No Through Road

Our journey has come to a sudden and dramatic halt. The extreme weather (heavy rainfall) of the last week has caused part of the canal bank near Wrenbury to collapse. The canal is closed, and we are stuck above Grindley Brook Locks. Repair work will commence on Monday, but we won’t know until next Friday, 21 June, whether they will then be able to allow traffic through, or whether the stoppage will continue for two or three weeks or longer.

We’ve decided that Ernest will go by train tomorrow to Droitwich to collect the car and come back here to pick me and the luggage up, including food of course. We’ll leave the boat here for a week and then review the situation.

Best case scenario is that the canal will reopen next Friday and we can then bring the boat back to Droitwich – we’ll just about manage it in a week with long days and no problems. We have to be back home by 30 June as we’re having some new doors fitted on the house, work starting 1 July. Worst case scenario is that reopening will be delayed several weeks, and because of our complicated summer, we’ll have to find somewhere to leave the boat, preferably with electric hook up to keep the batteries charged up, until September, and do the return journey then.

Life is so unpredictable!

At least I can see how the garden is getting on…

Just for the record, 4 lift bridges and 9.5 miles today in 4 engine hours.