Netherwich Basin

After an excellent evening with Simon & Karen yesterday we said our goodbyes this morning at seven o’clock and set off. We reached Stourport about 9:30 and were down onto the river by ten. It’s been another really hot day, but travelling down stream was pleasantly cool with a lovely breeze Hawford junction was reached

Wolverley Court Lock

We were in constant WhatsApp communication with Karen & Simon regarding tonight’s rendezvous. We settled on Wolverley Court lock as it was within reach of both of us. We made good progress, even though we had to ‘turn’ every lock. We arrived here at about 1:30 in time for a late lunch, they arrived about

Bottom of Bratch locks

Again an early start, 7:10am, to try to beat the hot weather. Down the rest of the Wolverhampton flight was reasonably OK, though we did have to turn a few of them. Two locks before the end an upcoming boater had emptied the lock before us without me noticing. He didn’t bother to look ahead.

Stourport – on the river

We were due to pick up Karen & Simon at around 11:00, as they said their train got in to Kidderminster at 10:30, but then we recieved a message saying that they were an hour early. We still had plenty of time to get to Sainsburys to get some stuff for lunch. We set off

Woverley Court Lock

Rain, rain, rain and more rain! The weather forecast was showing the rain getting worse as the day went on, so we set off earlyish at 8:15. This part of the canal was very familiar to us as it was our “home canal” for about 6 years. We had fun trying to remember the order

Swindon

It poured with rain all night and was still raining lightly when we awoke. We settled down to a porridge breakfast expecting to wait a while for the weather to improve. But at about 8:30 the sky cleared and it’s been a lovely sunny day. We have boated this bit of the Staffs & Worcs

Compton

13 miles, 7 locks. Again the weather forecast said rain all day, we woke up to rain but it more or less stopped for the rest of the day except a bit of drizzle at times. All the locks were in our favour until we reached Compton lock at about 2:00. We had lunch then

Penkridge

The morning started off much like yesterday, cold & wet. Our Eberspacher isn’t working at the moment, so to warm up I lit the fire at about 10 o’clock. There was a break in the rain, and the sky looked to be clearing, so we set off. But the break didnt last long. It was

Tixall Wide

8 miles, 3 locks The weather forecast was right today. It was on/off drizzley raind until midday, then rained hard all day. We set off at 8:15 and arrived in Tixall wide at 11:30. We have stayed here all day looking at the rain, the wind and the geese!

Norbury Wharf

Another early start down the rest of the ’21’. We didn’t see another boat until we were approaching Autherley junction, then we were in a queue. First for the temporary stoppage round some dredging, then for the junction itself. A stop at Wheaton Aston for fuel (47.9 p/l cheapest on the network?) then on to