Thursday 30 August 2012

Droitwich town

The junction off the Worcester & Birmingham is at a wonderfully obtuse angle....
Junction hidden immediately under bridge to left
A bit of backward and forward shuffling was required
Soon after the junction was the rather barren looking and sparsely populated Droitwich Spa Marina
Staircase locks 4 and 5
very narrow passage through the reeds for long stretches.

and then guess what?
This small deer must have fallen in
We followed him very slowly for ages hoping he would find a way out but eventually decided to creep past him.  We just hoped that he could find a way out as we couldn't see a way to help him.



Soon afterwards we were approaching the very low culvert that has been dug under the M5
Would we fit underneath
Just!
bend ze knees.....
Not too long but very very low
Daylight and then another low one, but not quite so tight
Not so long and not so low
We then had the last run into Droitwich, another 2 locks and 3 swing bridges.  At the last lock together with swing bridge over we met a single hander going the other way.........and thought what a problem he had ahead of him.    One of the locks had bottom gates that refused to stay open...as fast as Geoff left one side to open the opposite side, the other gate shut and it took a lot of manoeuvring to get out.  If Emma had been out of bed at this stage it would have been a lot easier..........
We reached Netherwich Basin in the centre of Droitwich and had a choice of several pontoon moorings.
The moorings are in a secure place (Locked gate) and pleasant surroundings.

Barney was initially not too sure about the pontoons but quickly got the hang of climbing out onto a not too stable platform......
3.72 miles, 8 locks, 3hrs 5 min


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