Rode Heath

An early start for us, the tunnel keep was outside about twenty to eight seeing if we were ready to set off, checked the light and horn, safety briefing and leaflet, as far as he was concerned we were ready to go. I had to get my hat and coat on, it was raining, put the tiller on, drop the exhaust, start the engine and cast off. We entered the tunnel a the sole boat a few minutes to 8. A 1000Mt. into the tunnel and there was a boat a boat behind us. I was surprised we got a second fog bank so far into the tunnel when the fans restarted. There has been a lot of talk on Facebook on how fast you should go in tunnels, I went through at a steady 3MPH. When we reached the far end the rain had stopped and there was just one boat waiting for a North South transit. A steady chug to Plants Lock where the nearside lock is out of action, that was the only poorly one today.

We met a couple of boats at Red Bull but then rapidly started to catch up with the one ahead. The volunteer towpath team were working down the flight in the now steady rain cutting the grass and trimming round the mooring rings, one of them kindly gave us and the boat ahead a bit of help down the locks. We decided to moor above Church lock rather than sit on the tail of the boat ahead. One of the things I noticed was the number of Swifts swooping around on the far side of the canal. I have only seen those sorts of numbers overseas in recent years. I did try a photo but they look like speck.

After about half an hour we decided to push off, another boat had come, but lo and behold another boat came down behind us, so we waited another three quarters of an our and set off at the third lock, Halls we caught up with the boat that passed us all that time ago. Dropping down Church Bottom I looked back at the stairs, it looks as if they have all been taken off and replaced the other way up with the wear hollows filled with cement.

We met a coupe of boats in the flight but it didn’t speed out journey at all as we had to wait for them to enter and work locks, so a bit of sitting about.
Passing the CRT yard below Lawton locks I spotted these lock beams sitting in a boat ready to go, we have seen lots of locks where the beams are just held together with angle iron, but I would imagine this ones ate earmarked for this flight somewhere.

We continued on to Rode Heath hoping to find a mooring but had to go down past the winding hole to find a spot, this was at half one in the afternoon.

 

5 miles, 12 locks 3½ hours