29th August 2016
We bid our adieu’s to Horst and Elfi this morning as they are off to Cornwall for a few days before returning to Germany. Very sad to see them go. So it is back to us plus the pooches and nb Lucy.
Spent an hour this morning rejiging the cruising plan as we were never meant to come this far south but due to the Rochdale Canal closure we needed to fill in our time somehow. It has involved a lot of thought and our plan we have come up with looks great but the downside of it is that we will have to motor at least 4-5 hours every day until the end. Probably not a bad thing as we have developed a bad habit of just going with whatever fancied us.
This weekend is a Bank Holiday long weekend so lots of people out and about for a Monday and with the perfect weather the beer gardens are full of gongoozlers. They like to make a comment when you do something wrong but not so forthcoming with compliments.
The Stafford and Worcester canal is all new to us. We are pretty blown away with how beautiful it is. Went past this chaps backyard where you can see he obviously loves his garden.
In England it would be so easy to have a great garden.
It was certainly very extensive.
Just a couple of photos of some of the very scenic views on the way today. After leaving Bumble Hole – only in England can you have a name like that and get away with it – we cruised for six hours with a bit of a break for lunch. Did 11 locks today which is a little more than usual but comfortably doable.
Our plan was to get to Kinver which is a small village that won Picturesque Village of the Year 2016. It has the reputation of being called the “Switzerland of the Midlands”. Not too sure how they came up with that title as it looks nothing like a Swiss village.
We went for a wander around the town tonight and all was quiet. Tomorrow we will do some further investigating as there is meant to be a great wall up a hill that gives you good views. Weather permitting we will attempt this.
This gate certainly took our fancy. We spoke to the owner of the house and he was pretty pleased with himself and his handiwork which he should be.
The evenings are now starting to be dark at 8.30pm and we are seeing a lot more evidence of change of colours. The air has much more of a nip to it in the mornings and evenings but still very pleasurable. We now only have four weeks remaining of our trip and to us it has gone so quickly.
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