Gnosall to Kinver

We finally got back onto the Staffs & Worcs on Friday & headed south towards Stourport,

 it seemed a good day to move as the weather forecast was wet & windy for the weekend so we moored up in Compton on a nice quiet spot opposite the allotments to sit out the weather. It certainly was windy, I was pleased we hadn't moored near any trees!  Compton isn't a particularly attractive place but has a largish Spar, an independent supermarket Daisy & Fresh Essential  & a launderette all fairly close to the canal. I took advantage of the launderette & got all the washing up to date.


Monday morning was was damp & misty as we made the short hop to moor up above Dimmingsdale lock, the sun managed to come out but didn't do much to cheer me as I spent the rest of the day feeling yucky with a stomach bug. :(  

Yesterday morning thankfully I felt a lot bit better, leaving at 9am we stopped off in Wombourne to pop to the shops for bread & a paper then decided we may as well make it a leisurely  lunch stop, after all what's the rush.... so an hour & half later we got moving again. It was a great day to be cruising, a bit chilly but sunny & no wind  so we just kept going eventually stopping just before the Stourton Junction at 4.30pm just as the sun was going down.  

 Somewhere down there is a windlass that 'got away'

 The Sea Searcher earns it's keep!

 The octagonal toll office at The Bratch

 There had been a hard frost overnight so it was white over this morning when we set off for the short cruise to Kinver. 

Straight on for us, this time...

Interesting garden gates at Hyde lock, bet they're easier to open than the real thing!

Once moored up we walked up to the village for bread & a paper & I popped into the post office to collect some mail, one item was a prescription which, as I'd ordered it over a week ago I expected to be there but I was pleasantly surprised that this external dvd drive for my net book had also arrived, I had only ordered it yesterday!  


Tomorrow we are going to go exploring to see if we can find some of the cave houses & check out the view from Kinver Edge. On Friday the plan is to move on to Kidderminster, I need some bits & bobs from The Range, Mark spotted a Tesco on Google Earth & I spotted a TK Maxx, Sue ( No Problem) mentioned that to keep warm she wore ski trousers, ideal for us boaters.
 TK Maxx should be a good place to look for some, hopefully I can get some before the next big freeze....