Barging!

By fletch Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

I’m back at work today following four days barging on the Birmingham and Worcester canal! We arrived at the marina on Friday afternoon, loaded the boat up with people and booze then set off (at 2 knots) in the direction of Stratford with only a very basic plan; keep drinking and never moor out of sight of a pub.

The first nights stop was only ninety minutes away so there was plenty of time for a quick stop en-route to allow Potter and Sean off the boat for a run to a local brewery, the 40 pint box of ale they returned with really looked the part on the back of the boat, just exactly in reach of whoever was on the rudder at the time.

It was going to be a good trip, and not long after the ale-run we moored up for the night and walked back along the towpath to a pub for some food.

Saturday morning I awoke to a silent boat and a medium sized hangover so I opened the back doors, got back in my bunk and watched the sun shining off the water for a while until the cool morning air inspired me to get up and contemplate getting the boat moving.

That’s another thing about barging – even if you’ve got 12 people on board like we had, a couple of early birders can get up and set off whilst the rest are in bed. Everyone on board seemed to fall into a role of their choosing, and about 20 minutes after Sean, Potter and I had set sail, brews and bacon butties started to arrive on deck. Brilliant.

Lapworth is famous for it’s locks and would be our second nights stop. We’d initially planned to moor at the top of the locks having been assured by the boat company that there wouldn’t be time to get there and get to the bottom of them all in one day…. Pah!

Never underestimate the power of a large team of drunken individuals. Especially those high on the sunshine from a lengthy stay outside a local cider house because on arrival at Lapworth top-lock we threw that bit of advice into the canal and went for it. This was despite being mocked by a local houseboat owner who also warned that we had four hours hard work ahead of us.

Nonsense. 21 locks and just over an hour and a half later we were mooring up. What a record! To the pub!

The return journey back up the locks on Sunday was a little less hectic due to the weakened state of the crew and in fact it did take us a little over four hours, mainly I must say due to a glut of other boats around the locks. 9AM is a popular starting time.

We made good efforts though and there was still time to meet Jens dad and Bal in a pub on the way and as the day progressed the crew got drunk again and spirits and energies were raised. This reached a peak when England won the ashes and I crashed the boat into a bush to the sound of Jerusalem being played out on testmatchsofa.com

Despite those delays we were still moored up and heading off up the towpath towards another pub an hour before the sun set.

The two mile long tunnel was a highlight on this return journey, Jens tunnel disco saw lots of dancing take place and far too many of Stephs rock ballads blaring out. Good times.

Surprisingly, out of all the evenings, Sunday night was the most debauched. LOADS of singing along to ipod classics, drinking games and even as I went to bed some cigar smoking on deck. James destroyed himself galactically and was the first one up on Monday morning throwing up as late as ten minutes before we dropped the boat off back at the marina. Classy!

I wondered if these few days might dampen the enthusiasm I’ve got for renting a houseboat when this current flat contract expires in December but it hasn’t. If anything it’s given me loads of ideas… more pictures on photos.fletch.cx :-)

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Hello! Fletch.cx has been going since 1999 in one form or another, yep incredible, when will it end? For more of my bullshit see last.fm, lluckj.com, facebook and if you really want a constant avalanche of musings, observations and lies then follow me on twitter..