Kamikaze coot

Sunday 27^th April; above Stourton locks to Stourbridge extension canal

It’s hard to believe it now – I am nearly a week behind with the blog and we’re currently having a heatwave – but today was very chilly to start with! 

Early morning chill

By the time we reached the bottom of the Stourbridge flight at 9 o’clock it was warming up nicely.  The first couple of locks were ready for us, so no need to empty them first.  Jess discovered very quickly that the footboards on the top gates are not what she is used to and she fell in when she tried to jump on from the offside.

Not easy for humans either.  The handrail is at knee height if you walk on the top of the beam, or you have to hold on to it and walk sideways along the footboard (not visible from this angle) and reach round the paddle gear to get to the other side.

The towpath was very busy, with runners, cyclists, dog walkers and families from Stourbridge enjoying the sunshine.

Heavy duty steel props, bottom gates, second lock up.  Not only are the gates very heavy to push, but the locks are also deep, and the gates slightly too far apart to consider stepping across to close up.  So they take longer to work through.

Above lock 11 a pair of Canada geese had recently hatched their brood – the first we’ve seen.  Jess was kept on the towpath side, needless to say!

We met a boat coming down before the half-way point, so the rest of the locks were in our favour.  Soon after that we were at the not-quite-a-staircase pair of locks, similar to the ones at the Bratch but with a few extra feet of pound between them.

Moving between the two locks.  The bottom gates of the second lock are immediately beyond the footbridge.  Jess watches from above.

Dadford’s shed and the Glass Cone, taken from the footbridge in the previous picture.

Bonjour was nearly half-way up the top lock of the pair, the roof being at the same level as the towpath, when there was a sudden flurry of wings – a pair of coot zoomed in to land, probably thinking the roof was water, but only one managed to pull out when they realised their mistake.  The second crashed into the lock wall and vanished down the side of the boat.  Dave held the boat over as best he could and moved right back to give it space to get to the bow, while I rushed to close the ground paddles, but there was no need - the water had stopped boiling and the coot was safely bobbing about.

Foaming water but boiling no longer

There was no question of using the gate paddles, of course.  It got itself onto the cill and then up onto a higher section at one side and started preening itself.  The water level slowly rose, and eventually was high enough for it to get itself out onto the lockside and run off.  I expect it has got some nasty bruising but it didn’t otherwise appear to be injured.

Our first cygnet sighting.  You might think the adult is looking lovingly at her little fluffy darlings, but I’m sure she is just preening

And then, oh joy!  John the Lock appeared, as we had hoped.  For a while his friend, another John, helped with the gates but then went off home.  A walker stopped to make sure we ‘knew about’ John – as someone slightly ‘different’, people who don’t know him have sometimes been unpleasant and she has ‘put people right’ before now! 

One of the locks has 2 separate gate paddles where the water shoots out straight towards the boat, rather than a central one which has a baffle plate in front to sent the flow out sideways.  We were very careful there.  I didn’t want to flood the well deck!

Careful with those gate paddles

We had a bit of a delay with a low pound near the top of the flight, where a top paddle on the lock below had been left partly raised, and although Bonjour stuck on the way out of that lock, and on the way into the next, we managed to let down enough water and soon after that we were up the flight – 16 heavy deep locks in 3 hours, not bad.  A boat was arriving as we left the top lock, and we pottered on along the Fens branch, a dead end - hey! you’re going the wrong way! from a fisherman, but we weren’t - and we turned into the Stourbridge Extension Canal and moored, no-one else around, in good time for lunch.  But before we ate, there was the prop to be cleared of whatever had been causing a loud clicking sound.

A length of heavy duty plastic had lovingly entwined itself around a branching twig which is much larger than it appears in the photo.

After lunch I walked round the far end of this short stub to pick up the towpath and then the footpath to Namaino Way where there is a convenience store, for some milk.  The towpath opposite was a good spot for a photograph.

Moored in the Stourbridge Extension canal

We had bought a chicken the other day, and luckily the heat wave hadn’t really kicked in yet so it was cool enough to enjoy a roast dinner.  Apart from walkers and 3 motorbikes on the towpath side at one point it was pretty quiet.

16 locks, 3½ miles, 4 hours