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| Nearly back up |
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| Our name signed on the dock |
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| Doesn't she look good! |
We came out of dry dock last Friday with a shiny black
bottom and went through the staircase locks and also York Street lock and
moored in the visitor moorings above the lock.
Apparently it is a tradition that people using the dry dock sign their
name on it before they leave, so we signed ours before we left. We stayed here over the weekend and did our
food shopping and also met our lovely friends Geoff and Sue who were staying at
a caravan park just along the river from Stourport with their daughter, so we
had a lovely afternoon with them walking, eating and catching up.
We are on the move today and set off leaving Stourport
behind us, it has been a very pleasant stay here and we found parts of it we
haven’t seen before, but now it is time to go.
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| Pratts Wharf |
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| Railway Viaduct over canal |
It was very overcast as we chugged along and after a while
we passed Pratts Wharf. The wharf and
lock became disused by the end of the 1940s, but prior to that the lock gave
access to the River Stour that ran behind the wharf and from there, boats could
make the mile journey up the river to the ironworks at Wilden. Pratts Wharf Bridge carries the towpath over
the abandoned link to the river.
We then came to Falling Sands lock, there was a boat in
front so we had to wait for them to go through so I went and helped them and it
started to rain, that fine stuff and we got soaked. When it was our turn to go through the lock,
the rain stopped, typical.
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| Waiting for the lock |
We then went
under a very high Viaduct, it carries the Severn Valley Steam Railway but
unfortunately no steam train was going over today, we did hear it in the
distance when we were at the last lock, but no luck in seeing it.
We chugged on to the next lock, Caldwell and then we were
going through Kidderminster. There is
one deep lock there right by the lovely church. We got through there okay and
went on our way again to the next lock, Wolverley Court lock.
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| In Kidderminster lock |
We got to Wolverley lock and a boat was just coming
out. I walked up to see if there were
any moorings above the lock and there were so I came back down to tell
Kev. I went back up to open the gates on
the lock and there was a boat waiting to come down and I think the old chap off
that boat was going to fill the lock, but I told him we were coming up, he
didn’t seem very pleased and was quite sour faced!
I opened one gate and he went down the other side so I
thought he was going to open the other gate but I had to ask him to do it, so
he did reluctantly and then promptly left the lock and went inside the pub and
only came back out when we were leaving the lock and he then shaked his head at
Kev for no reason, so Kev went out the lock really slowly, that will teach him
for shaking his head at us!
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| Steve, Ian & The Beast! |
We moored just up from the lock in the visitor
moorings. Our friends Steve and Ian are
driving over to see us today, so we got ready and then they turned up. It was so lovely to see them and have a catch
up. They have a new car, a Mustang which they call the 'Beast', as apparently it is! We
went down to the car park to have a look, it is really lovely, very smart. We then went to the pub, The Lock Inn, which
is right on the lock. They specialise in beef burgers as the meat comes from
their own farm about a mile away so we all had them and really good they were
too, they came with proper home-made chunky chips as well.
The rain got quite hard while we were in the pub so we got a
little wet saying goodbye to Steve and Ian.
It was really great to see them and lovely that they took the time to
drive over and see us.
We walked back to the boat and are just chilling out today. Then off we go again tomorrow, lets hope the
sun is shining!
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| Moored at Wolverley |
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