Thankfully it wasn’t raining this morning, before setting off we visited the Bumble Hole visitor centre, donated a jigsaw and a couple of books, came away with another jigsaw and a couple of books plus a couple of cakes.
Now a question for you, where is this and for extra points what’s inside it?
It was about half ten when we got away, the wind had changed direction overnight and the total covering of green behind us had gone, it had now spread up the first 700 meters of the tunnel. The tunnel itself was unusually wet but seemed very light, its nice to see the sun waiting for you when you get out.
Down at Dudley Port Junction the canal was again green, I am not sure if it duck weed or fairy moss, I suspect duckweed but ti was thick enough to support these flowers thrown from the bridge .
Looking up the main line towards Factory Locks the canal was again green for quite some way, howeverwhen we passed through some latter nearer the town it looked dead.
As you know, we tend not to do things in a straightforward way so at Albion Junction we turned right again and up Brades Locks. On this stretch CRT have done some offside bank support using coir sausages seeded with reeds.
Brades Hall Junction hard left along the old main line and soon under the M5 which again is all scaffolded out.
Summit tunnel is marked up as one way traffic so I decided to try measuring it, but I couldn’t reach the far side with my cabin shaft and that is 9 foot long. Aft the end of the tunnel there is a lovely carved dog which I would be more than happy to have in my garden. I think its delightful.
Down the 3 Smethwick locks and we are back on the main line heading into Birmingham, the towpath on our right is still closed for resurfacing with a lone security guard looking after the plant, its here we pass another toll island but its very difficult to see if anyone is coming the other way as the bull rushes are quite tall and thick.
We continued on into Birmingham avoiding the canoes, catamaran canoes and electric day boats that all happened to be about at the same time as a trip boat coming towards us. I left it a bit late swinging into the Oozells Street loop which I don’t think pleased the party boat following me, but still it all worked out. Two boats already down there , one with a 56foot git gap, maybe someone left, but we were able to get in at the far end under the foot bridge.
Once moored we went to New Gate Station to have a look at Ossie the Bull.
Today’s Journey
10 miles, 6 locks in 4½ hours
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