Today not only did we yet again wake to the sound of rain but also ducks on the roof and it stayed a bit dreary until about 10-30am. not a problem for us as we spent the first half hour in Netherton Tunnel. Things looked slightly brighter as we came to the end.
We carried straight on to Dudley Port Junction and turned right towards Birmingham, looking back up the New Main Line towards Tipton you can see what sort of day it was and it didn’t really ever get much better.
Along the main line to Pudding Green Junction and hard left, one day I will do it right and get round in one, but not today. We were now on the Wednesbury Old Canal heading for the Riders Green flight of 8 locks down to the Walsall Level. The locks were all against us and a passing cyclist informed us one of the pounds was empty, not a problem going down as you can take the water with you. By lock three I could see people working locks ahead and walking our way, was someone coming up, no, it was a share boat going down and wanted to know how many lock full’s were needed to fill an empty pound. I opened both top and bottom paddles of the lock we were in to send water down to them, once the pound behind had dropped a foot we moved down to the next lock and did the same thing, which was sufficient to get them on their way. This was looking back up the flight.
It must have been lock 6 they were stuck at and by the time we were leaving 6 the CRT chap turned up as they had rung for help. I told him what we had done and he walked back up the flight to top everything back up. At lock 7 a family looking over the road bridge told us there were plenty of trollies ahead, this was only to be expected as the get thrown over wholesale from the foot bridge, it must cost Asda a fortune.
At lock 8 the share boat’s woes were not over, they could only release one antivandal lock as the square spindle was warn, I tried with snipe noise pliers with no luck, things weren't helped but the other paddle getting fouled, thankfully the lock is shallow and between us we soon had the bottom gate open, then they jammed on a toy car in the lock, so I cleared that with their boat hook for them, but it wasn’t over yet, they now had a blade full and pulled over below the lock. We had less problems as the near side paddle was now clear, I still couldn’t operate the offside one. However the poor Share Boat was still in trouble, he couldn’t release the weed hatch cover, it was stuck down solid, tickling it with a mooring spike and hammer didn’t do any good, but my large screwdriver tapped into the joint lifted it, It looks as if it was sealed on wet paint. We left him dragging hand fulls of polly out.
At Thame Valley Junction we turned right along the very boring Thame Valley canal, long and straight, looking back I noticed that CRT have erected a nice sign to tell boaters about the services.
Part way along the Thame Valley Canal on the non towpath side there are some orange buoys in the
canal and an anti pollution boom . There is also a very large excavation taking place in the bank
As we approached Perry Barr we passed the Blue Bells growing on the bank, I say blue, there were white ones as well.
When we arrived at the top of the lock there was a cruiser and narrowboat moored before the bridge with a long space between them. Right in the middle of the space was a fisherman. We went passed and topped up with water at the services and then gently reversed back, past the Narrowboat and moored before the fisherman all very gently so not to disturb him, what I didn’t realise he was packing up to go home. Unlike most fishermen he wasn’t loaded down with tackle, just a stool, short rod and bait from what I could see.
Today’s Journey
11¾ miles, 8 locks in 6¼ hours
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