Last night was quiet overnight but no chance of a sleep in with a recycling establishment one side and a tarmacadam site the other.
We went up the Titford canal to Titford pools, this is the highest navigable part of the BCN, It was a bumpy ride as far as the pools hitting a few underwater obstructions on the way. They are now 
building more houses on both sides of the canal with a large estate going up between the canal and railway. It good to see that the miner up his ladder has escaped vandalism so far, lets hope it stays that way.
I moored under the motorway bridge while the team visited Asda and Aldi, Aldi was voted the best. I had to sit under the bridge as I couldn’t get within
jumping distance of the towpath. Once they had returned we went under the motorway and the length of the next pool, last time we were here the end bit was just a weedy ditch. I am sure the reason for dredging the pools wasn’t for boaters or they would have dredged the canal to get here. We winded at the end and made the return journey past the old burnt out Langley Malting. 
At some point Harnser just decided she would just veer across the canal, nothing I did would correct it and I spent a bit of time getting unstuck, as every time I went back I was aground and couldn’t even move the rudder. We arrived back at the top lock expected to see it still full as it was when we left, but it was empty with the bottom paddles up. A boat we had seen a couple of days ago was making its way up and as he had to let water down had set 3 locks ahead, it did mean we still had the gates open on the first 3 lock.
When we got to the Old Main Line we turned left and had a lunch break before heading down Brades and along the new Main Line to Dudley Port Junction and off to Netherton tunnel. By now the thunder was rumbling and the lighting flashing above the tunnel and I had to stop to clear the prop, we just entered the tunnel as the first spots of rain fell, we emerged at the other end into bright sun and blue skies with large puddles everywhere. We continued on to Merry Hill passing this chap sunning himself in the hedgerow. 
The moorings at Merry Hill were all empty and minutes after we tied up the rain came back.
13.25 miles, 10 locks in 5.75 hours
Map courtesy of Waterway Routes https://www.waterwayroutes.co.uk/
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