Stourport and back

2nd & 3rd August

With a certain amount of boating to do yesterday, we set off early and arrived at the Kidderminster Sainsbury's just after eight. Some serious shopping included buying a new battery charger for AA rechargeables – the old one was taking over two days to recharge a set, which seemed a bit excessive. The new one does it in four hours, and only draws half as much current from the inverter.

Then on we went down the last three locks before Stourport. The canal along here, whilst not as spectacularly beautiful as the earlier section, is nonetheless very pleasant. It could use some maintenance, mind, especially cutting back the offside greenery. By now, some boats were starting to appear coming the other way, and the steering became quite challenging at times if stuff was not to be swept off the roof.

We found a mooring in Stourport in nice time to have lunch, having taken about three hours boating and one shopping to get there from Wolverley. After lunch I explored the options for butchers, finding one which sold venison burgers; this is looking ahead to the Braidbar Open Day and Owners BBQ on 20th September. We also got an excellent pork pie, fated to form the centrepiece of last night's salad.

The recycling opportunities were a bit limited however: we are currently carting around a load of cardboard and plastic that no one seems to want. We'll have to hope that the recycling facilities at the National will be more comprehensive.

After dinner, we were loafing in the saloon when there came a knock on the roof, and Sue and Richard from Indigo Dream introduced themselves. They were on their way to eat in the pub, so couldn't come in, but we managed a comprehensive natter with them.

It was great to put faces to names in this way; one of these days we'll make contact with the mysterious Greygal of the Dogsontour blog. That woman is so complimentary about me, I'm beginning to worry about her. Maybe we shouldn't ever meet, then she can remain undisillusioned. (Should that be "remain illusioned"?)

Being Saturday night, the mooring in Stourport was quite noisy up to half eleven or so, but never felt threatening.

Today we made another quite early start, timing it to get back to Kidder as the Sainsbury's opened at 10, it being Sunday. If we seem to be shopping a lot at the moment, it's because we are stocking up on stuff for socializing during the National. We will be able to get to a supermarket whilst there, but it's a distraction from doing what we are there to do, and it's much handier to have the cupboards and fridge as full as possible before we arrive.

The timing worked out well. We worked up Kidder lock at ten, with the church bells ringing out all the time we were doing so. Kidder Church clearly has a good supply of enthusiastic campanologists.

After shopping and coffee (and an exercise in applied topology in getting it all put away), we toddled on to Wolverley once more. The moorings were empty when we got here, but as I type we have Di and Reece (also on their way to Autherley) tied behind us, and an OwnerShips boat, Scherzo, in front.

We took a walk to explore Wolverley this afternoon. I'm not sure what we were expecting, but the original part below the church is quite charming. The church stands on yet another sandstone outcrop, and clustered below is a pub, a village store and the old courthouse.

This afternoon, folks were sitting outside the pub in the sun, and the whole effect was more continental than anything; you could have been in some tiny village in the Alps, not just a couple of miles north of Kidderminster.

We've had another good old natter with Reece and Di, so I'm a bit later than usual in composing this. I'll have to stop there so that I can get on and cook dinner. One of these days I'll find time and space to fulminate about the new BW policy of installing three square wooden bollards alongside every narrow lock, but it's not going to be today.