Day Fifteen - Braunston Junction via Stoke Prior to Alvechurch

This was a big day. Henk and I set out at seven fifteen to get to the Napton Marina by nine o’clock to return the boat. We had to be off the boat by nine thirty. Whilst Henk steered the boat I madly cleaned up, tidied up and packed so we could get off the boat very quickly. We arrived just after nine and Lyn and Bill were waiting for us. It was good to see them.
Bill packed their hire care with our luggage whilst Henk and I completed the necessary paperwork. We’ll be returning to the Napton Marina next Saturday to hire another boat. When we finalised the paperwork we found that Liz and Tomas had left us a present of wonderful Thorntons chocolates and wine. Thankyou Liz and Tomas.
It took us an hour to drive from Napton to Stoke Prior Marina. We arrived at about eleven but our boat wasn’t ready as the pick up time was two thirty. They said that our boat called ‘Gillian” would be ready in an hour which made us review our route. We decided to go anti-clockwise and tackle the Tardebigge Locks - all 36 of them! It says in the canal book that “Tardebigge represents a boater’s Rite of Passage. Once you have tackled this flight….which amount to thirty-six locks, however fiendish, however formidable, pale into insignificance.” And so on the first afternoon of Bill and Lyn’s experience on a canal boat we put them well and truly to the test and they passed with flying colours. We got into a rhythm and tackled the thirty-six locks in four hours. Bill picked up the steering like a duck to water and Lyn mastered the principles of the locks very quickly. We were tired when we finished but were chuffed that we had done it. We had a well earned cup of tea at the finish.
The good thing of going anti-clockwise is that we will be in Worcester this Thursday rather than tomorrow, a Sunday when some attractions won’t be open.
We had a good pub dinner at the Crown Inn which we moored next to and went to bed early after a very busy day.
Photos to come: The dog serving us at Napton Marina; Inside our boat, “Gillian”; Lyn learning the locks and Bill supervising.