On to Swindon

It was a quiet night at the end of the Stourbridge Town Arm.  Jan was up early and I was woken at 6.15AM but some inconsiderate jogger pounding past the cabin.  The canal has a reasonable depth here and the water lillies appear to be keeping it relatively clear.

View from the side hatch

Leaving at 8.30 we made our way back up the arm and turned left towards Stourton Junction.  The canal was rather quiet with no boats moving.  Actually this one looked like it hadn’t moved in some time.

Is it abandoned and if so; why hasn’t it been removed?

The bottom end of the Stourbridge Canal has nothing worth mentioning until you reach the four locks of the Stourton flight.  They appear to be well cared for and in excellent condition.

Jan heads off to prepare the top lock

The second lock is in an attractive setting.  The road bridge looks to be a more recent addition (by 100 years?)

We both liked the lockside cottage but being adjacent to the road probably made it rather noisy.  Waiouru loiters at the exit of the fourth lock allowing Jan to close the gate and reboard before we make a right turn onto the Staffs & Worcs Canal.

From this point onwards we are back on canals that we frenetically covered during a two week hireboat holiday in 2007.  Neither of us remember this part of the canal!

Jan rather liked this offside property with extensive and well maintained gardens.  However were were slightly taken aback by the sign on the lawn asking boaters to please refrain from mooring opposite.  Maybe they should invest in bedroom curtains!

We cruised on past Ashwood Marina observing the boater using his manual self-pump out kit to decant the contents of his toilet tank into multiple plastic 30 litre containers.  Why not just buy a cassette toilet and join the plebs <another popcorn moment> 

We planned to moor at Greensforge just short of the lock.  However the location was rather damp with overhanging trees which are not conducive to finding the ‘dot in the sky’.  There’s probably only room for 1.5 boats on the 48 hour mooring above the lock and there was already a boat in the middle of the space.  Consequentially we continued on going through a further lock to reach Swindon Village.  It took us four hour of cruising and the batteries were well charge.  Jan did a load of washing on the way which she has now hung in the cratch and under the pram cover.  Why?  Because the forecast rain arrived on time at 4.00pm.  It’s here for the next couple of days and so are we!