Day Nineteen - Kinver to Stourport on Severn

We had a leisurely day with only had seven locks and fine weather. Henk did the steering before lunch and Bill did it in the afternoon. As we only had a low number of locks we divided the jobs into steering, locks and kitchen duties. Lyn kept us supplied with coffee, tea, cake and lunch. The system worked very well.
We left at eight thirty and there seemed to be more boats on the canal today. This was commented by people at the locks and on the tow paths.
We had a near-miss of hitting a fast-approaching canal boat coming out from a bridge. It was a hire boat and they obviously had no idea how to handle it and were going too fast. Henk had to quickly put the boat into reverse to avoid hitting it. We then had to go onto the left side of the canal to get around it. The crew did look sheepish when they went past and one mentioned the word “learner”.
The canal took us through heavily wooded areas and cuts through sandstone which were very pretty.
We had a late morning tea on the boat at Kidderminster, the carpet making town, and then we walked into the town’s centre crossing the busy ring road. It is very much a working town but did have some appeal. Lyn and I found a wool shop which had the most amazing stock of knitting wool. I couldn’t resist buying some tea cosy patterns. We returned to the boat to have lunch before setting out for the afternoon.
We took some time to get through the final lock at Kidderminster and get underway again due to the canal boat traffic. The sun was out and the canal looked very pretty with the church in the background. Lyn and I were able to do some reading as we motored along.
When we arrived at Stourport on Severn a fellow boater told us the basin was busy so we quickly found a mooring just before the High Street. We will go into the basin tomorrow before going onto the Severn River.
Stourport on Severn has a long High Street with many little shops along the way. It is the week of their festival and had bunting and shop windows decorated in the colours of red, white and blue.
We had dinner on the boat again which we enjoy as we can relax after having our showers. Tomorrow should be an easy day again with a small number of locks.
Photos: Henk bringing “Gillian” along the canal in front of the Kidderminister church; The canal through a sandstone cutting; Stourport on Severn shop decorated for their festival; the Stourport on Severn Basin;