Stourport-on-Severn to Wolverley Court Lock (Sunday) - 9 locks, 5.5 miles

OMG It's official Rivers and us don't go together!!

We have had a nightmare - so on Friday afternoon the indicator at the lock showed about 4 inches of green, if only we had known on Friday afternoon what was to come we would have carried on and made the short journey to the Droitwich canal - hindsight is such a wonderful thing!

So it had rained heavily on Thursday night, then Saturday it was torrential all day, so we stupidly stayed where we were and laughed at the poor people on the couple of boats that ventured past us.

We were laughing on the other side of our face by Saturday afternoon, the river was flowing at pace, with great big branches flowing down the middle, the indicators had moved into Amber, but Saturday night it was in red.  We were stuck, and the flow was getting faster.

Sunday morning arrived with more rain, and locals keen to inform us that the water from Wales hadn't yet arrived.

A couple of boats arrived travelling upstream.  Rod had a chat with one of the guys, who advised that the lock keepers at the locks downstream were talking about locking down the locks, whilst they were currently in amber they were starting to nudge red.  He said the journey he had done that morning usually takes him 20 mins but had taken an hour.  Coming upstream into the flow he was able to steer, going downstream if the current was flowing faster than the boats propolsion we would have no ability to steer.

The boat that was moored behind us decided he was going to turn round and head back through the locks and back onto the canal.  This was the scariest thing I have ever seen.  The guy was driving the boat and his wife was holding the front rope, the plan being that her holding onto the front rope would enable the boat to in effect pivot on the rope to then be facing upstream, the current got hold of the boat and at one point it was travelling down the river side ways with such force that the lady had to let go of the rope or she was going to get pulled in, luckily the guy was able to put sufficient power on to get the boat facing upstream - scared the living day lights out of us all!!

So now we were in a real dilemna, the flow was getting faster, we were no longer protected from the flow by the boat behind and the thought of turning round as they had was frightening. 

Luckily we had visitors coming for the day, Marie, Antony, Jamie, Charlotte and Sophie.  So we decided that there was a better way to turn the boat, between the four of us we were able to pull the boat back along the pontoon and then pull the back end into the cut out of the large lock, our first attempt didn't work and the flow caught the back end, but we managed to pull the boat back into the pontoon.  The second time was more successful, largely due to the fact that this time Ant was on the bank of the lock cut out pulling the back end round.

After this it was pretty straight forward to pull her round to face upstream, the only challenge then was manoeuvring into the narrow lock.  The relief when we were finally in that lock was absolutely immense.

This is the two pairs of staircase locks that join the canal and the river Severn.

We were so lucky that we had people to help us. Thanks guys we couldn't have done it without you :-).

 We travelled back up the Staffordshire & Worcester canal and moored at Wolverley court.

On the way Ant got to grips with the locks, Jamie drove the boat (he sounded scarily like Rodney when he gave us a low down on the advantages of solar panels) and Marie, Charlotte and Sophie looked after George, he was in his element.

Marie tries to avoid a face wash from George.

Jamie's in charge.

George shares the love with Chatlotte and Sophie - bless :-)

So as they say "All's well that ends well".

Our route home is now back to the top of the Staffordshire and Worcester, onto the Trent & Mersey, followed by the Coventry and the finishing on the Grand Union, more miles but less locks.

(EH 611, M 661, L 556)