Stourbridge for drinks
Meeting some friends in Stourbridge for a drink on Saturday 27th November and decided to travel down by boat. A bus from my house takes about an hour, the trip by boat takes a day-and-a-half!
Started out at about midday on the Friday and managed to just get through Bratch before it got to dark. Moored just below Bratch and settled in for the evening, woken up during the night by heavy rain and winds. I didn’t know at the time, but this was Storm Arwen.
Woke up in the morning ready to set off, but discovered that snow had fallen overnight. I decided to wait until the snow melted before moving off, although this put me behind scheduled.
The rest of day was uneventful until I reached Stourton Junction. I was about to turn into the locks when I was told that the third lock up was out of action (a gate was being replaced). So much for mooring in Stourbridge and going for a pub crawl. There was nothing for it, but to go through the bridge and moor opposite Stewpony Wharf.
Unfortunately I didn’t notice the tree that appeared to be half blocking the bridge hole and got stuck about half-way through. To cut a long story short the friends I was due to go drinking with came down to Stewpony and after much pulling on ropes and pushing with the boat-pole helped me through the bridge hole.
After mooring the boat we drove into Stourbridge for a drink and a meal. Then a taxi back to the boat later in the evening.
The plan for Sunday was to start the return journey and arrive back home sometime on the Monday. However a quick look at the fallen tree and it was clear that although I had managed to drive over it the previous afternoon there was no way I would be able to reverse back through the bridge hole.
A quick call to C&RT established that due to storm Arwen several trees had been uprooted on the Staffs & Worcester and it was unlikely that that the tree would be removed on Sunday. So spent all day on the boat hoping that the tree would be cleared on Monday. Fortunately at about 10am on Monday a gang of contactors appeared and started to cut up & remove the tree.
I was back underway by midday and with the help of some some unseasonal weather (very warm & dry) I was able to make good progress and got home late on the Tuesday. 5 days just to have a Saturday evening drink with some mates, the joy of boating.