"Vic's Trick"

Let's be having yer.... here's your tea now up you get,  this are David's words at about 5:45 this am.... actually I didn't need to be reminded of why we were doing this sneaky sneaky thing.  Its to be certain of getting the advantage of the leaking locks, they should be empty for us, in theory saving the lockkie crew lots of hard work.

This is what dawn looks like here.

MY bike out again, although his outfits matches it.

Pretty eh?

So all going along quite nicely, my back was having an off day,  I opened the first lock's gates, then David took over.  

We crept past the two big hire boats as silently as WaL could manage.

All was going well, as WaL came up in the lock, I got off and wound down one paddle, opened the gate, wound down the paddle and exited, David came flying back on the bike and shuts the gate after me.  Good Team work I say.  It works extremely well on the is long flight as the locks are all very close together. 

Now Amanda has stayed in this cottage

And you can too by following this link   HERE  

I was puzzled by this bridge at first glance..... a little unnerved even, see it?

The bridge doesn't touch one end!  Unusual.

 On seeing this cottage, my IMMEDIATE thought was this
HERE   go see if it was yours too, in fact, stop reading this and go listen to that, its hilarious, solid gold.

Radio Ham lives here!!!!

Stopped laughing yet?   

Now I expect  many of you have read Sue on NB No Problem's tremendous blog    HERE   now I learnt a clever trick from Vic, Sue's husband a few years ago.  Now David and I are blessed with very modest inside leg measurements so leaping across the gates is out of the question for us....  Vic kicks the other gate open, thus saving 140ft walking on each lock, clever eh?
Here is David demonstrating manoeuvre;

Also note example of shocking mooring, on the lock landing, on a pin, on a very long rope making the bloody boat swing out into my way.  The boat was locked up the owners gone away, so thats alright then.

He approaches....

Getting things moving...

This is the exact point on not to let go or lose your balance

Bingo, "Vic's Trick"

Another unspoilt cottage.

Finally at the top, we met two boats only coming down and had to empty only one lock.  I had it easy but we both MUCH prefer this flight to doing the Hatton Flight up into Birmingham.  What about you?

22 years ago this was boarded up when we did the Avon Ring with small children, now looking interesting.

So we finished, but not for the day.  David had a little rest, then cycled 20 odd miles to get the car then drove to Kings Orchard Marina which is on the Coventry canal, to meet Amanda, now I should have gone with him, but I couldn't have managed the biking bit.....  David got lost and went to the wrong marina, he had a furious row with Googlemaps and I am not sure if they are speaking again yet.

Luckily, Amanda soothed his brow and by the time they returned to the boat, he was almost happy.

We set off again towards Birmingham, not much in the way of moorings along here, short squabble as whether to fill with water at the top of the flight, he says "Well do you want to fill up here?", I indicate yes, he ignores me, carries on past then says "Oh did you say yes?  I didn't hear you, I'm not reversing now"   

Tardebigge Tunnel, a few drips in here.

Brick work looks good.

No boats anywhere, just a tree avenue.

Here is one half of the Boat Sharer couple.

So as I mentioned 22 years ago, we did the Avon Ring from Stoke Prior.  My children saw this exact wee boat, totally bedecked in flowers and gleaming.   I took photos of it for them and the nice owner posed too.  Its looking a bit sadder now.

We moored up about 5pm, late for us and not a minute too soon.  I was cold and hungry, David was tired and bad tempered,(He was allowed to be though).   Amanda was happy to be onboard.

Early nights all around