Retirement with No Problem

Moat House Bridge to Bridge 8 (Close Brewood), Staff & Worc and Shropshire Union Canals, 8.5 miles 1 lock

We pulled pins fairly early this morning to meet up with Mr Tesco somewhere around Cross Green by 11am, and we eventually moored just a smidge past the Fox & Anchor pub.  A perfect place with a pull in right opposite where we moored.  We were only there 10 minutes when Mr Tesco phoned for final directions, and soon the groceries were aboard….

Just a matter of putting it away now.. blimey, the grandchildren for the week almost ate me out of house and home, we sure were short of supplies!

Onward then with no particular place in mind to moor for the evening, although Kiera and I would be looking for an ideal spot so we could go out walking this evening with Lucy..

We were extremely lucky at the half mile narrow cutting known as ‘Pendeford Rockin’ as we neared the junction with the Shropshire Union Canal..

Quote “Pendeford Rockin’ or The Narrows was known to generations of boatmen.  Here, on either side of Forster Bridge, the early navvies met an outcrop of Keuper Sandstone which was enough of a problem to their primitive technology to force them to dig a shallow, narrow cutting.  Stretching for about 600 yards, it is only about ten feet deep but is only wide enough for one boat.  Three passing places were dug out, one by the towpath side and two on the off side.”

Nobody coming in the other direction, and here looking back..

We are in ‘cutting country’ now, and we shall be meeting places like this very often.  High banked sides cut into the stone, and extremely narrow in places allowing only one narrowboat through at a time.  There are some passing places like on a quiet country lane, but they are not very big, and I wondered if No Problem would actually fit in one.. heh, no doubt I will find out!

The outskirts of Wolverhampton followed soon after this, and the urban sprawl with lots of rubbish in the canal, although, to be fair, there is a lot of nice landscaping down to the towpath, but soon it was the dreaded right turn into the Shropshire Union Canal.  I say dreaded, I am not yet used to the 67ft length of No Problem, and am having trouble turning, but today I got it smack on much to my amazement, and I didn’t know it, but it was not a 90 degree turn, it seemed to come back further than that on a dog leg.  Then I was faced with the stop lock of just 6 inches.. poor Vic couldn’t tell which gates paddles to open, should he fill it or empty it? Teehee, tis impossible to tell!

But here we are safely in the lock much to the annoyance of a boat coming the other way.. I think we pinched the lock of 6 inches of water.. well for sure there was no way I was going to back out of there and out onto the Staff and Worc again!

The stop lock is there so the two canal companies could not pinch water from each other, and of course to collect their tolls for using the canal.  No tolls for us today though, but I wonder if ever BW will start charging for using canals as well as a British Waterways Licence.  Oh there has been a bit of talk about that for sure!

It was odd to see a hire base of Napton Narrowboats here at the wharf.. but ice cream was on the cards today so we pulled over.

We found a VERY nice mooring for the evening, and Kiera and I took Lucy on a lovely round trip walk of some 3 miles.. sheeesh that gal sure can walk.. she is very clever too, she can walk 3 miles and talk for 3 miles at the same time!.. She has crashed in her bunk tonight though, while my ears take a well earned rest! ..