A bit of shopping in Droitwich (good wool shop at www.emmshaberdashery.co.uk) then off down the barge canal in lovely sunshine.

There were more boats about today, we met three hire and two private boats coming up as we made our way down to the Severn. I enjoyed the barge canal this time more than previously. It looks like C&RT, or maybe DCT have got to grips with the reeds issue.

A pleasant but uneventful trip up the Severn to Stourport. We had been moored up for about an hour when a Portharb hire boat came storming up river. They appeared to be a bit lost, not certain of where to go. Someone of the front pointed to the narrow locks entrance saying “Is that where we go?”, but the steerer was having none of it and carried on full throttle under the bridge and heading for the head of navigation. After about 40 mins we thought perhaps we’d go for a walk to see where they were in case they had gone aground. We got up to where the boat club mooring are and saw them coming back down river at full speed. So we turned round to get back to the pontoons to see if we could help. Luckily waiting for them was one of the hire company’s staff who had come to find them to put something on board. He called out to tell them where they should moor and which locks to use. The guy at the helm them went about 200yds downstream and made a complete pig’s ear of turning (including demolishing part of a bankside bush) in a huge wide river!

We let the Portharb guy try to give them a bit of advice re narrowboat control !