Goodbye Shroppie - Hello Staffs and Worcester

We now feel we are on the homeward trek so we wanted to get a move on. Unfortunately it was raining first thing in the morning, so we waited. Fortunately by 9:15 the rain had stopped and we set off. Shortly after, the rain started again, but not too bad.

By 10:30 we had reached Autherley Junction where the Shroppie meets the Staffs and Worcester Canal. It was raining heavily so we decided to give up for a while. After lunch the rain had stopped so we moved off via the 1 foot stop lock that prevented the upstart Shroppie from stealing water from the old S&W.

The S&W is very different to the Shroppie. It was built around 1770 by Brindley and was one of the very early canals, some 60 years older than the Shroppie. It is a contour canal snaking around the slightest hills and valleys, at one point executing a hairpin turn. However compared to the Shroppie it is wide and deep, with moorer friendly sides.

After a fairly dry trip we reached Gailey, a small canal centre, at around 17:00 and spent the next hour looking for somewhere to moor, all the visitor mooring spaces being full. We eventually had to go down a lock and found plentiful mooring slots there in reasonable countryside. Then the rain started again, but it didnt matter!