Goodbye to Brewood

Thursday 4th October We walked into Brewood again this morning to get some food then set off on a beautiful morning, travelling under the noisy M54 to reach the end of the 'Shroppie' through quite a lot of wooded areas which are a bit boring. We arrived at the last lock at Autherley Junction and we turned right onto the Staffordshire and Worcester! Although we were passing through the outskirts of Wolverhampton it was still very green and peaceful with hardly any other boats around. We saw about 3 kingfishers along the way - that's always a joyful experience - and we saw a young fox resting in some bushes by the canal looking on at men working on an allotment. We went through Compton lock then Wightwick locks which had just been oiled and were very black and greasy. We passed by several old chaps fishing and reached Dimmingsdale Lock and Ebstree Lock. One of the men who had just finished fishing looked down at the boat and said 'I envy you'. I said we were going to Worcester and he said 'Oh it's lovely along there – Stourport on Severn is beautiful it's like the Blackpool of the Midlands, but not really like Blackpool, much nicer. At Awbridge lock there was a queue of 2 boats coming the other way which was good for us. A lady helped us through and told us that Worcester is lovely – she has relatives there. All of a sudden the canal had become crowded - it must have been rush hour. We came to the last moorings before the Bratch staircase locks and we didn't fancy doing them so we moored up. Dale went to see the lockkeeper and bought a vandal-proof key which we will need for some of the locks further on. Then we walked into nearby Wombourne which the lockkeeper had said was very old and picturesque but looked quite ordinary to us. We bought ingredients for macaroni cheese for Friday.