Oozells Street Birmingham

After we moored up yesterday we went for a short walk to the park behind the junction toll house. The bridge and the track that CRT put in for the restoration work is still there. Looking at the house it has no windows to the back or end, its all front.

Maybe it was all built for show as it was the junction of the two canals.

This was our mooring for last night, we may have  done a bit better to have moored on the W&B rather

than the Stratford as the road bridge over lock No.1 was rather noisy, we were told this is due to traffic lights and road works on the other road, so people are bypassing it and using the bridge. Passing Bournville there was only one boat on the secure moorings but several on the towpath, the towpath is also designated “Winter Moorings”. Just  past here was a family of swans sitting on the stop plank landing.

We stopped to stock up at Sainsburys in Selly Oak. Its actually a shorter walk if you moor on the towpath, the other side of bridge 80 and walk along the towpath than to moor in the layby opposite.
University Station is quite a structure now that its complete with a foot bridge across the canal to two levels and a high level enclosed walkway over the tracks.

Network Rail failed to do anything about the Giant Hogweed so it’s set seed and we can expect even more of it next year.

As we approached Holiday Wharf a boat had just pulled off so we stopped to fill with water and then made our way through Gas Street, all the towpaths are closed for the filming that’s going on there. I hope the nasty dull black paint they have painted the boats with comes off when they have finished. Round at the Oozells loop there were already a couple of boats moored and another arrived just after us. Birmingham is much busier this week that it was when we were last Wednesday.
Anyway we are roughly in the same spot, so I wonder what will get nicked tonight?

Today’s Journey

 

6 miles with no lock in 2½ hours