A goose and an almighty crash.

 Time to pull the pins and make tracks or ripples I suppose.  

The lock just in front of us was empty and as David was letting off the bow rope, yes you've guessed it, a boat passed us by.

Last nights mooring spot.

The passing boat was just out of shot...

The other boat was ages and ages getting into the lock despite the lock being empty, I eventually walked up to empty it and they were just leaving.  

I offered to shut the lock gate for them and they thanked me.

We wanted water at Kinver and it seemed that they did too.  Shouldn't be a problem as two water points here.

Oh my goodness just look at the sky and that view.  This is another of David's favourite views so far on the system.

This is Hyde lock looking southwards back to Kinver.  This is David's first favourite view although the growing trees have narrowed the view since we first came this way.

Hyde Lock looking northwards and to that gorgeous mooring that we call The Wide Bend.

Well that slow boat in front of us did indeed pull into the water point, right bang in the middle of it so that we didn't fit.

We continued hoping that the water point at Stewpony was back on stream as we had received an email from CART that it was out of action during the  past week.

We did water up here at Stewpony lock and as we pulled away the slow boat was rising in the lock so we stayed ahead.

Suddenly this incredibly loud honking noise and I spotted the culprit, see?  A goose had taken up residency in the car park of all places

Sometime later the slow boat did arrive at the lock we were working.  I was about to close the gate behind David and I was a tad surprised that the husband did not offer to close it for me as I had done at Kinver lock, indeed he said okay then and walked back to the bottom gate and immediately wound up the paddle, I tried desperately to hold the gate and slow its closure but of course it slammed with a tremendous wallop!

I yelled to him that he had raised the paddle far too early but he showed no sign of having heard me.

A great method of breaking the locks in times of massive financial hardships for the waterways.

A total idiot.

This is a glorious garden at Greenforge, full of Dahlias even though I'm not a Dahlia lover the garden was terrific. 

Funnily enough that slow gate crashing  boat caught us up at Botterham Locks, bar one boat between us.  Its a staircase arrangement here and the boat in front was a single hander.  I offered to help him and he thanked me earnestly saying I've been on boats for thirty years and I am very conscious that things can go wrong very quickly.  I though him a wise one.

Well he and we cleared Botterham without incident I'm glad to say...

So once again my phone has loaded these photos in reverse order despite me selecting them in order. 

Not at all annoying.

So please go to the bottom of these few and work your way upwards  

So this is WaL almost in the top of two "Joined together" locks, towards the back or stern of WaL you can see orange netting which is surrounding a mini sink hole and that paddle isn't working so it took extra time to fill.

This is WaL entering the second lock.

This is WaL below me (I'm on a bridge in between both locks.)  You have to start the sequence by emptying the bottom lock which if you are following a boat up is already full.  

Now the top lock is emptied into the bottom lock, pretty leaky here.

This is the top lock leaking into the bottom lock as I waited to get WaL into it.

Now this is the bottom lock and it's wee footbridge, quite high and a narrow rail to hold onto. 
But oh isn't it beautiful?

Our mooring that afternoon.  It was hot and we needed the shade.

Supper was sausages.