Well we had even more rain last night, some 11mm in all. This morning was much cooler and slightly overcast, again we had good luck at the locks on our way down to Stourton Junction. At the junction we turned left up the 4 Stourton Lock, 2 were with us and 2 against. The locals have included the offside of the lock into their gardens, not to keep boaters out but the way they look after it. We continued up the Stourbridge Canal to Wordsley Junction where we turned right to Stourbridge stopping for lunch on one lot of visitor moorings. There is still a lot of heavy industry along this section of canal.
Just as we finished lunch it started to rain and we headed off down into the basin to wind by the old bonded warehouse. Lets say it wasn’t the cleanest of turns.
On the way back I got this passing shot of a Moorhen who has set up home in a tyre, it looks like she has left just about enough room to get in and out.
It good to see that in such time even Superman is wearing a mask and socially distancing, well hanging from a tree actually.
Back at Wordsley Junction we wanted to turn right up the locks, but lock 16 was full with a boat in it, top gates shut and no sign of life. The lockwheeler had gone back to 15 to close the bottom gates and left the others onboard with no windlass, Diana and Brian had them down and on their way out before he returned. All the 16 locks were with us and at about lock 13 its stopped raining and got out nice again. We got to about lock 8 when John the Lock appeared, windlass in his back pack and assisted us up the rest of the flight. We got to lock 2 and there was a boat coming down in lock 1, so John waved to them to leave it open, not only did they close up but they then refiled the lock for a boat following as they were together. When we finally cleared the flight we went straight ahead along the Fens Branch and then turned down the Stourbridge Extension where we
found some very nice mooring rings for the night, we decided not to push through the lilies and branches just to touch the end.
Todays Journey 11.25 Miles, 22 locks in 6.25 hours.
Map courtesy of Waterway Routes https://www.waterwayroutes.co.uk/
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