On Saturday 22nd May 2021 Steve walked down to Pop Ins Pantry to get The Telegraph. Later on we had a family walk into Penkridge to the Co-op and to buy a fridge magnet to use as a plaster on the puncture on the top of our diesel tank.
We set off at 11:00 and negotiated 6 locks and passed through a massive chemical plant on our journey to our mooring for the night at Cross Green. Steve and Vera walked down for a pint in the Anchor Inn. Television was dominated by Eurovision so we watched “Rake” on Netflix. IMDB sums it up as criminal lawyer Cleaver Greene defends the indefensible - from bigamists to cannibals and everything in between. He is champion of the lost cause, both in the court room and in the bedroom.
We set off at 07:30 on Sunday morning and had a rainy day, passing Autherley and Aldersley Junctions, but we stayed on the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal.
We went through 10 locks following a holiday boat manned by a “Last of the Summer Wine” trio of men (their wives stayed below deck and handed out mugs of tea to the crew), and stopped on a gloomy mooring next to Sainsbury’s at Womborne.
On Sunday evening Steve and Vera went to check out the Waggon and Horses pub but it was completely full and they could only offer seating at an uncovered picnic table in the garden.
As it was raining, and despite Steve having the umbrella hat, we declined the offer and returned to the cosy interior of The Duke where “The Dragon” diesel stove was burning merrily.
On Monday 24th May 2021 we had another early start at 07:30 and went through Botterham twin staircase locks.
The top lock empties to fill the bottom lock.
We continued through Cookley Tunnel and 13 locks and passed Stourton Junction and some narrows, hemmed in by sandstone cliffs and finally moored up at Wolverley near the Lock Inn and Tea Rooms.
Lloyd came for a cup of coffee on the boat in the afternoon and in the evening Helen came to pick us up and whisk us off to her house for showers and a splendid meal of chilli con carne followed by banoffee pie.
Next morning Helen kindly picked Steve up and drove him to The Artrix at Bromsgrove for his second COVID-19 vaccination. Digging out his paperwork Steve realised that he had had the Astra Zeneca vaccine and not the Pfizer one which he thought he had.
We took Helen for lunch in The Lock when we got back. In the afternoon Steve and Vera walked back along the canal towpath to investigate the cave at Debdale Lock.
This huge square cave carved out of the sandstone cliff was thought to have provided shelter and stabling for canal hauling horses.
On our family walk to Costcutters in the morning we passed Wolverley Pound. We didn’t get to visit the Queen’s Head in Wolverley village which is the local pub for Robert Plant (lead singer for Led Zeppelin) who lives near here.
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