Apart from Mike making a short trip to Morrisons in town for a few supplies, we were happy to stay cocooned in the warmth - it was blowing a strong wind and not too pleasant to be outdoors. Although Mike tried to put up the satellite dish, a strange sound some minutes later signalled that it had fallen over in the wind. Fortunately we had restrained it with a mooring rope so at least it did not not go into the water!
Today we enjoyed a slow start but mid morning drove into Droitwich for a few items from Morrisons. We did pay for an hour so that we could walk around the town centre to remind ourselves of the layout. It is a little while since we were last here. On the last few times (including last month) we have come along the canal we have only made quick forays to the nearest shops.
We took a brief look at the salt museum in the tourist information centre - we may come back next month when Alice and Jess are with us. It is fairly compact but does set out the way in which the town was shaped by the large amounts of good quality salt laid down deep under the surface in this area.
A statue is a reminder pf the men who worked in the salt production.
Looking at older maps we have discovered just how much of the centre of the town is very recent with the older, more industrial areas having been replaced. Sadly, much of that replacement is unimaginative and unlikely to last as long as any predecessors!
High Street is the only part with older shops buildings - it is easy to see why there have been problems as many of the buildings are at odd angles as a result of subsidence.
In a gap between various buildings we could see across to the old church on the top of the hill opposite. If you look carefully you can see that a rainbow spanned across the picture. The weather was generally favourable but a brief light shower (which just missed us) lasted just a couple of minutes after which the bright blue sky returned.
We returned to the boat for lunch - which did include part of a fresh pork pie from a small independent butcher on High Street.
Although we had discussed driving to either Worcester or Great Malvern, in the end the bright weather persuaded us to talk a walk from the marina. Once across the Rugby Club access bridge we turned onto the towpath towards the junction. The first part was rather muddy but soon we discovered that there was a better surfaced alternative!
We walked up, passing the three locks to the junction.
Here we took a look at Hanbury Wharf Centre, a collection of a few small businesses including a boat sales operation and others unrelated to the canal - including one selling garden shelters.
Back at the towpath we retraced our steps but at the access bridge we continued on to the new locks just before the motorway. Crossing the M5 was one of the major obstacles that the restoration engineers had to solve. The original route had been completely obliterated by the embankment for the motorway but fortunately they established that a tunnel could just - only just - be made through a culvert for Body Brook which is much smaller than the River Salwarpe which it joins just the other side.
We were tempted by realising that the next lock was only a short way further one and continued. Here, the new alignment joins the river but leaves it again at the start of Vines Park with the almost-level Barge Lock.
Of course, once at the lock it was only a short extra walk to Waitrose - we missed that we needed some red kidney beans and this would avoid having to drive back in a second time!
Eventually it was time to retrace our steps back to the boat - arriving as the sun was just going down below the horizon!
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