Indecision unlimited

On Monday and Tuesday last week David and I discussed the most appropriate route for us to take once we got to the bottom of the Lapworth flight to Kingswood Junction. There were three options to take account of having the grandsons come to stay separately on 22 and 29 July:

• down to Stratford - dismissed because there is a river festival on there that weekend and the place would be heaving
• down to Warwick and points south so we can get on to the Oxford and do the Grand Circle, and the first part with the grandsons,
• up to Birmingham and out to Fazeley and Fradley and Haywood and Kidsgrove so we can get on to the Maccie and the Caldon with grandsons (the former for the younger, the latter for the elder)

David was very very keen on the Maccie and Caldon for the grandsons, so, even though my preferred option is to do the Grand Circle, I agreed to the former. But please note that this was only after much discussion of the options, to-ing and fro-ing in our minds and changing them about six times in 24 hours … SNAOTP**, as usual! **(Situation Normal, all over the place, or SNCMADIYPU ..couldn't make a decision if you paid us, or any other appropriate and apt acronym)

So on Tuesday, after we’d come down the last 6 locks of the Lapworth flight out to Kingswood Junction and stopped for breakfast (see previous post with photo of artistically covered bagel),  Salvi made a left turn to head up the Grand Union to the Knowle flight through some of the most peaceful canal I’ve ever been on. And after the Knowle flight it’s points north into Birmingham.

The Knowle flight is magnificent. Hard work, but magnificent.

And the countryside around it is beautiful. We moored up that night in such a peaceful place that we all slept extremely well. Of course that may have been something to do with physical tiredness for 3 of the four of us ...

Sunset - I'm amazed I was awake for this ...

But the next morning, I woke thinking about what lay ahead of the Knowle locks - about 7 hours of boating including about 13 locks and Salvi and Ann only with us till 2pm that day. Mmmm, that wasn't going to work, given David was not allowed on lock duty till at least Sunday. And the moorings on that part of the Birmingham Navigations are few and far between and not the most salubrious.

So yet another plan change - we are getting good at these ... Well, actually, we are not. We do them often, but they are stressful.

The change of plan involved going back down the Knowle locks and then back up the Lapworth flight and back in to Edgbaston so we can be there for David’s Friday 12 July appointment (instead of catching a train from somewhere outside Birmingham to get there).

So decision made and imparted to the Persicos, who were very amenable, then a one hour trip to the nearest winding hole, meeting a hireboat crew not far from the winding hole (where apparently I nearly took off the new headlight in the trees…) and asking them to wait for us at the locks (yes, happily as these would be their first locks and they are a bit intimidating). Then the one hour trip back. Ann served brekkie to the guys as they chatted in the cratch - we knew they would not cope with low blood sugar and a daunting descent ...

And Yay! There were the hirers, waiting patiently in the top lock.

There were volunteer lock-keepers on duty, and I do like that they are there to help. I do NOT like when they tell me what to do, or contradict what I have told the person steering our boat to do … GGGRRR!!! In order to get the guy to stop, I did have to pull out the 29 years of narrowboating experience.

Ann and I used two windlasses on one spindle and found it cut the effort by more than half – saved both backs and 4 arms. 

I suggested to Salvi and the Aussie hire skipper that they may like to try coming out of the lock and into the next one side by side rather than sequentially. They were both on for that, and very pleased with themselves re how they made it work all the way down through the locks. A couple of little bumps, but nothing out of the ordinary. I did video them doing the job in the most professional way, but as the video was going to take 50 minutes to upload to YouTube, I thought it would kill this post!

Coming in to the lock together

 

And exiting together - isn't that a splendid view across the fields? And Birmingham is not so far away, but you wouldn't know it!

We went for lunch at the King’s Arms which was OK but nothing to write home about, so I won’t. 

Instead of sitting in the pub being bored, it was back to the boat for a last game of 5 Crowns. And guess what? I cannot remember who won! 

Then they were off in a cab to Dorridge station, then to Stansted overnight and off to Sorrento in the morning. We begged them to stay but they wouldn’t …

That evening we had a What’s App exchange with Tim – Karol is coming on 15th July, not the 22^nd. So all that planning and trying to find where would be the best place to have the boys was moot. And amazingly, the stress just lifted off my shoulders and out of my mind. Yay!!!

Then we had a call from Mick to say they were keen to meet up with us at Edgbaston which means we can do mid summer kiwi xmas – excellent!

One of the things that paralyses us is the indecision around trying to work out the best places to be for the boys or other guests to have the best time.  

Note to selves: it doesn’t really matter, as it is the company and the experience of boating that matters, not where we happen to be. Case in point: Salvi and Ann enjoyed themselves hugely (well, they SAID they did!), and while the stretch of canal we were on with them (Alvechurch to Edgbaston, Edgbaston to Lapworth, Kingswood Junction to Knowle, and back to Heronfield towards Kingswood Junction) was beautiful, varied and interesting, almost all of the system has those characteristics to a greater or lesser degree.