Today was intended to be a shorter day than yesterday, nevertheless we set off at 7.30am instead of the planned 8.00am, hoping to have a longer evening to enjoy. These early starts may not appeal to some but the canals are quiet, the early morning mist can be beautiful and you can often get a good way before being held up at the locks.

The early part of the morning consisted of five locks in a three mile stretch and the changed character of the Staffs & Worcs really was evident with the locks in beautiful countryside and with the distinctive 'lollipop stick' balance beams. Wightwick Mill Lock, Wightwick Lock, Dimmingsdale Lock and Ebstree Lock were all tackled before arriving at Awbridge which had one of those picturesque locations with a handsome bridge just past the lock and an ex lock-keepers cottage alongside. Add a boat moored just before the lock and you have all the ingredients that make the canals so worthwhile. The only thing to spoil it was the electricity pylons close by but I guess you can't have everything.

Now we could look forward to something we had expected to be one of the highlights of the trip - Bratch staircase. Although we knew the theories of staircase locks we had yet to tackle one, so there was a little trepidation as we arrived after three-quarters of an hour cruising from Awbridge. It was still early and there were no other boats about so we could go through on our own. Any doubts about remembering the correct sequence of operation were quickly put to rest by the instructions on the lock gates and by the lockie turning up after about five minutes. Sean and Sandy did all the lock work while I stayed on the boat and while it was an exciting journey it was a little disappointing not to be see how it all worked from the lockside. In the event the lockie set the lower two for us so it was all plain sailing. Best bit from on the boat was the sheer size of the gates behind, it felt as if I was going caving rather than boating! All in all, a definite highlight of the trip and we still had another staircase to come.

We passed through Bumblehole lock and, just twenty minutes after Bratch, we reached Botterham Staircase Locks where we experienced the first hold-up of the day with a boat in front of us totally confused by the system and another waiting to come up. The boat coming up went first leaving both locks full and so it was the turn of the boat in front of us to go down. Usual practice would be to empty the bottom lock so the top one could fill it when emptying but this crew were having none of this as they couldn't figure out how they were going to get the boat into the bottom lock if it was empty. So with both locks full they proceeded to drain the top lock. Luckily there is a huge overspill here, almost half the length of the bottom lock, so the water cascaded down the overspill rather than over the lock sides and whilst no damage was done it took an awfully long time for the top lock to empty. When it was our turn we did it the conventional way and sure enough the bottom lock filled up just as it should! It was a lot quicker too. All in all it had taken an extra twenty minutes to get through but as we had sailed through Bratch quickly we were still ahead of time.

Another three locks now before lunch - Marsh Lock, Swindon Lock and Hinksford Lock, all in beautiful surroundings and typical of this stretch of the canal. An hour later brought us to the moorings and water point just before Greensforge Lock and The Navigation pub. Once watered we strolled down to the pub hoping for some lunch but to no avail. The barmaid didn't seem too interested in serving food but said if we could find a menu she would let us know what they had. We couldn't find a menu so just had a pint and decided on bacon butties back on the boat. As we walked past the lock a boat with about twelve youngsters on the roof, all in life-jackets, was going down with much shouting from the skipper regarding how to operate the lock and not get crushed against the walls and we feared getting stuck behind them for the rest of the day. In fact we never saw them again, hope they didn't sink! Our trip through the lock was enlivened by the smell of bacon wafting up from the galley and if we had had the time we could have made a fortune selling bacon butties to the drinkers sat around the lock. We had plenty of offers!

A couple more locks, including the nicely named Rocky Lock which had no rocks in sight, and we came to Stourton Junction, a lovely wide stretch with the first locks of the Stourbridge Canal immediately round the corner to the left. I dropped the crew off before the junction so that they could walk across the bridge and have the first lock opened before I arrived. All worked as planned and I went straight into the lock without any problems. This short flight of four locks at the start of the Stourbridge is quite picturesque with a couple of huge side pounds which look almost like branch canals. The run up to Wordsley Junction was uneventful but not unpleasant although it became more obvious as we progressed that we were once again approaching the urban environment on the edges of Birmingham. At Wordsley Junction there were a large number of youths hanging around with rubbish and beer cans everywhere, but we were thankful we didn't have to stop, little realising that their presence would be have a great effect tomorrow morning.

The Stourbridge Town Arm was surprisingly pleasant as, although it went through housing estates and past factories, it was quite clean and had recently been dredged. About twenty minutes took us to the basin at the end where we winded (perfectly first time!). We had intended to moor in the basin but there was no room so we moored up just outside. As luck would have it, the first rain of the day poured down just as we were tying up. We had hoped to eat in Stourbridge but a quick recce failed to find a pub which did food, so we ended up with pizzas after a long walk through the town. Around the basin is quite pleasant but I can't say the same for Stourbridge itself. We had moored early so had a long evening to enjoy with conversation with passing towpath walkers included. Despite being close to town and with a disco going on at the Old Bonded Warehouse, we had a quiet trouble-free night.