Yesterday evening we ate at Les Iguanas again and the meal was as tasty as last time, the whole area was alive and heaving with people. Last night was the noisiest I have ever known it in Birmingham with shouting and singing well into the early hours, so getting out this morning was a struggle.
As I didn’t want to do battle with trip boats etc. I decided not to reverse along the moorings and out onto the main line if one of them were coming in, so I went forward under Sheepcote street bridge, wind on the wide corner, then head back to Old Turn Junction and straight down to Farmers Bridge locks. Needless to say I didn’t see a trip boat. WE had a first class run down the flight, all pound were on weir with lots of water running down and only 2 locks had lost any level at all, so we flew down.
Lots of the scaffolding in place to replace the cladding on the buildings has been removed but these steel supports that were made to hold that scaffolding are still in place. an interesting rigging job for someone.
Lock 10 has even more scaffolding than when we were hear last.
The amount of building going on around the area is unbelievable and some are working today. The cladding of choice now seems to be fake bricks I don’t know what is behind it for insulation.
There is no end to the graffiti along here, all available wall space seems to have been used. Some is a lot more artistic than others. As for the locks some of the bottom paddles we found quite hard work to draw, they were all well oiled on the mechanism it was drawing the blades. We were soon down at Aston Junction, Aston top lock was empty, our luck had changed, but only slightly as the rest were all right full and the weirs running hard.
I still find it strange that nothing has been done to secure the cladding on this building, I am sure that
not all the sheets have fallen straight down like this one imbedded in the canal bed. I am sure the authorities would have something to say if it was near a road or footpath. We continued on to moor for the night between locks 8 and 9 on the off side as there are handy rings.
Yesterday I asked a question as to the location of the box and what was in it. The location is under the bridge at Windmill End Junction, its only accessible by boat and requires a CRT key to open it. It should contain information about the Dudley Can but this is what I found.
Today’s Journey
2½ miles, 21 lock in 3 hours
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