Saturday 30th July

I had no repercussions from doing the locks yesterday but Richard was very stiff – we assume after trying to free with propeller on Thursday. We set off towards Stourport and were soon tied up above York Street Lock. We wandered down to the canal basin and out onto the river then back to the boat via the High Street. Richard then decided he fancied a pint so we walked back to the river and sat and had lunch at a pub overlooking it. The day was getting quite hot and I was grateful that there were lots of sun umbrellas. Back at the boat we went down York Street lock and into the basin where we go water and diesel. To get out of the basin and onto the Severn there are two staircase locks with a very interesting tight turn from one to the other. It was really nice to be back on a river but it is nothing like the Thames as so far the banks have been rather overgrown. The first mooring place we came to was at Hampstall Ferry and The Hampstall Inn. There were very nice pontoons and a nice space just our size! It turned out that the pub owns the pontoon and either charge £10 a night or if you eat at the pub the mooring is free – needless to say we took the eating option! The food was very good and reasonably priced but I’m afraid that the service let it down and we never did get a pudding. We went back to the boat and sat on the pontoon with a coffee in candlelight – aaah :-)