A nice quiet night at Perry Barr last night. This morning when I looked out the top lock was full and the second empty, no sign of CRT this morning, they are normally there about 8am to adjust levels. I walked down and drew a paddle on lock 2, noting the first 2 pounds were down a bit I let some water down from the summit, so at least we would have something to take with us if needed.
Frank was waiting at the lock for us to set of and accompanied us all the way to lock 11, I am not sure if he is hoping to become a Volockie or just a Gongoozler.
The Alexander Stadium has now lost all the extras that were there for the Commonwealth games but there are still hundreds of construction fence panels around it. A notice at the lower end says construction site and there is still machinery on site, as we passed I spotted a couple of people using the track.
It turned out I didn’t need to steal water from the top two pounds as all the levels were good, but that will change if someone leaves the bottom gates open on this lock, I think it was 11.
We didn’t have any problems until locks 12 and 13, 12 one of the anti vandal locks wouldn’t release and 13 the bottom gate was fouling something both reported to CRT. Between locks 12 and 13 there are the 2 Deykin Avenue bridges, old and new, side by side. The old one has cast iron panels.
The new one is a good impersonation with steel panels, a good effort.
We managed not only to do the flight, 13 locks and 2½ miles in 2 hours 50 minutes, but more importantly before it started to rain. When the rain did come it was only fine drizzle but its better if you don,t need to work locks. We were now on the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal, a cyclist warned me there was a lot of rubbish ahead and a small tree, but there was plenty of room to pass it. The Minworth locks are still a pain, lock 1 only one top paddle and only one of the bottom ones actually passes water, I have reported it every year for the past 4 years and expect I will do the same next year. We carried on to moor about a ¼ mile before The Cuttle Inn. Looking across the canal it looks as if the giant industrial building they were constructing last time we passed is complete.
Today’s Journey
8½ miles 16 locks in 5 hours
No comments:
Post a Comment