Moored at the lovely Oddingley – at last

Monday 28^th September; Offerton locks to Oddingley

This turned out to be a rubbish overnight mooring.  Although we had sun all afternoon, and a pleasant enough outlook, the A449 over bridge 22a carried traffic all night and we could hear two other busy roads nearby.  We’ll know better another time!  So we were awake early enough, for the first time this autumn, to catch the frost

and the mist upon the water.

It gradually warmed up as Dave got on with more paint prepping, and I walked Meg up to the locks.  The damsons here are finished now, but there were some good reflections to see.

I spent the rest of the morning cleaning out the galley cupboards. We were getting fed up with the traffic noise by now, so we had an early lunch and started up the locks.  We have often seen parents and kids crossing the footbridge at the bottom lock to the rugby pitches, but we never realised that they are training pitches belonging to Worcester Warriors Rugby Club – there is a huge car park behind the towpath!

More interesting to me were the wild hops growing in the overgrown hedges

And the ropes of scarlet bryony berries strung along them.

We expected to be mooring at Dunhampstead, where the moorings are extensive and the edge excellent.  However, when we got to the beautiful Oddingley, tempting us in the sunshine was a Chuffed-size clear space!  So we grabbed it.  The edge here is Armco but there is a lot of vegetation, and whenever we have hoped to stop here before there have always been boats in the spaces.  The railway is a bit close but we prefer that to a road.  The lovely neighbours came for a nosy before we had finished tying up.

I love to hear them blowing down their noses and softly munching the grass, but they soon wandered off again. 

Dave took advantage of the good weather to carry on with painting, etc but Meg said she hadn’t had much of a walk today so I was forced to take her out again.  The level crossing was closed for a train – the lights were flashing but there is no longer a siren here.

Meg didn't really care for the train.  We crossed the bridge and walked up to the little church.  The entrance from the road was up a hill, round a bend and past some large and beautiful properties.  It’s a beautiful view up from the canal, and just as lovely in the other direction.

Ignore the railway, look at that lovely boat!

The church is very small, and of course was locked, as all churches are most of the time now, because of the Covid-19 restrictions. For example, in our village the church is open for only 3 hours once a week for private prayer and contemplation, and has just two Sunday services a month.  Oddingley has two services a month but is closed at all other times.

I was surprised to see three other visitors – two walkers, who sat on the step looking towards the canal, and a gentleman sitting on the bench by the porch, so with all the seats taken I didn’t feel we could stay.

So we strolled back, admiring the berries along the hedgerows as we went – hawthorn, bryony and the vivid red of rosehips.

We were about to run out of cake, so I did some baking. Once again it got chilly quickly, but it wasn’t as cold as last night and we didn’t light the fire.

2½ miles, 6 locks