Canal Tour '98 The "Grey Wagtail Experience"

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Afloat At Last!

Alvechurch to Stoke Wharf

Sat 22nd

Early Saturday morning two cars set off from Brighton intending to get to Alvechurch by lunchtime. The M23, M25, M40 and M42 route was remarkably clear and trouble free, the only fly in the ointment being that I had to stop off at work in West Drayton to deliver a manual. What can one say about such a motorway-centric journey except that it was fast and once we got beyond Oxford there were plenty of tantalising glimpses of canal to whet the appetite and set the pulse racing.

Ashley and Paul were already a lot nearer to Alvechurch having been to two (yes, two) Van Morrison concerts somewhere nearby the day before.

We had all arranged to meet at around 12 - 12.30 in The Crown in Alvechurch. None of had ever been there but it was by the canal, seemed a decent place from the guides and, more importantly, Brett Laniosh's Guide to Real Ale on the Worcester and Birmingham Canal* gave it the thumbs-up. We arrived at around 12.30 and just as we were parking Lesley, Jim and Brian turned up - what timing!

*Unfortunately the local CAMRA site has now moved and Brett's canal guide doesn't appear to be there any longer.

The beer was good and the food OK. Ashley and Paul arrived a little later having given Sainsbury's in Bromsgrove a good seeing to. They'd also located the boatyard so we followed them there arriving at about 2pm. Of course, Grey Wagtail wasn't ready but the shop held our attention for a while as did the club bar where we ordered a slap-up fried breakfast for the following Saturday.

The boat was ready by about 3.00 (disappointingly somewhat later than we'd hoped but - what the hell?) and was swiftly loaded. I was given the technical tour of the boat then, as experienced hirers, we were treated to the short version of the safety talk. This was the nevertheless the most comprehensive I've ever encountered and didn't contain anything we would argue with - still, it all boils down to common sense really doesn't it?

Undo the stern rope, put the engine into forward tickover, execute a tight right turn and AT LAST we are on our way. It didn't take long on this lovely, rural stretch of canal to reach Tardebigge top lock. The only remarkable thing that I remember from this stretch is what must have been the narrowboat equivalent of a handbrake turn by a boat from the Anglo-Welsh base as the steerer attempted (and succeeded) to get ahead of us.

The next couple of locks (by the old Engine House which is now a pub - we didn't have time to visit) were manned/womanned by a couple of BW's lock volunteers dispensing leaflets and useful advice on how to work the locks, save water, etc.

A number of delays, mostly due to inexperienced boaters, meant that the flight took us considerably longer than we anticipated. With three hire bases in the close vicinity of the Tardebigge flight I should have realised during the trip planning that significant delays would be inevitable on any high-season Saturday afternoon. However, the beautiful evening sun and rural scenery provided ample compensation. Towards the bottom of the flight the crew were getting hungrier and hungrier but nobody really fancied the Queens Head which looked more like a food factory than a pleasant waterside pub (despite its reputation for good value food) so we continued but just one lock down into the Astwood Flight realised that, not only was it beginning to get dark but also the Navigation at Stoke Wharf may stop doing food before we got there so we moored above lock 27 and briskly walked the half mile to the pub.

We cannot recommend The Navigation at Stoke Wharf too highly (in fact it's the local CAMRA branch's Pub of the Season for Spring '99). The beer was excellent, the staff (and customers) were friendly and welcoming and despite nine of us descending upon them two minutes before they were due to stop serving food for the day we had a superb meal. Despite the tension over whether we would actually get anything to eat it was a lovely end to the first day.

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