Monday 22nd August

Another lovely morning but our last day with Cecilia :-( We have truly enjoyed the last couple of weeks, even though we seem to have been on the go most of the time! It’s been really nice having the company though we have been mostly on our own whilst under way. We have worked as a team through 137 locks and followed one another or been tied up alongside for 115 miles. We have had lovely meals in and out and, as much I love Richard, it’s been really enjoyable to have company in the evenings. I shall miss Penny and Jim, not forgetting Niamh who has made herself quite at home on Mary H and hasn’t really known which boat to get on at locks even Millie seems to have accepted her :-) We left the Basin at 9.40am (late start!!) and headed down the Droitwich Barge Canal. The canal was a lot busier today than it was a few weeks ago and as it is quite narrow with reeds growing it got a but hairy at times. We came out onto the Severn at lunchtime and moored up on a large pontoon just outside the canal. It can fit about three 60 foot narrow boats on it and says lock waiting only and no overnight mooring, however you can’t get to the land from it so it does seem rather pointless and anyway there is a perfectly adequate pontoon for two boats at the lock tail. We lashed the boats together for one final time and our journey down the Severn was uneventful. We got to Diglis Locks and Penny and I struggled, once again, with the big heavy lock gates. However the paddle gear that was so stiff has been replaced while we have been away. Cecilia went back to her place in the marina and we moored up on the canal side very close to the marina. I cooked for the last time for the four of us :-(