It pays to have inside information.

A new canal for us on this next stage of our Autumn cruise.

We had arrived back on the boat yesterday morning and met up with friends Joe and Lesley off of NB Yarwood, Lesley is a fellow blogger who has recently taken a sabbatical from blogging but they both are very well.  

Also we met their friends Evelyn and Graham from NB Rome.  We all went to The Vine pub where I can heartily recommend the lasagne.

Early morning, first in a while.  Yarwood long gone.

Great gates.

So this am we arrived at the start of the Stourport Canal at Stourton.  Four deep locks here to take you along to Stourbridge (There will be a test on all these Stours later)

First of 4 today.

Split bridge here.

 Its hard to believe that we are so close to the suburbs of such a major city as Birmingham that we can be surrounded by green fields.  

At the foot of the Stourbridge Locks, we hung a right turn and went into the town.  We were being met by the Ex-Pat family member’s dad here and being taken out to lunch

I slapped on some lippy and tried to do something with my hair to look less of a complete fright.  Moored up and there was Nick to meet us.

This is where we were taken to.  

One of the last photos of David in shorts this year.  They are now washed and in the bag to go home.

It somehow has three names this pub.  Officially its The Vine, also known as The Delph, it is on Delph Road, which is very close to the canal.  But known to the locals as The Bull and Bladder.  It brews its own beer on the premises, Bathams Beer, which has won many prizes. 

David said the beer was "Bloody fantastic".

It has many rooms this pub, all of them packed with locals eating.  Unusually though no menu.  So you go through to the back room where all the food is laid on a table, you tell one of the many ladies what you would like and pay for it.  We both ordered beef and mushroom pie with mushy peas and chips £2.50 a head.  It was lovely pie, I am not yet a fan of mushy peas but when in Rome...

Evidently the brewery has 9 pubs in the Black Country area, the thing to do is to have a pint in each in an evening, however 100 miles separates them all.

Later we were taken back to the boat and did a cycle ride to work off the beer and pies.

A great day.

Nothing for supper.