"It should be okay...."

 It was time to leave Wolverley and really make the turn to return to Great Haywood.  This trip had been not exactly cut short but trimmed, or shaved a few days.

David had given me the option of getting down to Stourport in a bit of a going hell for leather option or relaxing, enjoying, slower and turning early.

But where?

As you may remember WaL is a full sized boat of 70' and many winding holes or as I call them Turny round places are shorter.  In the past that is to say when we started cruising with WaL back in 2012, many Winding Holes had signs denoting the length of boat it could accommodate but these are all too few now.

We had talked to Sarah and Chris, our friends in Kinver who used to moor their boat in this vicinity and Chris said you should be alright....  choices of above Kidderminster, well past Kidderminster at Falls Lock which is situated on a wide bend or else it would be all the way to Stourport.

So I walked to the lock here at Wolverley to set it for David and WaL ...  I looked back at the moored boats I had just passed and realised that it was a pair of Hotel Boats, one motor boat and an engineless butty.  

These were the people to ask, the crew were enjoying their cooked breakfast 'En plein air' and yes we would definitely wind above Kidderminster at a park.

Bit of a relief as it would have meant extending the days and doing a bit of that hell for leather I mentioned.

Yes this is the spot, it would have been easy to have overlooked it. 

This is a great thing to do with annoying willow trees... cut their heads off and carve them into beautiful sculptures.

You sure about this David....?

This is where I hopped off with the stern rope, but that is a rubber protective band on the brickwork.

Ummmmmmm

I'm still holding the rope now though to keep it away from the prop.

An out of season Ox-eye Daisy. 

 Two years David humoured me and grew some seeds as I love them so, my mother nurtured a handful of plants for me while we boated and before we got home some had flowered and seeded in her garden.  Then we planted them out with a warning from David that the bloody things will take over the garden soon enough...

Well after this steaming hot summer, you know Reader the one I missed most of having their winter in New Zealand, well when I got home it seems that all the grass has died in the back garden and the only thing growing are these Ox-eye daisies there.

David not frightfully happy, he's looked in the garden centre for a small bag of grass seed (Remember he's a retired farmer and grass seed was available back then) so a small bag of grass seed in our garden centre was £90.

He didn't buy it.  

Anyway, we retraced our steps and I walked, here below you can see that this is where the Hotel pair who are tethered and had finished breakfast, met WaL in the narrowest section and a bend.

Marvellous but no contact.

So no stopping today until Kinver.  Plans had been made to meet said friends, ex-boaters and ex-blogger Sarah and Chris to have supper in the new Indian restaurant here.  David couldn't resist and indeed had planned another swift pint of that best beer in the world Bathams.

 

I found this online and indeed it was a big print framed in the pub.  The original pub is where the beer is brewed still I think.  The Delph Flight of locks up to Merry Hill in Birmingham is quite literally just behind the pub.  Don't pass by without trying it.

These next couple are out of sequence as I remember the trip but it was a while ago and I'm all behind like a dogs tail, so forgive any errors.

Glorious sunshine and wonderful views

I always love an Aylesbury duck.

Picturesque cottages.

Pretty property, I was confused with the Royal Standard but I think The King is in residence.

Another of those challenging bends, this time a friendly pair of walkers confirmed there were no boats approaching.

Keen eyed among you will know that we are back to Wolverley here, this is a little above the lock where a few years ago there was a landfall here.  At the top of the photo you will see the road (Or rather lane barrier) which too has fallen.  When it happened a resident of a house on said lane said he'd be surprised if it was repaired and so it seems.  David was appalled that the metal barriers have been left by either CART or Severn Trent Water Company, between the two was an active discussion as to who was liable.

I reckoned that the Health and Safety Brigade say it's too dangerous to collect the barriers.   

From L to R  Sarah, Lisa Chris and David.

It's really surprising just how many restaurants, cafés and pubs there are in Kinver,  it's a smallish town and even on a Monday this Indian became full.