Narrowboat Just Heaven

We went for a longish walk in the morning. Along the towpath north out of Kidderminster then we went across the river Stour via Puxton’s marsh to just short of Wolverley. I knew that there was a footbridge over the river just above Wolverley Court lock and we were heading for that. The marsh lived up to it’s name and it was very wet underfoot!

We came back on the canal towpath and called in at “Range” on Carpet Trades Way. It was packed with Christmas shoppers. We bought some jigsaws (puzzle variety) for presents.

By the time we got back Heddi was going downhill with her cough/cold, so we abandoned the planned trip to M&S for more presents. A good job we did as we went on Monday instead and benefited from the cut in prices due to the VAT rate change.

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We had planned to use the weekend to do a couple of jobs onboard and do a bit of Christmas shopping in Kidderminster. The cold weather and the fact that Heddi wasn’t feeling too good meant we abandoned the jobs on board, and decided instead to just have a bit of a chill out and do some shopping.

To keep us warm I had brought a whole load of wood and two bags of ‘Maxibrite’ that the coal merchant had recommended instead of Taybrite. It certainly seemed to be good. The fire stayed in well overnight and kept the boat plenty warm during the day.

We went into town to do the shopping. Normally I hate Christmas shopping, but it wasn’t too bad - not too crowded, and it was good that the boat was only 10 mins walk away.

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Arrived about 6:30, unpacked some of the stuff, left the rest ’til the morning.

Lit the fire, had a meal and a glass of wine and went to bed!

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The scavenged wood lasted long enough to keep us warm, but we had more or less run out of coal by the time we were back at Kidderminster.

We saw the kingfisher again on the same stretch by Wolverley Court lock. This time we had the camera ready.

On returning we tried out a new technique for getting into the mooring. We can only get onto the angled finger pontoons if we are heading north. Previously, if were were coming southbound, we would go down through Caldwell lock, wind just before Falling Sands lock, and then back up Caldwell lock. This time we decided to wind in the wide space by Tesco and then reverse back the 200yds or so to the mooring. It worked OK, a bit hairy reversing under the bridge on a bend, but I think with practise we should do it easier in future.

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A lazy day today. We didnt get up til after 9 o’clock, had breakfast then went for a walk. We walked along the towpath down to Whittington Horse bridge, then followed the little lane back up into Kinver. After the previous day’s rain the River Stour was running much faster and fuller than I’d ever seen it before.

On our way back we managed to find the way into the public park area that is the other side of the river from the vistor moorings. We had often watched the local residents walking their dogs in this area, but didnt know how they got there.

We thought about staying here all day, but in the afternoon the sun came out so we slowly chugged the 2 miles and one lock down to just before Cookley tunnel and spent the night there.

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Not quite so bright and sunny today, but still pleasant later on after the early morning mist cleared.

We stopped as Ashwood basin to see if we could get some coal, but no luck.

We did manage to get some more fuel by scavanging fallen wood from the wooded areas beside several of the locks. When we arrived at Kinver visitor moorings I broke it into manageable sized pieces using a lump hammer and my feet. I really will have to buy an axe!

We stopped at the DIY pumpout machine by the permanent mooring in Kinver. Unfortunately the holding tank outlet was on the canal, not towpath, side. So I had to balance precariously on the gunnell with the pipe going across the top of the boat - not easy !

It started raining in late afternoon and then rained very heavily all night.

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