The John the Lock moorings last night were nice and quiet but luckily I woke up to the sound of the rain as all the side doors were open.
It was quite a bit cooler this morning and just as we were setting off a hire boat came by, the first boat to pass since we had been here. we headed up to Factory Junction and on back to Wolverhampton. We past a Sea Otter trailable boat moored just past the junction but we hadn’t gone far when he was steaming up behind us so I pulled over to let him pass. There is quite a good growth on the handrail where the water constantly drips on it, I am sure it must be an SSI.
Where C&RT have boarded off the towpath with scaffolding and plywood there was a man painting it black today, I suspect its an anti grip paint going where the joints meet to stop the yobs pulling it apart,I wonder if its fire resistant.
After about two and a half hours we were at Wolverhampton, I was wondering if I could get a Government grant to do up this bike, of maybe one from the Arts Council.
We stopped for lunch at the top of the 21, the Sea Otter was moored on the other side and the top lock top gate was open. You can guess what happened. We had just finished lunch and the couple from the Sea Otter returned with other family members and went straight into the lock. Rather than go in straight behind them I had a Weedhatch inspection and removed some orange plastic fencing from the prop. We ended up following the Sea Otter down as far as lock 5 where we found them moored on the lock landing below the lock having a picnic lunch so in theory the locks should now be with us , no we still had to turn them.
We had a system going, Diana set ahead, Brian closed up, we both worked the bottom paddles and opened the gates, I drove out and Brian closed up. Things improved when we met a couple of boat coming up and as we could see them coming some way ahead we were able to leave gates open for them. We carried on like this until about lock 15 when somehow Brian get left on board after having a drink and from then on he stayed on the boat driving down the locks while Diana and I did the work.
It got so hot that the Ipad shut down and stopped tracking at about lock 5.
Once clear of the flight we turned left on the Staffs and Worc. canal and stopped on the Compton 5 day moorings for the night.
Todays Journey 10 miles 21 locks in 5.75 hours Map courtesy of Waterway Routes https://www.waterwayroutes.co.uk/
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