Ready for the River Severn

Hello everybody! We hope you had a nice long Easter break and that all is well with you?

All is well aboard Daisy Duke and Paul and I are reunited once again, having gone our separate ways over the Easter holidays. Paul spent his time working on Daisy and although he hasn’t yet gotten around to fixing up her bumps and scrapes, he has tidied up the engine bay and given it a much needed painting. He has also revarnished the bench seating on the stern as this is prone to weather damage. Well done Paul.

Before

After

As for me, I managed to catch up with 3 out of the 4 kids and also had an amazing couple of days with our Lily. We caught the train into Matlock Bath on the Good Friday and went to Gullivers Kingdom where we had an epic day out!

The trains to and from Derby\Kidderminster were an absolute dream. All were on time and the two changes each way were easy to do. Paul dropped me off and picked me up at Kidderminster station, which was a 20 minute walk from Daisy and he managed to tie in a pint at the King & Castle at the same time!

The Staffs & Worcester canal is another beautiful section of the English canal system and goes down the west of the Country and appears to have been cut into the side of rock which hopefully you can see from the pictures below.

Most excitingly, we have met our first famous canal boat influencers. Wes and Amy from the YouTube channel Boat time! They were a lovely couple who gave us some advice about the river and Zak also got on with their rescue, Rufus, who came from Gran Canaria! This is their channel – you may well recognise them!

https://youtube.com/@boattime?si=ZCOyT48o3F03V71a

We are currently moored up just outside Stourport Junction in readiness for our descent onto the River Severn tomorrow. We have been down to look at the locks on to the river and to check the water conditions which all appear to be good. We also managed to speak with one of the lockies who assured us that conditions are good.

Our anchor has been placed on Daisy’s bow, our life jackets are at the ready, and we have the emergency number for the river programmed into our phones. We are both excited to be back on the river as the last time we did any river work was last August on the River Nene.

Once we are on the river, we have a four hour journey to Droitwich canal where we will have a meander up and down for a day or two.

Wish us well and we will be sure to take lots of river photos!

Lots of love,

Jo, Paul, Zak & Daisy xxxx