Saturday 27th

Part of the picture-book account of The Booze Cruise.

Four of us get the train up to London Victoria.

We arrive at Victoria Station and get some reading material.

At Victoria Coach Station we meet up with the other three, then wait patiently at terminal five. Mark and Finbar make us miss all the good seats. Ben is not happy.

Then the three-hour journey to Birmingham.

The coach journey ends in Birmingham, so...

...we get a cab to Tardebigge.

Once at Tardebigge we see our boat for the first time, then cram onto it with the shopping supplies.

Mike does a professional inspection of the boat.

After a lesson on how to use the boat, the voyage begins. Finbar makes some hot drinks to settle the crew in.

We reach the first of Tardebigge's many locks and people jump off the boat to pull us into the bank.

The lock-keeper explains how to correctly pass through canal locks.

Ben takes the boat through the first lock and then we carry on through the other thirty-five locks until we reach Stoke Works.

At Stoke Works we realise we can't stop the engine, so we enlist the help of a passing stranger.

After the engine is stopped, we go to the nearby pub. After one round of drinks, the exhausted crew return to the boat.

Ben and Finbar cook a meal, more drinks are had, and eventually we all retire to bed. Rizwan goes slightly ballistic at the theft of his bedcover.