We have a side hatch view of The Greensforge Memorial garden - a place for anyone who wants a place to just be quiet and remember loved ones, or just to escape a busy life for a few moments to visit. It was established by volunteers.
Sadly it is looking rather overgrown and sad
The bird houses are still there
but compare the above to photos taken in 2016
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