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