We pulled pins from our mooring at 08.00 and set off towards Kinver on The Staffs and Worcs canal. It wasn’t long before this pterodactyl took off from a tree as we were passing. I think we must have startled it. Hamish was a bit concerned as he would have been an ideal snack for Terry Dac..
We were told by several boaters not to stop in Kidderminster as it was a bit rough and there were Handcuff keys required on the locks. There was a bit of very good Grafitti under the road bridge before the main lock in the town ,but apart from that we couldn’t see a problem there. I think next time we pass through we will most certainly stop and spend a day or three here.
Kidderminster looks so inviting even Hamish seemed impressed. There are in fact a couple of retail parks right next to the canal,so even if you didn’t want to overnight here it would be a perfect place to replenish the cupboards.
A bit further along the canal and you get some great hairpin bends. It’s only single file around some of them so you just have to hope that you don’t meet a boat coming the other way.
Most locks that you go through are dirty and muddy and sometimes rather smelly. But this one was just covered in moss which aided us as we slid up the lock..
After a good cruise we ended up in Kinver and got a spot on the visitor moorings which were only 24 hours. We probably would have stayed a bit longer ,but if they don’t want us for more than 24 hours then we won’t stay more than 24 hours. Surely some of these towns/villages must realise that some of the boaters passing through can put a lot of money into the local economy..
Anyway Kinver is a nice little village,although not that little. We were surprised to see how many shops and businesses there were as most villages only have the odd pub and maybe a small shop.It was even a bigger surprise to find out that Kinver has a population of over 7,000 people. It seems a village remains a village unless its given a charter to have a market ,and then once it has a market it can call itself a Town.
One thing I have always wanted to do is to have a look at the houses that are carved into the rocks at Kinver. We walked all the way out of the village and up a dirty great big hill only to find that this popular tourist spot was closed. It seems that this famous attraction is only open 4 days a week even though it’s the middle of July . There were over a dozen people there when we were there and all the people were disappointed that it was closed. At over five pounds a time that’s a lot of money lost, but maybe The National trust has enough money that they don’t need anymore.
Tomorrow after our 24 hours here at Kinver we are off again. This time we want to get a bit closer to The Shropshire Union canal so we can then start heading North…
Happy Days
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