Is it over yet?

According to Michael Pearson, the stretch of canal from Stourton Junction down to Wolverley is one of the best on the system, and I'm inclined to agree with him, even though boating wasn't much of a pleasure today, frankly. That was down to the return of winter, hopefully for one last time this trip.

There was a cold northerly wind that penetrated even my waterproof plus fleece combination. By the time we reached Stewponey Lock I was feeling seriously chilled and struggled to do the routine tasks of tying on the water point. It's a rather slow tap there, so we only filled the tank to three quarters, enough to see us down to Stourport.

Whilst waiting, I made us coffee and added a gilet under my fleece which helped a lot when we set off again. We braved the dangers of Dunsley Tunnel without following the CRT advice to wear life jackets. The same notice admits that the tunnel is all of 25 metres long – estimated transit time: one minute. There are a lot of bridges on the system which take longer to pass under.

Arriving at Kinver at half ten, we found an excellent mooring just at the start of the visitor moorings below the lock and were soon tied up and heading up the hill to shop. I restocked on meat at the butchers, though sadly they had just sold out of their famous prewar sausages. On we went to the bakers, where someone had just bought the last large granary loaf, so we bought two small ones instead.

Finally, we went round the Co-op for various other bits and bobs. Back at the boat, I realised we'd forgotten to buy more yogurt. No matter, I got out the Easi-Yo kit and set up a brew with that. I've gotten very lazy about making our own yogurt, I must admit, must get back into the habit.

After lunch and some well earned rest, Sheila changed the bed then brushed the accumulated tree bits off the roof. I gave the sinks a good seeing to with Bar Keepers Friend before taking the recycling to the skip. Back at the boat, I applied some Rust Konverter to a few patches on the gunwale preparatory to blacking it later.

The weather has actually warmed up a bit, though we're still grateful for the fire. The forecast is for a slow improvement over the next few days and a fine Bank Holiday weekend. Let's all hope it's right.

Tomorrow, many fewer locks than today's five, just Whittington and Wolverley if we decide to go down onto the moorings below.