Boating along a great piece of canal.

23rd & 24th June

Our night at the top of the Bratch wasn't quite as peaceful (once the wind had dropped) as we expected – no big deal, but for half the evening we had a pair of young manic fisherman apparently conducting their own two handed match, roaming to and fro along the towpath, casting here and there and shouting encouragement to each other.

They wandered off eventually, and we were quiet for the remainder of the evening, and the early part of the night. I woke at half three, however, to find that we were under duck attack. Some were ferociously pecking the hull side, whilst others stomped about on the roof.

Finally they too went their ways, and we were able to get a little more sleep before leaping joyously out of bed to greet the nearly-new day. By eight we were waiting on the lock landing; the locky was already about, and we got straight in, arriving at the bottom in twenty minutes, thanks to Sheila's energetic windlass winding.

She was able to have a good natter with the locky, too, about routes back from the Severn to Autherley Junction (about which more anon) and the best place to moor for a quick trip into Wombourne for supplies.

This was the further set of bollards on the left after the bottom lock. From there I walked up and then briefly downhill into Wombourne, which proved to be a very useful little centre, with an interesting looking butchers and bakers as well as a greengrocer, a newsagent and a Spar.

There followed nine more locks until we stopped by the picnic spot based on the remains of an old round house just below Gothersley Lock and before the Devil's Den, that strange boathouse in a cliff before Stourton Junction.

This is a very peaceful spot, if you don't count the manic cyclists whistling past from time to time, though unfortunately it has very poor phone signals, both voice on Voda and data on T-mobile struggling to get through.

It's a bit of a feature of this, one of the most beautiful canals in the country – probably the great lumps of sandstone sticking up out of the scenery all round do not help.

In the afternoon I did an oil and filter change, the engine having just reached 5600 hours.

Today we managed an even earlier start, getting away just after 7.30 on a fine and dry morning. It was great weather for a great bit of canal. From the boating point of view it's quite challenging, due to aforesaid lumps of rock all over the place, so that the channel is often narrow and winding, and you can't always pass another boat on these blind bends.

Fortunately, as Sheila was steering, we avoided any dramatic encounters – she always shows far more patience in these conditions than I do, so is able to avoid collisions, where my style of hacking in does on occasion lead to fender-to-fender confrontations.

High spot before reaching Kinver was the sight of a pair of young weasels bounding along the track just below a lock – no more than four or five inches long and mid brown all over, they were quite unmistakable.

Two hours brought us to Kinver, where we raided the Butchery for pre-War sausages as well as the more usual mince and stewing steak. We also got enough routine supplies to see us through to Kidderminster's supermarkets tomorrow.

Just after leaving Kinver we passed Dalliance going in the opposite direction. This was a bit strange, since we last passed them going up Atherstone Flight, when I'm sure they said they were heading for the Thames, with the intention of visiting the K&A. Either they changed their minds, or they've done the length of the K&A, the passage from Avonmouth to Sharpness, the length of the Gloucester and Sharpness and the length of the Severn.

I think they probably changed their minds.

We've now moored above Wolverley Lock, still in fantastic setting. The last few mornings, Sanity has been a tad reluctant to start, the starter whirring without properly engaging the flywheel. My suspicion is that the start battery is feeling its age, but I took some time this afternoon to check out all the connections and so on, all of which look OK. The battery itself is sealed, so I can't check its electrolyte or anything. I'll just have to see what its voltage is tomorrow before we start up again.

Finally, a word about my description of the area around Autherley as bandit country. I've been taken to task in a comment on the last post about this, not for the first time. I can only repeat and dilate on what I've said before – I wouldn't advise anyone to avoid any piece of canal just because some of the locals can be a nuisance, but there are areas where it pays to show some caution, and I believe it would be remiss of me not to point them out in this blog.

We've been through Autherley/Aldersley loads of times, in all directions, and never had a problem with the passage. But, we wouldn't choose to stop there overnight, and we are a bit concerned about the IWA National Festival there this year.

The area is surrounded by four large housing estates, and the hire yard at the junction has had more than its share of trouble with vandalism. At one point, they had to resort to storing the customer's cars in freight containers to protect them, and even so on one occasion one was set alight. There have also been incidents of boats being set alight in that area.

Our own policy is to start/stop from Coven, Brewood, Compton or the top of the Wolves 21, depending on route, and so far, as I say, that's been enough to avoid any trouble. People do moor in the area overnight, and mostly get away with it, but it's noticeable that a lot of the long term moorers choose to cover their windows with steel or wooden sheets.

Hopefully, the security and police presence at the National will be enough to avoid any incidents, but as I say, I'm frankly surprised that the site has been chosen for the Festival. Nonetheless, we'll be there working to make it a success, as usual, and I expect it will be another great event – I look forward to meeting readers of this blog there, or indeed at Saul in a couple of weeks time.