There are two visitor mornings at Stourport Basin and both are for 24 hours
only. As they're on a corner, the wind and bad navigation from other boaters, meant
I kept on being collided into. So time to move on.
I headed up the York Street lock onto the Staffordshire and Worcestershire
Canal. I'll be navigating through the Upper Mitton area for a quick stop off at
Kidderminster. Then I travel up to Ashwood Marina.
The canal is lined with houses and can be narrow at times, especially through bridges 5-7.
The area was full of life, other boaters and everyone was very welcoming. It
looked like a really nice spot to moor up for a few days and visit the town. I
however, was in search of the countryside.
For the past seven, seven or eight weeks, I've been on large rivers, or the real
industrial Gloucestershire canal, so it's actually really nice to come up onto a,
what's called a narrow-gauge canal where it's so narrow you can't turn around
and, but it's enough space for two boats to go past each other. It's lovely,
peaceful spot. I’m north of Stourport-on-Severn and south of Kidderminster. But
today I really need to move the boat because it's absolutely boiling. I'm
actually in the sun all day long and I really need to sacrifice solar and go
and seek shade. Obviously if you live in a house, you've got to put up with the
heat all day long but today I'm going to move, move to cooler climate shall we say!
On my way to that I needed to fill up with water and other supplies, in the
town of Kidderminster. There were many boaters around, also seeking shade, so
lots of help along the way.
This next lock is open for me, I don't know if someone's opened it for me to travel
through or it was open from the last person but, when this happens, it's a real
blessing because you don’t have to moor up beforehand, to then go and open the gates
to move on in. Now I originally thought that the lock
had been opened, the gates had been opened for me because there was another boat on the
other side but that's not the case, because a guy called Geordie Jim has opened
the gates for me and done all the paddles. So I can just stay on board and keep on
cruising and it makes the whole, getting through a lock, a lot faster. So thanks
very much to Geordie Jim! The canal goes right through the heart of Kidderminster
and there were plenty of large supermarkets and shops right next to the
water's edge. Be careful when going north under bridge 16, there's a lock on the
other side of it and a bend. There was a boat in front of me who kindly waved,
telling me not to enter the bridge and to instead reverse, to allow the other
boat through.
As you rise through the Kidderminster lock, the scenery really changes, from a
quiet quaint canal, to a busy metropolitan town. I filled up with water,
disposed of my rubbish and onward I went.
What you doing then?
There were a few locks to navigate upstream as I came out of Kidderminster,
and at Debdale Lock near Cookley, there's a small cave cut into the red sandstone.
In times gone by, it was used as overnight stabling for the working boat
horses. Although Cookley Tunnel, just north of
the lock, was less than 60 meters in length,
it was rather thin and really low, but taking it slow,
I crawled through.
Picturesque houses lined my route as I passed Kinver and at
Stourton, there's the turning for the Stourbridge Canal, that heads towards
Birmingham. But I'm still heading north on the Stratfordshire and
Worcestershire Canal. On the corner, near Flatheridge Bridge, there is the best
private garden neighbouring the canal I've seen so far. This would make any
gardener jealous. So I’m up bright and early and today I'm putting Alice into a
marina for the week. I'm going on holiday, and I didn't really like the idea of
leaving her tied up next to the towpath, even though I've had no security
problems whatsoever, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Now, I'm putting her into Ashwood Marina and it's a very long and thin marina and
you're unable to turn around in it. So I'm going to have the luxury of
reversing three quarters of its length, which is quite long.
Now narrowboats don't steer very well when in reverse, because the tiller
doesn't really direct the water flow. So I'm going to use my bow thrusters
hopefully, to nudge the bow at port or starboard and that will point the stern
in the right direction, fingers crossed.
This is actually a lot trickier than I thought it would be and I've got to
really concentrate.
I'm only going at tick-over speed, so that helps, don't rush, take it slow, the
winds nothing today which really helps, but we'll see. I've got lots of fibreglass
and plastic boats to go past yet!
I'm very nearly there, haven't touched another boat, haven't bumped into
anything and I've taken my time, gone nice and slow and I'm nearly in the
place where I'm due to moor.
So I've now left Alice, seems really weird, this is going to be the longest I've
been away from the boat but she’s in safe hands. She's in the marina nice and
moored up. So now it's time to go on holiday. Don't forget to click Subscribe
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time see you later.