Cheshire, eventually: Day 5

An odd day weatherwise: sometimes sunny, sometimes cloudy, and often very blustery.  We were up and away at 8, and we had a bit of luck at Wolverley Court Lock, as a boater walking her dog opened the gate for us as we approached.  In contrast, when we got to Kidderminster Lock, the bottom gates had been left open with the paddles up.  It appears to be a lovely setting, with the church behind.

In the other direction is the inner ring road and a retail park, so a bit less photogenic.  Below the lock there are converted carpet factories.

We moored up outside Tesco, and were able to get the space right by the steps.  I went off to do a couple of shopping trips, while Adrian waited for a visit from Keith Wilson of  Wilson’s Covers, who was coming to make a template for a new cratch cover, as the current one is falling apart.  All of that was done soon after 10.30 so we set off again.  Below Falling Sands Lock, there is duckweed all across the canal, all the way to Stourport.  It’s very thin though so easy to cut through, but it just closes back up behind you.

There were very few boats moored above the lock in Stourport, and we went down the lock into the basins.  The two moorings there were taken and there was a boat on the water point, so we went down through the basins to the narrow locks down onto the river.

There was a boat coming up the top staircase, and there was also a lot going on at the dry dock.  Adrian went to investigate who was going in and who was coming out, so having gone down the top lock we just waited until the coast was clear.

The two sets of staircase locks are at completely different angles, making getting from one to the other a bit tricky.  There was also a tremendous cross wind today, so as soon as I was out of the top staircase we went down through being blown sideways.

We were soon down the bottom staircase and going out onto the river.

We went just a little way down, then turned around and moored up on the pontoon mooring below the Angel pub.

This afternoon Adrian went for a haircut (probably the most successful of the three he’s had so far), and we walked round the town and through the Riverside Park, where in spite of it being Monday and most things being closed, we eventually found an ice cream place.

On the way back, we helped some Americans in a hire boat, who’d spent ages in the top staircase up to the basins.  They’d somehow managed to end up with far too much water, and the two locks wouldn’t make a level.  Counterintuitively, I got them to lower the level of the bottom lock so the water wasn’t going over the weir, in the hope equity would be reached.

6 miles, 9 locks.  (35 miles, 38 locks)