We left at 1030 this morning, travel on the BCN Main line was much easier going but it was much busier, we met 5 boats in all, two of them hire boats.
We made good progress until Deepfield Junction
where we turned left to check out the Bradley Arm. To start with the going was surprisingly easy but we did have to do a couple of weedhatch visits to keep going and also remove the floating raft from the bows. There were quite a few Dabchicks or little Grebes about diving as we got close to them. 
Winding at the far end was a bit tight as there were quite a few modern work boats moored up, I could
just get Harnser’s bows to touch the far bank beside one of the moored boats bit luckily there was an 8 foot gap behind it for me to drop the stern in, I then had room to pool the bows round. I am not sure if I could have got into the basin without winding first as it looks as if they have soft piled the bank opposite and backfilled with dredging's. The return trip was a bit easier and it took us two hours to do the round trip.
Back on the main line we continued on to Tipton, for some reason the towpath has an emergency closure, I couldn’t see what for but C&RT are determined 
that people don’t use it. We stopped for water by the park in Tipton and then went Tipton Junction to wind and then returned to John the Lock’s moorings, its the first time I have ever managed to get on here. Not far from Tipton Junction someone has 
been painting the green railings black, but they have only painted what they could see. As we returned to the moorings I could see my two grandsons coming
towards us with their mother. We will be have Brian and his dog, Spot for the week.
Todays Journey 10.8 miles in 5 hours
Map courtesy of Waterway Routes https://www.waterwayroutes.co.uk/
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