Birmingham

Last nights Indian Takeaway was another successes. All three have been similar price and very tasty. Last night, The Bangla Cottage, was the quickest service at about 25 minuets from order to pick up. The slowest service was Eastern Spice  , they quoted 30 minutes and then I waited another 30 minutes when I arrived to pick it up. Balti King was also ready when they said it would be. I would eat at any of them again without a problem.
Last night as forecast it rained and as the forecast showed today as being fine we were in no hurry to set off until we were sure it had cleared. We headed to Factory Junction to wind and then back past last nights mooring passing a CCCer on the way.(Continuously Cruising Coot). I’m sure its nest was once attached to a bank somewhere.  We then followed the Old Main Line back to Birmingham. Some one has cleared the vegetation at the site of the old coal shoots. The shoots were removed a few years back as they were considered dangerous and a large interpretation board put up on the site.

I now know who empties the new C&RT waste bins around Birmingham, C&RT do, and one of their chaps explained that most are not very close to where he can take his truck so he has to carry the bags of rubbish. Maybe C&RT should buy him an electric quad and trailer. We only had three locks today to take us down to Birmingham, the Smethwick New Locks, new because they eventually replaced the original three that ran to the north of them.
Passing by one of the toll islands we spotted these caterpillars on one of the plants growing on the island, they must be at least 70mm long.At Winson Green Junction we turned left round the Soho arm past Winson Green prison. The reason for going this way was to visit the Soho Branch down to Hockley Port as it was somewhere we have never been. The entrance is via a bridge with no path under it, making the branch and port quite secure, it is mainly residential moorings but there are a couple of visitor moorings in there as well as a dry dock and service block.There are two further branches running off the main branch at right angles which formed the old port. While we were at the end one of the residents there turned their boat and left so we ended up following them round the loop and down the main line into Birmingham. When we got to Ladywood Junction they turned right round the Oozells Loop where as we carried on to Old Turn Junction and entered the Oozells Loop from the other direction. It soon became obvious that we both planned to moor on the visitor mooring, so we dropped onto the first bollard and they pulled in further along. At that point we exchanged pleasantries which ended up with a shuffle as we would have preferred to be where they stopped and they would rather have been where we were. A good result all round.

Todays Journey 8.6 miles, 3 locks in 4.5 hours.Map courtesy of Waterway Routes https://www.waterwayroutes.co.uk/