It must be summer

It's been another glorious day's boating, though a comparatively short run, even by our standards. We set off between eight and half past, Sheila steering and your correspondent doing look out on the bow, mostly, as well as sorting things below decks. This is the last really rural section of the Staffs and Worcs heading north – nothing wrong with the rest of it but it's never far away from "civilisation" from here.

It is, of course, a Brindley summit (Compton is said to be Brindley's first attempt at a narrow lock) and, like the South Oxford, it winds about slavishly following the contour. Not long after we set off, I pointed out the stacks of the Four Ashes incinerator, looking to be about two fields away. Only an hour later, we were actually passing them, they having approached and retreated off and on in the interim.

After zooming past the chemical works with their fierce No Stopping, No Mooring signs, we arrived at Gailey top. There was a boat already on one of the water points, the one furthest from the lock, but as we pulled onto the other one, they left and we were able to pull back out of the way of the activity lockside. It's not bad pressure, but we had plenty of time to dump rubbish, drink coffee and so forth before we had a full tank.

Sheila worked me down the lock and we've tied on the nice open moorings below for a couple of days. This afternoon we took a walk along the canal past Brick Kiln and Boggs to Rodbaston, just for the exercise. There's a bit of traffic about, but nothing too dramatic.

Tomorrow, we'll run the engine and do a wash load as the section from here to the Cross Keys above Penkridge won't give us time to do it and we don't want to run the engine in Penkridge any more than we have to.