Wet tunnel, dry tunnel, wet air, damp air

Thursday 19^th October; King’s Norton to Tardebigge top pound

In spite of the torrents of rain all night we slept well.  There was no wind to speak of and we weren’t under trees to drip on us.  It stopped raining before we left, so Meg got another good walk in the park.  Dave stuck to the paths, as the grass had standing water on it.  It was gone 10 when we left, in dry weather, though Wast Hills tunnel was extremely wet.  We met two boats in the tunnel and could see another apparently waiting at the entrance.  He must have been there for 15 minutes or more and anxiously asked if anyone was behind us.  Was he a first timer?  Had his headlamp failed?  Did he think it was a narrow tunnel?  Who knows.

We started to see small areas of floating pennywort as we neared Lower Bittell reservoir.  I have never noticed it here before.  We have been this way so many times there is little new to photograph, until the bridge a little way further along. 

This has appeared since we were last this way

We moored just before the Crown Meadow arm for lunch.  This was our final mooring with Chuffed before she went on brokerage at Alvechurch marina, and I seem to remember what I thought was a clump of water-lilies on the far side.  It may have been pennywort!  Look at it now.

Wretched invader

It started raining just after we finished mooring.  Should we continue to Tardebigge after lunch?  It will probably rain this afternoon and tomorrow’s forecast is pretty poor.  We opted to move on, and maybe we shouldn’t have.  It was ok till we reached the marina, when the rain started, lightly at first.  No boats on the move now.  It was that light but very steady rain, relentless.  Every now and then we could see a patch of blue sky, but not enough to make a pair of trousers and the rain didn’t stop.  At least Shortwood and Tardebigge tunnels were dry.  A share boat had just come out of the top lock, the crew cheerful now they’d got all the work out of the way.  We moored in the long pound below the top lock, choosing the most open area.  As we tied up, an ABC hire boat came along heading for the top lock, returning to base at Alvechurch.  They must have done most of the flight in the rain.  The was one sodden crew member on the bank, two on the boat, and not a waterproof to be seen.  How can you go on an outdoor holiday in this country and not even take a brolly?  Another hire boat was right behind them, the steerer paddling in bare feet and rolling his trousers up as he passed.  At least it’s not cold today.   Sadly the pennywort has made it through the tunnels and down the first lock.  There have been so many small pieces in the water that we wondered if the weed boat had been through. 

Tardebigge church tower from 2015

Our level of data on the wi-fi contract is quite low now, as the website won’t let us get extra for some reason.  It updates on Saturday.  The phone signal here is too weak to get online, so we are saving our data for checking the weather in the morning.  Will we do the rest of the flight tomorrow or not?  We’ll see.

8¾ miles; Wast Hills, Shortwood and Tardebigge tunnels; Tardebigge top lock.

**At the time I wrote this I was still unable to add pictures to the blog.  It seems to be fixed now, after the Mozilla Support Forum came up with an answer.  There may be other issues though, to do with trackers, so I won't post the details yet.