Hanbury Junction

We had a bit of rain overnight but woke to a sunny morning. at our first lock, lock 3 we caught up with an experienced hire boater who had moored between us and the lock last night so shared all the locks with them, not only that we met 8 boats coming down the canal. The boat we were with kept suggesting if he was holding us up we should continue as his crew were doing Geocaching as they walked between locks, but it wasn’t a problem. I was rather taken by this sign at the beginning of a club controlled fishing area. A maximum of 30lbs in a keepnet, that would be a good days fishing. A bit unlike the Bewdley Angling Society who have at least two pitches within a C&RT no Fishing zone due to overhead cable.

I am not sure what you are suppose to do when you reach tis point if you are too deep, there is no where to wind and go back.

We stopped for water at Vine Park before working our way through the swing bridges, it was good to see this notice by the Barge Lock, he worked tirelessly for many years to keep his bit of the canal open.The Barge Lock needs dredging desperately as both gates will only open half way, this is just wide enough for a narrowboat to get through but will end up with the gate mitres getting badly warn where they get rubbed. After the next lock we were approaching the M5  culvert and I can confirm that the new height gauge is about an inch to high, the anemometer cleared the gauge but it didn’t clear the culvert, its now an ex anemometer. The locks above the culvert only have one operational bottom to limit the amount of water coming down under the culvert and reducing headroom. All that was left on the Droitwich canal to do now were the three Hanbury Locks with their side pounds, there were two C&RT volunteers on duty one at the top and one in the middle,so by the time we had worked through the bottom one the middle was ready for us, likewise the top lock. We left the Droitwich Canal at Hanbury Junction turning right to Worcester, but then reversing a short distance up the Worcester and Birmingham canal to moor for the night.

Today’s Journey 9.8 miles, 13 Locks in 5.75 hours.

Map courtesy of Waterway Routes https://www.waterwayroutes.co.uk/