A Hop.... 31st January 2020

Friday 31st January 2020
Droitwich Spa Marina to Hanbury Junction
0.4 miles, 3 locks

We are taking things very slowly!  First stop this morning was by car to Droitwich to walk Monty round the park (tarmac paths and a lot less mud than the towpath!) and to pop into Waitrose for our 'Friday fish' and the paper.

The boat engine was a little reluctant to start, but once it had caught, all was well and we were off

out of the marina, turn left and there in front of us was the bottom lock at Hanbury with a bottom gate open.  It was our lucky day as there was one bottom gate open on all three locks.  They were not blown open - the top one needs a wooden wedge to keep it open and that was in place.  Whilst doing ranger duties at Tardebigge recently we came across a lot of locks with one bottom gate open - we reckon someone has been down and just shut one gate to save walking round!

The side ponds were all empty, so we were draining the pounds which were looking rather low by the time we had been through.

Either one of the lock keepers nips up to the top lock regularly or maybe someone who does a ranger patrol tops up the bird feeders.  Either way I am sure the birds are very grateful.

The Severn is shown as water falling, proceed with caution - thankfully we are not going that way.

 After our mammoth journey (all 45 minutes of it!) we moored up with two other boats.  They are both Star Line hire boats from Stourport that are unoccupied  - our guess is that the last hirers got caught out by rising water on the Salwarpe and the Severn and had to be rescued by road.  We guess they will be here until the hire company need them again in the Spring.

Just as we got inside it started to rain - not much, but we certainly timed it right.