Down in Droitwich

Destination Droitwich 2014 part 4

April 2014

A glorious day to be messing about on the river!

The weather hit new highs for 2014 which the temperature in the high teens driven on my a steady supply of sunshine.

Just messing about on the water....

By the time he had filled and swilled at the Stourport services, and made the near obligatory visit to Limekiln Chandlers we dropped down the two staircase locks into a sluggish River Severn which was very much in summer mode. No fear of floods today although the mud from the winter levels was still much in evidence.

The trip down the river was quite beautiful, the sun sparkling off the water and a warm breeze encouraging us to discard our fleeces in favour of tee shirts. 

Droitwich Barge Canal

We were fortunate in pairing up with a hire boat at Stourport which trailed us down the river and then into the Droitwich Barge Canal, the two boats making light work of the wide beam locks with Helen setting the locks ahead and the other boat closing up behind us. The Droitwich is getting much more established these days, with a few ad hoc moorings here and there and a wider navigation channel.

Its amazing that even after boating all these years its till possible to do something dangerously stupid? On our way up I hooked the centre rope onto a rather fat bollard and then as the lock emptied it pulled the boat forward and in doing so it started to slip the rope off the top of the bollard. Stupidly I stamped down on the rope just at the full weight of the boat was coming to bear on it and the tightening rope snatched my heel between itself and the bollard. Hmm, I thought as I tried to twist my foot out of the jaws - this could be trouble. As luck would have it I was wearing heavy steelies and the tough heel took the brunt of the squeeze and I emerged with just a slightly bruised foot. Good job I had forgotten my sandals....

Helen working lockside

And so we arrived in Droitwich, mooring just behind Sandra and Barry (aka The Homebrew Boat) and set about sampling some cocktails made with Wild Side cordials accompanied by a curry. I can honestly say the the first three tasted great but then my discernment left me and I found myself unable to provide any objective criticism.

So here we are, ready for our first festival afloat for the 2014 season. The sun is shining, the event infrastructure is being assembled around is and even the weather is set fair for the weekend. If you are in the Midlands and looking for a day out.... come to St Richards Festival at Droitwich.