It turned quite foggy last night which slowed down the traffic on the A441 which crosses the canal by the pub. It was still thick at 6 this morning but clear by the time we got up. It did mean we had a rather beautiful spiders web on the bow door.
You can see how clear it is now by these geese going overhead, at least they didn’t come in early to disturb us, they let the bugler alarm and emergence services sirens do that. See the bits of blue coming through?
Wast Hill Tunnel is a little over 2Km long and today you could see end to end, it was completely clear unlike when we came the other way. We didn’t meet a boat until after we had cleared the tunnel which was good. The sign at the southern portal I thought interesting.
The blue sign says a hour to do the tunnel, it took us 25 minutes.
At Kings Norton Junction we turned right down the North Stratford canal, not the best photo of the toll house but a walker stood and watched me take the bend so I was well round before he walked out of shot. Through Lock No.1 the old guillotine stop lock that’s sole purpose was to prevent one canal company losing water to the other. For some reason its a magnet for graffiti.
then on to Brandwood tunnel where we met two boats, the first a hire boat with an LED headlamp, they are a real pain to meet. We stopped for water by this old canal cottage, a few years ago it could well be described as derelict but today it’s looking quite smart. Shirley Drawbridge went without incident, only caught 4 motors on one side, couldn’t see how many were the other side and then we moored for the night just past the waterside flats at Hockley Heath.
Today’s Journey
9½ miles with no locks in 3½ hours
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