It was quite windy last night when we went to bed and this morning we woke to find the bows still attached to the bang and the stern in the off side reeds, I can’t say I was surprised, the ground is wet and I could only get the pins in a short way, I can’t blame it on a speeding boater going by, we haven’t seen a boat on the move since half way up the 21.
We were away at quarter to nine in the rain and wind, the rest of the W&E was uneventful. Walsall Council have put a nice carpark and laid paths on a piece of land on the off side, they have also installed a couple of picnic benches for people to use. The tarmacked carpark already supports some fly tipping.
We stopped at the services by Tesco and got shot of the stuff I removed from the prop yesterday and shortly afterwards turned sharp right down the Daw End Branch.
Black Cock Bridge that was rebuilt earlier this year looks very splendid and you could easily pass by not realising it had all been replaced, a little further on we past an impressive piece of graffiti on the wall.
One thing we noticed was that Aldridge Marina is now deserted, not a single boat or piece of boat equipment to be seen. The pumpout unit is still there but whether you would find anyone to operate it is another matter.
Our original plan for this trip was to stop at Longwood Boat club, but as we had made an early start we continued on down the 9 Rushull Locks, these all have anti vandal locks on them and everything worked nicely, some locks were with us, some against, but by now the weather was fine and it was fairly easy going. What I cant understand is why they didn’t put lock 3 a lot closer to lock 2, the canal in this long pound is on an embankment for part of the time and if they had dropped down earlier it wouldn’t have been needed.
Down at Rushall Junction we turned left on to the Tame Valley canal, along here we met a gang of vegetation control operatives, one driving a ride on mower and the other three walking, I have no idea where they had been working. When we arrived at Perry Barr we pulled over to the services to fill with water, since all the refurbishment I can report that the walkway in front of the service block no longer clanks when a bike passes over it. Once the tank was full we pushed over to moor by the top lock for the night.
Todays Journey
13¼ miles, 9 locks in 6 hours
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