By the morning I could tell that I needed to do something about my hand. I thought that I had seen a doctor’s surgery in Tibberton, so decided to walk there later.

We took on water by bridge 42. There was a village map there showing a doctor’s. So I set off in search, while Nik & Paul went to look for the local shops. At first they didnt want to treat me at the surgery and said that I should go to the minor injuries unit at Bromsgrove Hospital. But when I explained that I was off of a boat and had no means of transport the nurse agreed to dress it for me.

We had a pumpout at Brookline at Dunhampstead. Why the guy was so miserable when I was giving him £15 for 10 minutes work I dont know.

There was so much water coming down the Otherton flight that it was overflowing the locksides.

We first stopped for the night just before bridge 22. We had just settled down for the evening when we were plagued by people, both aduts and teenagers, tearing up and down the towpath on motorbikes and quad bikes. The adults even had small children balanced in front of them on the fuel tanks!

We discovered that they were from a large gypsy/traveller camp just the other side of the hedge. We didnt feel safe, so moved on to just after bridge 16 opposite the sports ground. We have stayed here before and know it’s safe.

The reeds on the towpath side were higher than the boat, so I cut down two patches at the front and back so that we could get on and off.