Into hirer mode …..

because we ended up having a very long day.

Monday 17th September; Birmingham to Compton (on the Staffs & Worcester)

I walked down to Cambrian Wharf with some rubbish, back past the Sea Life Centre to drop off some plastic bottles in a street recycling bin, then up to the Spar for some milk.  Before I went back to Chuffed, I knocked on the roof of NB Rune for a quick chat with Julia and John.  We compared notes on our experiences of the Gloucester and Sharpness, and the Severn Bore, but I had no camera or phone so didn’t get a photo.  Lovely to catch up with you both, however briefly!

By 9.30 we were on our way up the Main Line.  We have a limited time for this cruise to our winter mooring at Droitwich Spa Marina, but didn’t want to take the quick route down the Tardebigge flight, or even through the Netherton Tunnel.  No, it was via Aldersley Junction for us, and because there may be some dodgy weather coming up we thought we’d get some miles under our belts while the weather holds.

The first thing – which took me so much by surprise I fumbled the ‘On’ button of the camera – was the entrance to the Icknield Port loop.  So I missed a photo of the now wide-open-to-the-sky entrance to the loop with heaps of rubble instead of factory walls looming above the water.

On the long straights of the Main Line there can be little to see, but there was some very skilfully executed graffiti, much better than the scrawled tags that pollute most of the vertical surfaces round here.

Far, far ahead of us was the trailboat which had moored across the way from us last night.  Sloe, from the Grand Western (Tiverton) canal, which is not connected to the network at all, was touring parts of the Midlands.  We thought we would be behind them right up the Factory Locks, but they must have gone onto the Wolverhampton Line as we lost sight of them.

The herons in these parts do like to be up high.  Perhaps the high sides of the cuttings make them feel a bit overlooked sometimes.

With the railway lines and busy roads crossing high above the canal, it is easy to feel you are out in the country as you approach Galton Tunnel.  The Old Line to Wolverhampton is above the canal on the right.

The New Main Line passes under the Old at the Stewart Aqueduct, with the M5 high above both.  Here – of course – was where we met the first boat of the day, which had been on our side of the canal as it approached the aqueduct, as visibility is poor on the offside because of vegetation.  You can just see his bow as he moves across the other side of the aqueduct.

Pudding Green junction might lead to some of the least lovely bits of the BCN (sorry Walsall) but it makes a pretty picture with its iron bridge and silver birches.

A long stretch of towpath on the south-western side has been closed for upgrading.  (’We know how much you love to walk and cycle our canals’, says the CRT notice  …..).  Not many people walk or moor their boats along this stretch of towpath, so the cyclists may as well have it I suppose.  Factory Locks were against us.  We know half the lock mooring at the bottom lock only has a depth of a few inches, so Dave floated about while I set the bottom lock.  On the way up I removed a woven nylon sack from the water and a large sheet of black plastic from a lock beam and shoved them in the well deck for later disposal.  As we rose up the flight the weed, mostly chopped-up bits floating in the water, got thicker and thicker.  At the top it had been hauled out in piles.

We managed to clear the prop with a blast of reverse now and then.  We moored just before Coseley tunnel for Meg to stretch her legs for 10 minutes before carrying on towards Wolverhampton.  It’s a pleasant place for an overnight mooring, with the useful Coseley shops for those who don’t mind hiking up the steps to reach them.

We had lunch on the move.  I came up from below with the sandwiches to see the reason Dave had slowed down for a while.

We arrived at the top of the Wolverhampton 21 at 2.30.  The first half of the flight was in our favour, with boats coming up, and we fairly flew down.  The locks are close together and it’s easy to lock ahead and share the work between you.  Although it’s not a quiet and pretty flight like Tardebigge or Audlem, we do enjoy this one, in spite of the broken glass and the racket from roads and industry.  But at the halfway point our luck changed; the boat that was so far in front that we never saw them had passed the last of the boats coming up, and now every lock was empty and had to be turned. 

Nearer the bottom the pounds are much longer, so I left Dave closing up the bottom gates and walked on to the next.  So he didn’t see my near miss with a cyclist – or rather, the cyclist’s near miss with the canal.  I had been walking along by the grassy edge of the towpath, minding my own business, when suddenly a cyclist appeared at my left shoulder, on the narrow strip of grass between me and the water. LOOK WHERE YOU’RE WALKING WHY DON’T YOU shouts he, and I, for once not lost for words, replied ‘I don’t have a rear-view mirror – you ring your bell I’ll get out of your way’.  That’s what happens not so far away in Birmingham, after all.  Oh no. YOU WALK ON THE RIGHT I RIDE ON THE LEFT NOT SO F**KING HARD IS IT? he yelled and off he rode into the sunset.  You’d have thought he saw enough visitors who aren’t aware of the local custom – if indeed that’s what it is - to have just ridden on the right where there was plenty of room!  Oh well, he didn’t hit me or end up in the canal and I hope he thinks a bit more carefully next time, as there’s bound to be a next time.

We were down the flight in under 3 hours.  The drizzle that had dampened things at Coseley had gone and the sun was out.  We rounded the junction and headed south on the Staffs and Worcester canal.

Wolverhampton Bottom Lock

We haven’t cruised this part of the network for years and didn’t recognise anything we saw.  As we approached Compton the moorings above the lock looked very congested so we pulled in before them, and banged in some pins.  Meg had been very patient all day so she had her reward with a lovely walk along the paths on the other side of the canal.  I think she was a little confused to see me across the water.

17 miles, 24 locks, Coseley tunnel, lots of junctions, 8½ hours cruising.

We haven’t done that kind of thing since our hiring and sharing days.  Now we should be able to take things a little more slowly.