Caunsall

Yesterday evening the weather cleared out and we were able to have a BBQ with blue sky and bright sun. This morning we woke to the sound of rain and as there was next to no wind, it rained solidly until after lunch and then it was intermittent for the rest of the day. We set off late hoping the rain would stop but no luck so it was back to Wordsley Junction and hard left to Stourton Junction. All four locks were against us. One of the houses by the locks has red and white lilies growing in the canal by their garden and also have an Alligator keeping guard.Most of the houses along there keep it looking smart beside the waters edge. As we exited the bottom lock a Kingfisher landed on the safety barrier. I took a lovely photo of the barrier but the Kingfisher had gone, he moved to the end of a low wall and the photo is nowhere near as clear as the one of the barrier.At the junction we turned left again and stopped on the visitor mooring for lunch. Just as we were about to set off a boat came up the lock so that was a bonus. I don’t know what has been going on at the C&RT yard at Stewponey but when we passed a mobile pizza Oven was just packing up and C&RT were putting away several of their gazebos.   What did surprise me was that between Stewponey Lock and Hyde Lock there were ten boats moored, I expected to only see a couple. We met 3 boats on the next stretch down to Kinver Lock, the whole of this length is turned over to long term mooring. This duck obviously considered the top of this cruiser to be a prime sitting out spot until we disturbed it.By now the rain had finally eased to on and off drizzle as we moored for the night at Caunsall just beyond the visitor moorings in a more open spot.

Today’s Journey 8 locks, 9 miles in 4.5 hoursMap courtesy of Waterway Routes https://www.waterwayroutes.co.uk/