Shirley Tuesday 6 August 2019

Day : Tuesday
Date : 6 August 2019
Start : 1100
Finish : 1900 Shirley Lift Bridge

I have uploaded our proposed route to CanalPlanAC at https://canalplan.eu/journey/12083_O9CyHO73EI if anyone wants to see where we are likely to be. It gets updated with actual position each night.

As I said last night we were in my favourite Birmingham mooring, you get very few passing boats or pedestrians,

This morning we planned to leave at 10am but it was chucking it down, at just on 11am it stopped so we set off by 5 past it was chucking it down again. A CRT historic craft cam by with about a dozen kids in the hold all sheltering under an umbrella and then out on the main line another group were canoeing. We made our way past the roundabout at Old Turn Junction which now is the home of some garish Canal and Rivers Trust signs, then through Worcester Bar, right at the Mail box on the Worcester and Birmingham Canal. We were able to see first hand the new extended tow path through Edgbaston Tunnel, the cyclists can really get a shift on through here now. By now it had stopped raining which was nice and we carried on to Selly Oak to visit Sainsbury's only to find its moved and is now a walk of about 750Mt. Needless to say while we were out not only did it start to rain, it just fell down with water laying mm's on the roads and car parks. We waited until it just about stopped before heading back to the boat, arriving just as it started again.
We have had a major failure this morning, the bread maker threw its hand in. Checking on line at lunch time Argos have them and where is Argos, in Sainsbury's. so when it stopped raining it was back to Sainsbury's, so that was some 3Km. It was 4-30pm before we were away again. It wasn't long before we had a new steerer who took us passed Bournville and then down the North Stratford canal. As time was getting on a bit we decided to stop just through Shirley Lift bridge, surprising it was open, so it must be broken again. We went through the bridge but other than mooring on the bridge moorings there was no where to stop the other side, so we reversed back and moored just north of the bridge.

Today's Journey

11 Miles 0 Locks in 4 hours