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Today's Canals - Worcester and Birmingham, Droitwich

We awoke to flurries of snow but by the time we were ready to leave that had faded away, leaving just a chilling breeze. As forecast, a few blue patches arrived though not always with sunshine. They gradually increased in frequency and much of the afternoon was quite bright but we never lost the cold.

We had moored at Sixways, right at the bottom of the Offerton flight so immediately we had a set of six locks to negotiate. At least we had four of them set in our favour. Since we have seen no moving boats we assume that those that were full was just because of leakage at the top.

Just over an hour later we arrived at the top. The next pound is comparatively long and it was just on 1 o'clock when we turned at Hanbury Junction onto the Droitwich.

Along the way we passed a set of largely empty moorings right at one end is a sign (sorry,  camera it no good!) that simply says Waterside Moorings. OK, so at the other end (not visible when passing this sign) is a larger one that explains that only those with a mooring contract can stay here. I may be a bit picky but it does seem to me that the new boater, or hirer, is unlikely to know what Waterside Moorings are - surely all of them are waterside? It does feel that the fetish for new branding has caused someone to lose sight of the simple fact that signs are meant to be understood!

We had originally planned to return home today but it was by now too late to do that with ease so another night here, on hook-up.

And we did pass one boat on the move! This was the first since 10:30 on Monday morning!

After turning at Hanbury we moored up for lunch just before the locks, in sight of our home mooring. When we set off once more it was just to go down the three locks. As they are unusually deep and even more unusually have working side ponds that we are asked to use, they do take a little longer than 'ordinary' narrow locks.

We turned in to the marina, stopped briefly at the service mooring to empty the elsan before making our way across to our berth. The wind was light and we made the normally difficult reverse in without hassle. No-one was watching, alas . . .

5.2 Miles - 9 Locks