Wordsley Junction

The dongle has been letting us down the past few days with a very dodgy signal. We walked into Stourbridge, about 2 miles, to have an afternoon out. Our big treat might be ice cream cones from Waitrose (the posh grocery store)! Spent the morning painting below the gunwales. They look better, but will get beat up again over time. River work is rough on them. So we're moored near Wordsley Junction, probably until Monday when we'll attack the next flight of 16 locks.
It's sunny and about 20C here today. Yesterday it was chilly enough to have a coal fire. Go figure...
Ann and John http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stourbridge_Canal

Kinver calling

Tuesday we moved north from Stourport to Kidderminster. There is good shopping there with both a Tesco and a Sainsbury's next to the canal. One below the lock and the other above. We moored and shopped at both. Tesco is generally less expensive than Sainsbury's, but Sainsbury's has some products that we really like, such as their Moroccan Hoummous. So, we spent the night moored outside Sainsbury's. We assumed that more boats would moor there, but only one hire boat decided to moor with us. After dinner we took a stroll up to the church that overlooks the lock. Very nice.Wednesday morning dawned bright even though the weather forecast didn't look very good. We headed north through stunning countryside with sandstone outcrops hanging high over the canal. Some of the canal, and a couple locks, are hewn right out of the sandstone. How did they do this 200 years ago? We moored below the lock at Kinver and had lunch before taking a hike up to the Kinver Rock Houses. These are homes carved into the sandstone that were inhabited from 150 years ago to the 1950s. It's a National Trust property, but unfortunately only open on weekends. We could walk around the outside though, and then trekked for about another half hour up to Kinver Edge. This is an enormous outcrop of stone with wonderful views. Great fun!
There were also fields of Bluebells on the way up.
On the way back we stopped for a well earned pint and then a flapjack from the bakery across the street. It started to rain about 5 minutes after we returned to the boat. Great timing. After dinner we walked some rubbish up to the sanitary station above the lock. There is also a very posh pub by the lock and we picked up a menu in case we stay here tomorrow. Hmmm, the prices are pretty posh too, so we probably won't be future customers. cheers, John and Ann http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinver

Severn swells with rain.

Well, after getting totally soaked yesterday, we took it easy today The weather has been quite rainy and blustery the past few days, and more important for the Severn, there has been a lot of rain in north Wales The lock keeper at Worcester was concerned about the river rising so we got out of town There are two big double wide (almost triple wide) locks close together to get back on the Severn at Worcester When we got there the pound between the two was empty (someone had left a paddle open) and the lock keeper was running water through the first into the pound below While we were finally working through, it rained, then rained harder, then sleeted and finally hailed Being the ultimate optimist, I hadn’t put all my rain gear on and was thoroughly wet by the time we got onto the river No problem, a quick change of clothes and shoes and on with the full rain suit That guaranteed that there was no more rain all the way to Stourport Anyway, we moored at the pontoon on the river, just short of the narrow lock entrance into the basin.
This morning (Monday) we started up the two double staircase locks into the basin There is also a dry dock between the two locks What we didn’t know was that Monday morning is turnover day for the dry dock This held us up for a while and of course it started to rain again So after two hours to negotiate two locks, we moored in the basin near the facilities block and stayed there It gave us time to clean out loads of stuff that had been accumulating in lockers, drawers, cabinets, you name it Living on a boat is no different than living on land Stuff expands to fill every available space
Tomorrow we’ll be off to Kidderminster, which is only a few hours up the canal There is a nice chandlery here but they were closed today and don’t open until 1000 tomorrow morning, so it will be a late start for us and we’ll fill with water before we go too.
When we were in the marina at Worcester, I changed the engine and transmission oil, oil filter, fuel filter and air filter It was due and it was good to do it there because they had a place to dump the old oil Getting rid of old oil is a real problem and I don’t feel comfortable just leaving it somewhere There have been instances of local yobs finding it and dumping it in the canal just for fun.

The weed hatch is a great invention. There is always rubbish in the water in the canals and I’ve been down into the weed hatch once or twice in the last month Around the BCN, it could happen more like once an hour One good trick is to take the boat out of gear when going through bridge holes in a place like that. There is more stuff in the water around bridges and since the waterway narrows under the bridge, the flow into the prop is more concentrated. Again, a couple quick thrusts in reverse sometimes kicks the offending carrier bag, weed, jacket, duvet, whatever, off the prop If that doesn’t work it’s time for a dive into the hatch We have a long heavy pond glove to make it a little more enjoyable. That’s really about all for now. Cheers, John and Ann http://www.holidayuk.co.uk/canals/routes/stourport/index.htm

John, Ann and the Avon ring

We're in Tewkesbury today, so we've made the full round trip to Stratford and back on the Avon. Tomorrow we'll cruise up the Severn back to Worcester. Most likely we will meet Bob and Jen in Birmingham for the hand off. There are several directions you can boat from there. In fact we would recommend that Bob and Jen head west from there to the Shropshire Union Canal and then onto the Llangollen. Both are beautiful canals. After the Llangollen (pronounced something like clang-gofflin), the trip up the Shroppy to Chester and Ellesmere Port is really nice. Then, wherever! More soon. Cheers, John and Ann. http://www.holidayuk.co.uk/canals/routes/avonring/index.htm

Shakespere Country 24 April to 3 May

We're currently moored in the basin at the junction of the Stratford Canal and the River Avon. I haven't had the courage to tell the locals that the Bard didn't really write all that stuff. They take it so seriously! Actually, we visited his grave in Trinity Church yesterday and it is a beautiful spot. The whole town is quaint, but quite touristy.Since we updated you last, we cruised from Gloucester back to Tewkesbury, Tewkesbury to Pershore, Pershore to Evesham (2 nights), Evesham to Bidford and finally Bidford to Stratford. Our departure from Gloucester was delayed until about 1130 due to the arrival of a high tide. The section from Gloucester to the lock just south of Tewkesbury is semi-tidal, meaning that the tide only affects it when it is high enough to push back over the weir south of Gloucester. The lock keeper indicated that he could let us out earlier, but suggested waiting. We took his advice and had a nice cruise to Tewkesbury. It's interesting that we made good speed even though we were heading upstream and the tide went from neutral to an ebb. The boat just moves better in deeper water, so we were at normal (about 1250) canal revs and did just fine.We locked up onto the Avon at Tewkesbury and moored just above the lock. The lock keeper sold us the 15 day license (£55). Terry wanted fish and chips at Tewkesbury so we found a nice chippy nearby. We learned long ago that it is much better to eat right there and not have everything wrapped, as it all goes soggy. Pershore was a great stop the next day and the weather was bright, if not especially warm. Prior to arriving in Evesham, Anyway, we had a nice mooring in Evesham. Terry departed and Ann arrived back on board. We cruised to Bidford, which is a delightful village. A great bakery and beautiful church. The next day, before mooring at Stratford, we decided to go about 1.5 miles further upstream to the limit of navigation for narrowboats. It was beautiful (and now we can color in that little section on our cruising map), but we had a hell of a time winding with the narrowness and current of the river. Once we got headed back in the right direction we locked up into the basin at Stratford.Today we're heading back downstream. Friends from Dallas arrive Sunday at Evesham (where there is a regatta going on this weekend). They will cruise with us back to Tewkesbury and up to Worcester. Then we will attack the 58 locks of the Worcester & Birmingham Canal to get to Birmingham. It's a blast. All the best, John and Ann http://www.tewkesbury.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=318