Tardebigge

Had a break over the weekend to celebrate my wife's birthday and so - with three friends - the complete family hired a boat on Friday and attempted what is, for most UK canal people, a rite of passage - the Tardebigge flight.

The Tardebigge flight for those who are not familiar with it, is the longest flight of locks in the country - 30 locks in a fraction over two miles - and are backbreaking work even with a well trained and disciplined lock crew. However, it was an extraordinary experience - going straight out of one lock, through a very short pound into the next .. for lock after lock after lock ....

The problem is that the flight really doesn't stop at Tardebigge bottom lock since only a few hundred yards on is the start of the Stoke flight .....

We managed to do the Tardebigge flight in just over 3 and a half hours which we thought was pretty good ! The only thing was - we had to repeat it all the very next day ....