Back To Boating.......

Well that was a quick retirement from boating...!

"To be fair, at the end of the day" we had promised Dot and Gordon that we would give them a hand on the Tardebigge flight yesterday ..."Bless!!"

The biggest problem was getting up at 6.30am!! 

I took the dogs for an early morning stroll along the Macc canal, which is right next to our campsite ...

We then picked up Elaine's brother, Trevor and drove the 95 miles to Tardebigge.  It was motorway all the way with very little traffic.  I dropped Elaine, Trev and the boys off near the top of the flight then drove to the bottom of the flight and parked the car outside the Boat and Railway pub at Stoke Prior.  It was then a long walk back up the flight to meet up with the crew.

The boys had already assumed their positions when I got there, but they were a bit put out there were no comfy cushions for them!

We soon got into a good rhythm.  As I had walked up the flight I knew that there were no boats coming up so we could set the locks up ahead with no worries ... 

Doing the stepover ... 

There are some serious aerials on a couple of the houses on the flight ... 

This aerial is mounted on the end of a crane!

Apparently they pick up the 24 hour live streaming porn channels coming out of Canberra Australia!

There was plenty of water coming down the flight ... some strange chap was berating us for going down the flight with too much water in the locks! 

The Queens Head pub looked very inviting, but we were on a mission ... 

Quintessential English spring time scene ... 

Our prize for helping was a drink in the pub with the accompanying chips, onion rings and garlic bread...perfick !

Sammy was well worn out ...couldn't even hold his head up!

We then bade farewell, and drove back to camp dropping off Trevor at Macclesfield on the way ... 

Gordon  (in his happy hat!), Dot, Elaine, Trevor, Bombo and Sam

 By the time we got back to the van we were cream crackered and had to partake in a preprandial doze (Sorry Bruce)!

Shall we have an early night dear???  Bugger that!  Andy and Sue (from NB Festina Lente) and their friends were in town, let's get on the turps again!

We met up with Andy, Sue, Angus and Tracey at the Boars Head and had a really funny night with lots of toilet stories....as you do!

Dinner was very good too ...

Today is going to be a huge day of rest.....bliss!