Day 2 Stourbridge to Stourport on Severn via Kinver

Reveille 6.30. Breakfast 7.30. Depart 8.30. Arrived 3.50. Distance 13.5 miles. Nice B&B but not that a powerful power shower. Found the bus stop last night and yes the bus was ten minutes late. Managed to buy a BLT butty and crisps from the Spar shop next to the bus stop. Ian decided to wait until we got to Kinver. On arrival at Kinver we missed the bus stop by the shops and found ourselves heading up to the Kinver Ridge. , a good steep hill and a nice warm up first thing in the morning. The Kinver Ridge is the last part of the Staffordshire Way. We then found ourselves on the North Worcestershire Path heading towards the Severn Way. The forests around the path were full of enormous mushrooms, not sure which were safe to eat so gave them a miss. The absolute silence, peace and tranquillity were remarkable, the only noise to be heard were our boots on some of the gravel paths. The footpath had been re-routed in one place leading to a slight detour, quite a common occurrence which the OS Maps don't keep pace with. We stopped for lunch just north of Trimbley Reservoir. This is where I realised that Ian hadn't bought his lunch in Kinver. Ian conceded that it was a lesson learned (L2) and those supplies would be obtained as and when the opportunity arose rather than leaving it to later. The walk along the River Severn was very nice with the sound of the Severn Valley Railway in the background. The plant life had overgrown the footpaths up to 8ft in places, almost like walking through a maze. The town of Bewdley was very picturesque; apparently the Severn can flood up to the first level windows of the houses. We arrived at Stourport on Severn at 15.50. Clearly Stourport is a local holiday mecca with an all year round fun fair, yacht and bungalow marina and a really impressive canal boat basin with water front flats - commute to work by canal boat? - yep I could do that! The B&B (Victoria Villas) was very welcoming and nice. The Rising Sun does a very nice pint along with Liver, onions, bacon and mash. Ian went for the Bean celery, coriander chilli-window open tonight then. We've decided that a JOGLE logo is needed for a t-shirt with a tally score in the shape of a walker for each stage we do. Natives are very friendly and polite a far cry from those at home. We've decided that running a B&B would be a good retirement job, it would be for walkers only (location ltd already) with organic, passive ecological breakfasts (not sure what they are really). Distance walked today 13.5 miles.