Sunday 3rd – Saturday 9th August
Week 6 started with a forecast of rain all day for Sunday, a yellow storm warning for Monday and high winds for Tuesday.
We are going no where till it settles down, still we were moored just a hundred metres from the Moor Street Fryer which Sue and I visited for takeaway on Saturday night
It settled down earlier than expected and we moved Tuesday morning, the plan being to continue to the end of the BCN Stourbridge Canal and descend the Stourbridge Flight of 16 locks. Although we managed to get both boats from morning mooring through all the locks and on to the afternoon mooring in just 3.5 hours they were not easy locks, many of the pounds between locks were very short, one was less than 20 feet which although not much of a problem for us must be a nightmare for single handers, even worse was that the walk-boards on the lock gates were downright dangerous. During this flight we created a rule that no lock should be operated from the off side if only one person was present.
On Wednesday we continued to Stourton Junction where we left the BCN and joined the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal completing 3 more well spaced locks before stopping just beyond the town of Kinver on fourteen day moortings.
There is a Facebook group page named “Moored Like a Tw*t”, we have just met a narrow boater whose behaviour suggests there should be one called “Helming Like a Tw*t” this guy, on NB Dawn Chorus, went past very close and at full throttle so Venturi effect pulled NB J-PEG to him while the same effect pulled him to NB J-PEG. A collision occurred. Having been pulled towards the towpath he was now even closer to us, still going at warp factor 10, so the gap was even smaller and the Venturi effect even stronger, he gave us a clout. On clouting us he had even less control over his boat than he had when he clouted NB J-PEG i.e. absolutely none!! and so gave the boat in front us a real hard bash. Crew from all three victims were in their cockpit or cratch decks but did he or his wife/companion apologise? Of course not they pretended nothing happened looking away with fingers metaphorically in their ears and singing “ . . . La La La . . . “. A short while later NB Dawn Chorus returned having turned in the nearby winding hole and when thanked for being a dick and clouting three boats he declared it was my fault for mooring opposite another boat, of course if travelling at the prescribed 2mph even passing within inches of a moored boat should present no problem particularly as the canal at this point is over 30 feet (approx 10 m) wide, 2 moored boats each less than 7feet (2.13m) gave him 16+ feet of passing room, enough for two boats to easily pass safely if travelling at the right speed even with two boats moored opposite each other. To add insult to injury their constantly yapping dog was running free following the boat on the towpath and left a steaming present between our two boats, just inches from the towpath edge where it could be most easily spread about – and guess who did a great job of spreading it about?
The long lock flights are now behind us, till we get to Turley Locks on the Shropshire Union Canal, followed within a few short miles by the Adderley Flight followed within not much more than a mile by the Audlem Locks, 25 locks in very little more than 3 miles. OK we still have 39 locks before we get to them including a three lock flight and a two chamber staircase but that’s in 61 miles of travel.
Today (Thursday) we went to Kinver Edge Rock Houses it was a walk of over a mile, not long but all being uphill made it quite challenging. The houses were amazing some restored to how they were when private residences others in the process of restoration, in one there was even a recording of a 1920’s resident chatting to a BBC reporter about her life there – it was a fascinating listen. We had a sandwich and cream tea in the cafe where despite a wasp trap hanging well above head height was wasps swarmed around the table as soon as you sat down. We solved the problem by putting a small used jam pot (from our cream tea) on an adjacent table unfortunately as people came to use the table they didn’t understand, (till they received their food) why the pot was there and instead of moving it to the next empty table took it back inside the tea room, presumably to dispose of it, the wasps would immediately become a nuisance again. After this happened three times we gave up and left. I should say that even with the wasps being a bit of a nightmare the Rock Houses were well worth a visit.
We visited the Kinver High Street shops on Friday morning, the butcher, baker, greengrocer and others all selling top quality goods at reasonable prices. It was a joy to shop in a High Street where the only chain shop was the Co Op, all the others being small independent retailers. In the evening we visited the Kinver Tandoori Restaurant.
After two restful nights in Kinver we moved on, a whole 4.25 miles and two locks to a village called Wolverley. We are planning to stay here another two nights, not because there is lots to see or do but because the two sets of moorings in Southport are five day max each and as we plan to stay five days on each we don’t want to arrive too early and outstay our welcome.
After two restful nights in Kinver we moved on, a whole 4.25 miles and two locks to a village called Wolverley. We are planning to stay here another two nights, not because there is lots to see or do but because the two sets of moorings in Southport are five day max each and as we plan to stay five days on each we don’t want to arrive too early and outstay our welcome.
We found two moorings just before Wolverley Lock on a pleasant part of the tow path, lots of passers by virtually all of whom said “hello”, a number stopped for a chat. Tomorrow we plan to walk to the village for a look around, hopefully it will be a good start to Week 7.
