Leaving Norbury

Thursday 20th June 2024 at Norbury Junction.

Due to committments at home, we had arranged to put MM into Norbury Wharf for three nights. The prospect of breakfast in their excellent café first was irresistible, so we walked down from our mooring just outside the wharf and were suprised to see a huge crane waiting.

Eventually, nb "Kerroweg" arrived on the back of a flatbed truck and was craned into the water. (M filmed the process but then lost the video! Dur!!). We got chatting to her new owners, a lovely couple who had bought her as a restoration project. The boat had been sitting almost untouched in the garden of a small cottage just outside Edinburgh for 20 years! How lovely to think that she will be both lovely and loved once again.

As they have not yet been able to get the boat's engine working, she had to be manhandled across to a mooring on the other side of the wharf to await a tow to take her to where they can work on the engine. Once they get the engine going, they will take her down to Stourport for the restoration. Her name is apparently Manx in origin.

Once all this drama was over, R backed MM into the wharf next to their trip boat. The staff at Norbury have been really helpful and they will move MM and hook up her electric supply once we have gone.

R had ordered a taxi to pick us up at midday to take us the 12 miles back to Aston Marina, where our car is parked. Taxis are the only option as there are no buses or trains anywhere near Norbury. It barely even qualifies as a "hamlet" as it has no shops, no church and only a handful of cottages. It has a pub, of course, which is hugely popular with boaters. The wharf is reached by a couple of miles down a very narrow lane with passing places.

With MM locked up, we had breakfast in the cafe and waited for our taxi, which picked us up on time and we then drove home from Aston.

 Back on Sunday!