Plan C version 2

Sunday 2nd August

Compton is a lovely quiet overnight mooring. We awoke to the sound of the ducks and coots going about their busy lives.

Last night. with our brain cells fuelled with lasagne, wine, beer and a movie (OK it was Shaun the Sheep – the movie. Don’t knock it until you’ve laughed at it) we find ourselves starting out on Plan C version 2 this morning. We are no longer going up all those locks to Birmingham, instead Graham will fetch the car this afternoon and we’ll do the Black Country Living Museum by car instead. It also means he can take me to the Crooked House Inn this evening – he’s been wanting to take me there for ages.

Some of the locks we did today were not your usual single type. The Bratch is set of three joined locks although technically not a staircase. We just love the architecture of the adjacent pumping station. Botterham, on the other hand, is a staircase of two locks. Many years ago I had an altercation with the householder who lives below the locks there. She seemed to think I had no right to wait there on the lock landing and certainly not with the engine running. It seems she’s still there and still unpleasant to boaters. No sign of her today thank goodness.

We stopped for the night at Swindon, just south of the village, and Graham went back to Cross Green on the Di Blasi to fetch the car.

Brenda