30 Locks Before Lunch

The nights sleep was interrupted numerous times with dogs barking, a crew of the boat behind talking on the towpath in the early hours and some music in the distance that was playing all the way through.
So, it was up at 6:15, through with the three Esses, breakfast and cast off to tackle the Tardebigge flight. There was method in our madness as all the locks had drained overnight and thus were set for us. An added bonus was that the heat of the day didn't hit us until we summited at 11:25am in 4hrs 5mins just beating our previous best. No it wasn't a race, its just that we had all the luck going our way for a change.

Views from the Tardebigge Reservoir

An interesting vortex at a top gate

She can still do it!!

But not without cost

Lunch was had at the top

Whilst we were coming up the flight Keith got a stoppage alert from CART to say that the canal was totally blocked  with a sunken boat at Alvechurch that was only 2 miles away. Keith got out one of the Bromptons to investigate and sure enough it was true.

We decided to moor up a little closer and join the que of boats waiting. When we got there CART, Anglo Welsh and Alvechurch marina had got together and managed to drag it across the bottom of the canal with a winch tied to a tree sufficient for craft to pass with care.

The story goes that a couple broke up and the bloke set fire to it and then deliberately sunk it. Needless to say it had caused long queues in both directions. It will be raised tomorrow so we look forward to the fun!