Winter Cruise - Day Six

Another clear moonlit night, and another frosty morning.  We set off at 8.20, and I walked down to set our only lock of the day.  Having completed the last Curdworth lock, we're now at the lowest point of our trip, having dropped nearly 250 feet since Wolverhampton.

The main landmark before Fazeley Junction is the Drayton Footbridge.

At Fazeley Junction, we were pleased to see that the Junction House is being lived in; it was boarded up the last time we were here.

We stopped at the water point to fill the tank, and while it was filling I went to the nearby Tesco Express to top up on shopping.  We set off again in lovely sunshine, although it was bitterly cold.  The only other time we've done this stretch from Fazeley to Fradley was in August 2007, on our first trip on Debdale.  Today, the canal looked loveley.

We spotted a couple of bloggers today.  Guelrose was moored at Hopwas, and just north of Huddlesford Junction was Derwent6.  We moored up shortly afterwards, opposite the moorings at Streethay Wharf.  We had lunch, then walked over the bridge to the wharf to see Kevin Blick, who's refitting narrowboat Harry.

11 miles, 1 lock.  (57 miles, 64 locks)

Winter Cruise - Day Five

We woke to a lovely morning -- frosty, sunny, and with the moon still high in the sky.  We'd slept reasonably well, in spite of the noise of the M6.  It's a constant hum, so relatively easy to tune out.  As it was cold, we treated ourselves to bacon and eggs, before setting off at 8.20.  We were quickly at Salford Junction, under Spaghetti Junction, and making the very tight right turn back onto the Birmingham and Fazeley.

There's lots of industry along the canal, but there are still kingfishers flashing across the water.  At Minworth, the canal really is a stripe of nature through the industry.  The top lock is very attractive with its collection of cottages.

I don't know what used to be made at the Cincinnati works, but it's not made there any more.  The site has been bought by Urban Splash (the company which owns the land next to the Walsall Town Arm, and hasn't yet built anything there).  I hope that when they get round to doing something at Cincinnati, they convert the rather elegant building rather than knocking it down.

We had to make an unscheduled stop just below Minworth Bottom Lock, to remove a piece of rope from around the prop.  Then it was out into the country towards Curdworth with its short tunnel.

The Curdworth flight of locks begins shortly afterwards.  The sunshine meant there were great scenes everywhere, in spite of the M42 running alongside.  We had to turn every lock (I don't think we've had a single lock in our favour all trip), and a few locks down caught up with a single hander.  Fortunately (for us, not him), he had to stop to clear his prop, so let us go past.

We decided to carry on until after the tenth lock, and then stay put for the night.  We are becoming part time boaters!  So we moored at 1.30pm next to Kingsbury Water Park.  After lunch, we made good use of the sunny weather by taking a walk round some of the lakes.  As we set off, a boat came up the lock below us, and another, Aldridge, came down the lock above us.  We haven't seen that many boats for a long time.

The water park is a huge place, covering a vast area both sides of the M42.  We saw only a very small part of it, but it looked beautiful in the late afternoon sunshine.

9 miles, 13 locks.  (46 miles, 63 locks)

Winter Cruise - Day Four

We had a great evening last night.  Lesley and Joe, and Jill and Graham came round for a drink, and we were even joined by Paul from Waterway Routes, but he had to go and get a train home.  Then we all went for a meal.  We chose the Slug and Lettuce at Brindleyplace (fifty per cent off all food on Mondays).

This morning, we were looking forward to a fast run down the Farmer's Bridge Locks, as we'd roped in Lesley and Joe as lock crew!  We were off before 8, but it turned out we weren't quite early enough.  As we arrived at the top lock, another boat, Avington, was just going into the second one (they'd also been in front of us when we came up the Wolverhampton flight).  It didn't really matter, because the extra pairs of hands meant we could turn each lock as soon as Avington left it.  We got into a good rhythm of going ahead to set the locks, so we probably wouldn't have been any quicker even without a boat in front.  Halfway down the flight, Joe too over the helm.

