No Photographs

Been clicking away with the camera over the last few days taking lots of interesting photees but when it came to download them onto the PC for the blog, discovered that I had brought the wrong connecting lead! Sorry.
Left our delightful moorings in Droitwich basin this morning and worked through the town's swing bridges towards the dreaded M5 tunnel. With tiller pin removed (the highest point on the boat) we were able to slip under the gauge bar with a good 100mm to spare so confidently proceeded to the tunnel with heads ducked, No problem, so this meant we could proceed with the rest of our planned circular voyage.
We got to the last three locks on the Droitwich Junction canal and were met by a C&RT locky volunteer on a bicycle. He took us up through these as they operate in a different way to the norm. They use sideponds that fill the lock to half full then they are closed and the top paddles are operated as normal. This saves half a lock full of water each time the lock is used. Trouble with sideponds is that the water flows in from the side, hits the wall the other side and pushes the boat up against the lock wall scraping the side on the way up; hence the term "Lock Rash".
At the junction we noticed that all the residential boats previously there are all gone now.
After passing through the five Astwood locks on the Worcester and Birmingham canal we stopped off at Stoke Wharf to empty the Elsan. The only place we could find to moor in order to carry out this operation was in Stoke Bottom lock. This is the home base for the Black Price hire company and there were no less than 34 of them moored 3 or 4 abreast! Must be a grim start for the season for the hire business.
We are moored between Stoke Top lock and Tardebigge Bottom lock outside The Queens Head. This pub has been extensively and tastefully refurbished since our last visit in September 2012. Needlessly to say we have booked in for an evening meal before tackling the Tardebigge flight in the morning. (It is the longest flight of locks in the UK, comprising 30 narrow locks on a two and a quarter mile stretch).