Greensforge

Here I am Rune

Distance 5.5  miles

Total 4348 Locks  279 Tunnels

Running total mileage 6,589.6 miles

 

A fairly gentle day out of Stourbridge and down onto the Staffs & Worcs Canal. The Stourbridge Arm seems to lack much depth and is quite weedy in places resulting in a few ‘reverse thrusts’ to clear the prop of weed.

I’d forgotten what a pleasant piece of canal the Staffs and Worcs is along this section, a lot of it is overhung by trees which would make it an ideal destination on a hot sunny day. An interesting curiosity I passed (but failed to photograph)  somewhere north of Devil’s Den Aqueduct was a rounded door with a padlock attached that went into the rockface on the non-towpath side of the canal. My guess would be that it is an entrance to a cave system of some sort since the rock concerned is sandstone, but it just looks curious since, without a boat, there is no way to access the door.

The only other event of note was our first sighting this year of a Kingfisher. I don't know where they have all gone so far, usually they are a regular appearance on the canals, particularly where there is a nearby river, but not this year. 

The destination for tomorrow is uncertain, we may go on as far as Whitwick or we may stop at Womborne, just depends how we feel.