Farmer's Bridge is probably my favourite flight of urban locks.  There are great views everywhere, and always something to look at.

We got to the bottom in an hour and ten minutes, and stopped to put the kettle on and make tea for our crew, before saying goodbye to Lesley and Joe (and Fletcher and Floyd).  It's been great spending time with them, and we really appreciated the help this morning.

With a boat in front of us (even though they'd be well ahead because of our tea stop), we decided on a change of plan.  We'd been going to head down the Aston flight and as far along the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal as we could.  But we decided to turn right as Aston Juntion and go down the Ashted Locks instead, followed by the Garrison Locks, which we'd never done before.

Ashed Tunnel is narrow and uneven, and starts directly after the top Ashted Lock.  There was plenty of water in the flight.  Halfway down the flight, there's a great view of the Bullring.

At the end of the Digbeth Branch, we turned left left through Warwick Bar.  Then it was just a short distance to Bordesley Junction, where we went under the elegant bridge onto the Saltley Cut.

It starts straight and wide, with lots of bridges into the distance.  The Garrison Locks turned out to be much nicer than we'd been expecting (although the sunny day may have helped).

As we're not short of time on this trip, we decided to stop at the pontoon moorings at Star City.  Lesley and Joe have stayed here, and said it was fine.  It was about 12.30 when we arrived, and I knew we had something round the prop.  Opening the weed hatch, I was surprised to see how clear the water was; it was probably the best view I've had of the prop, and I could clearly see the plastic bag causing the problem.

As we were moored next to a cinema, it seemed the idea time to go and see a film.  So we checked the times, and after a quick lunch went and saw The Social Network.  We were the only people in the cinema.  The moorings here are much better than we were expecting; there's access to Star City via a gate locked with a BW key, and I'm sure the vast majority of people who go to Star City don't even know the moorings are here.  Spaghetti Junction isn't far away, so there's a certain amount of traffic noise, but even that isn't as bad as we thought it might be.  All in all, it's been a thoroughly enjoyable day.

5 miles, 24 locks (37 miles, 50 locks)

Winter Cruise - Day Three

The moorings at the Black Country Museum are both noisy (being next to a busy road), and bright (as the BW service block is very well illuminated).  However, it was extremely heavy rain which woke us up during the night.

We left at 8 o'clock, and turned right onto the Old Main Line.  Our route to Birmingham had been the subject of some discussion, as we've done the journey between Wolverhampton and Birmingham several times over the years.  On one occasion we used the Factory Locks at Tipton to move between the levels of the New and Old main lines, and most recently we used the Smethwick Locks.  So this time, we decided to take a left turn at Brades Hall Junction and use the Brades Locks to take us down onto the Gower Branch and onto the New Main Line.  The Brades Locks include the BCN's only staircase pair.

At the bottom, Brades Hall Bridge has very low headroom, and we had to stop and take off the chimney and the internet antenna.

After completing the third (single) lock and the rest of the Gower Branch, we turned right onto the New Main Line, wide, deep, and straight.  We went under the M5 on its huge concrete pillars, and under the Old Main Line on the Stewart Aqueduct.

As we approached the city centre, we turned off round the Oozells Stree Loop, and spotted that Sherborne Wharf must be one of the few marinas in the country with two electric boats: Waterway Routes, and Felonious Mongoose.

We moored at the end of the Oozells Loop, had a shower and lunch, then went to find Lesley on Caxton, moored just round the corner.  Later in the afternoon, we went along to have a look at The Cube, as it was just a huge hole in the ground when we were last here.  Then we walked into town through the Frankfurt Christmas Market, which has taken over virtually all the centre of town.

This evening, Lesley and Joe, and Jill and Graham from Matilda Rose are coming round for a drink before we all go out for something to eat.  Tomorrow, lots of locks.

