Star City Birmingham

We had a boat come down the locks at 8Am this morning, but the lock was still half full when we went up at 9-30Am. I think one of the top paddles was slightly open. After that we had a very good run meeting lots of boats in the right places.
HS2 have done a lot of work on the offside since we were last this way with a hard base laid, bunded tank installations and plant on site.

I think this is their security gismo as it has CCTV cameras pointing in all directions and is obviously battery powered with solar and wind charging, I have often wondered how effective these wind generators are.

They have also piled the offside bank , I assume to stop the weight of the bridge pushing the canal bank in.

On the towpath side the bridge over the motor way stands all forlorn in the middle of nowhere. I wonder if they will go to the same amount of effort to avoid disruption when they put the bridge over the canal.

This view looking down the flight will be much different once the bridge is built, in fact its different this afternoon as the cottage beside the lock were busy removing their veranda.

The state of the paddle gear on the flight doesn’t seemed to have improved, still paddles taped up. We carried on just passed the Cuttle Bridge Inn where we planned to moor for the night, as we sat eating lunch we decided that we would push on to Star City as the afternoon was so good and we had made such good progress so far. The industrial unit behind the games field on the offside is now

completed, it will be interesting to see what else is built. They have put an excellent soul bund planted with trees along the canal by Wiggins Hill Bridge, but no where else, so I wonder what’s going in that corner to be hidden from view.
Again we had a good run up the three Minworth locks, a bit slow due to paddle gear but again we met a couple of boat, it was then steady progress to Salford Junction from where I reversed up to Star City for the night, there is just one other boat moored here. If anyone is interested, CRT have replaced the padlock to get off the moorings, I am sure anyone up to no good could never get over a 3 foot gate.

Todays Journey

9½ miles, 14 locks in 5¼hours