Sun at last, for a while

I'm pleased to say that we woke to sunny weather and it's stayed that way for most of the day. There's still a cold wind from time to time, even though it's backed into the west. This affected Sheila more than me as she was steering. No one spotted my mistake yesterday (well, except Sheila, of course). There were either two or three locks to do as I'd forgotten Debdale.

How could I forget Debdale, one of the most awkward locks on the system? The top gate is tricky to walk across as the footboard slopes down towards the water and the route from one side of the bottom gates to the other involves a stile off the towpath below the lock, a long footbridge and then a scramble back onto the lockside. It's only redeeming feature is the odd cave in the cliff face on the offside, apparently formerly used as a stable.

In compensation, Whittington lock before it is a beauty, picture postcard perfect in its setting and reasonably easy to work. I rode from the one to the other, getting a washload running as I did so. I hopped off just before Cookley Tunnel and walked a bit to Debdale. When I got there, an Alvechurch boat was just going in to work down, so I gave them a hand, then turned the lock and worked Sheila down.

There follows another of the challenging lengths, twisting and turning past the sandstone bluffs. We only met one boat coming the other way, just as we were passing the Booth's house and mooring. Each steerer saw the other in good time, so no problem.

We've tied above Wolverley Lock where there's a bit more sun and the mobile signals are slightly better. This afternoon, we took a walk down past Wolverley Court lock collecting more kindling, observing a bit of traffic as we did so. We've seen another Alvechurch boat and a couple of Anglo-Welsh going down, plus some Star Line boats coming up as well as one Canal Cruising boat out of Stone.

With the Four Counties closed, the Stourport Ring looks like being popular this year.

The only real problem we've had today is that the iPhone 5 we use for internet access sulked this morning and wouldn't start up, even when put on charge. It just showed the low battery symbol. In the end, I tried putting it on a warm radiator which did the trick, so that it admitted to having about 70% charge.

It was a refurbed used one off eBay and I suspect that the battery is basically knackered. I'll try and keep it going until we get to Liverpool, then seek advice in the Apple Store there. If a new battery is all that's required, fair enough. It's fine for us as a phone as we use the iPads for most of our internet stuff. I know you can buy a battery online and fit it yourself, but I doubt if I have the manual skill for such a fiddly job these days.

Tomorrow, on to Stourport, probably in the rain.