Setting off fairly early – for us – on Wednesday morning, we continued on up the canal in rather uninspiring weather. The early start made all the difference, and without any obvious effort, we managed 6 miles and 7 locks – long haul for us!

The first time we came down this part of the Staffordshire and Worcester Canal some years go, we saw loads of Kingfishers; in one sunny afternoon near Kinver we gave up counting after some 20+ sightings. This time they were obviously keeping their heads down, and we had seen nary a one from Stourport up.

After the exertions of the last two days, we tied up at Not That Swindon, a small canalside village with a couple of pubs, small convenience store, Thai restaurant and hairdresser. We decided that all things considered we deserved to eat out, and indeed the Thai food was extremely nice (and surprisingly cheap).

Bowing to pressure from the Captain,  the navigator also availed himself of the hairdresser, so he’s probably not going to regain his strength for a while…