1.05.08

Started at last a very good start , a good breakfast at home then down to Derek and Suzy who had the misfortune to be right on the canal, where I joined it, another coffee and a joyous greeting by the herd of Bernese Mountain Dogs they breed.. Then Mark the dive shop arrived also to wish me well.

Walking rapidly down the canal system passed relics of the past, the via duct outside Kidderminster where the railway is poised victorious over the defeated canal, only to fall in turn to the car and the internal combustion engine, is particularly appropriate for a walk that eschews all motorized transport to hark back to medieval times.

 The marks on the hand rail are from the tow ropes from the horse drawn barges of the past.

The tow path goes past the base of one of the carpet mill towers, beautifully made in different bricks from the local blackcountry clays.

Finally on to the River Severn at Stourport where a new development is taking place on the riverside. Don’t they know it floods? After a bit of worry the level of the Severn is not to high except at one point forcing me to climb a steep gulley full of nettles and burrs!

Hardly a drop of rain all day (thank you Mark for your intercession), and I write this in the last of the sun in a camp field overlooking the Severn near Holt Fleet, a very good first day if a little weary.