Monday 14 May 2018

A trip to Wombourne

Do you suppose the good folk of Wombourne get fed up with jokes about Wombles? Maybe not, the locals probably don't have my twisted sense of humour. Anyway, despite the fact that Pearson says that it's not practical to do so, we decided to take a walk to the shops in Wombourne this morning. Our copy of the relevant First Mate's Guide reckoned it was twenty minutes from the moorings below the flight, which sounded perfectly doable.

Which indeed it is. You walk up the road from the bridge below the bottom of the flight, past the waterworks, and carry on uphill beneath the old railway bridge and then turn right into Station Road. That first bit is bereft of pavement, so stay by the houses so that you can slip into one of the drives to avoid passing traffic.

Once on Station Road, it's a straightforward pull up the hill on pavement all the way. At the traffic lights, you can choose between turning left to the medium size Co-op or carry on down the other side of the hill on what's now Windmill Bank to a cluster of village shops. These include a butcher, a baker and two parts of a Poundland style cheapjacks, in one of which we bought a couple of extra rolls of masking tape.

On the way back, we called in at the Co-op for some fruit and veg then trogged back down the hill to the locks and so back to the boat. It came out at about two and a half miles altogether, so no big deal on a fine day.

Nonetheless, we felt sufficiently well exercised to take the rest of the morning off. This afternoon, we've been grafting at painting the starboard gunwale in Andy Russell's Gunwale Black. Sheila applied the masking tape and I wielded the mini-roller. It was worth doing but, my word, it doesn't get any easier with the passing years. No matter, it's sorted now and looks pretty good though I say it myself.

We'll do the other side at a convenient moment and location– the towpath will be to port for most of the next few weeks, first along the Staffs and Worcs and then up the Trent and Mersey.

Tomorrow, on to Wightwick as a change from Compton.



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