23 locks almost to Wordsley Junction

Soon after leaving Merry Hill we had the Delph 8 locks which used to be nine, hence the pub at the bottom is called the Tenth Lock!

An hour and a half made short work of these and then  a 3/4 hour trip with lots of low bridges and with lots of bends, brought us to Leys Junction and the start of the 16 Stourbridge Locks.

I often wonder if the fishing is that much better when you are on a lock mooring!
We had just passed a boat on the way up

Despite being surrounded by a built up area the locks are set in a pretty rural setting.  

Some have challenging outfalls as you emerge.

Geoff's good memory came into play again as he remembered that there was a large playing field between lock 15 and 16.   He was not wrong and we moored up for a slightly later lunch than usual.

The playing field is ideal for Barney although sadly there is a huge amount of litter.  Since I could not see a single rubbish bin it was hardly surprising.  Now if we had had Maffi here we would have been OK!!  Luckily there was actually one Dog Poo disposal bin.

We had passed about half a dozen boats during our transit but once we moored up there was only one going down who had been following us and one going up....where are all the boats...maybe on the Oxford Canal??   The one going up caused a slight problem as there is a ledge here which we were standing off with the aid of our solid tyre fenders, but he caused a drop in the water level so for a while we were at an unacceptable list.......unacceptable to me that is....it never seems to bother Geoff....

Total distance:3.69 miles 

Elapsed time:5h14m13s 

Locks:23

Bridges:17 
Average speed:0.70 mph (4.71 lock/mph)