9 miles, 3 locks (32 miles, 26 locks)

Winter Cruise - Day Two

The fire stayed in all night, so the boat was nice and warm in this morning.  It was a promising looking day, although it was still cold.  We left our moorings at 8am, and an hour later reached the stop lock at Autherley Junction.  We turned right onto the Staffs and Worcs, and then left to go up the Wolverhampton flight of 21 locks. 

 We last did these locks on a hire boat in 2006.  The bottom lock was against us, indicating a boat going up ahead.  At about the third lock up, a passer by with a windlass in a bag helped set the lock, and told us there was a problem ahead, with the pound between locks 4 and 5 about 2 feet down.  He said he'd knocked on the lock keeper's front door, but he was still in bed.

There's plenty of interest up the Wolverhampton flight, including the racecourse at the bottom, lugubrious blue brick railway viaducts, and various factories.  By one lock (16 I think), there's a cage on the offside containing a family of marmosets.

We reached the top lock at 1pm -- not bad going seeing as we'd had to turn every lock.  We pulled into the Broad Street Basin to fill up with water and have lunch.

Afterwards we set off again heading for Dudley.  Both the previous times we've tried to moor at the Black Country Museum, there's been no room and we've had to moor outside; this time there were plenty of spaces, so we turned and moored at abour 3.45pm.  A few minutes later, it started to rain.

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11 miles, 22 locks (23 miles, 23 locks)

Winter Cruise - Day One

It was past midnight when I got home from work last night, but even so we got up at 5am, and were on the road at 6 heading for Norbury Wharf.  A trouble-free journey meant we were there just after 9, and quickly unloaded the car and stocked up with coal.  Just after 9.30 we were heading south, having spun the boat in the basin.  It was a cold and misty day, so we lit the fire and hope to keep it in for the whole of our fortnight!  I steered while Adrian unpacked and put everything away.

There were only a handful of boats on the move, but typically we met both northbound ones at bridges.  We made our way through Gnosall Heath, through the diminutive Cowley tunnel, and on to Wheaton Aston, where we moored up for a lunch stop and a warm.

Setting off again, we went up the lock, much to the delight of a family who'd been hoping to see a boat.  The stretch through Brewood was exceptionally slow, with a couple of miles of moored boats.  We moored on the Shropshire Union Canal Society moorings just south of Bridge 8, at around 3.30.  It's another spot we've passed lots of times and liked the look of, but never stopped before.  It's lovely and quiet (even though the M54 is only a mile away), and very dark.

12 miles, 1 lock.

Crunch time

This month's contribution to Canal Boat is a piece about a boat which had a tree fall on it, and was repaired by the guys at the Nantwich Canal Centre.
Also in this month's magazine is a piece by Amy from Luck Duck, about their trip up the Cambridge backs.

Winter Cruise countdown

Our two-week winter cruise starts on Saturday.  We're planning an early start, so we can get to Norbury Wharf in good time and set off.  Norbury does quite well in the pre-Christmas winter stoppages this year: the route north is blocked at Hack Green Locks, but we have plenty of options going south.

We're planning to do the Black Country (or Staffordshire) Ring.  We've done every part of the route at some time or another, but never all together in the ring.  It's a route that in the summer would be a fairly easy week, so even with the short November days, we'll be able to take things fairly easy.  Still, we'll have a few busy days, particularly near the start of the trip, as we need to get up the Wolverhampton 21, and then a couple of days later there'll be plenty of locks as we descend out of Birmingham.  We're also hoping to meet up with a couple of fellow bloggers, and we'll keep an eye out for other familiar boats who might be lurking en route.

Hampstead Lock, River Medway

Yesterday, I was at Hampstead Lock on the River Medway in Kent.  It's only a few miles from where I grew up, yet I don't ever remember coming here before.  There are a couple of marinas nearby, filled with plastic boats, and the lock itself is very large -- large enough to make even double locks look small.