(Stourport Ring - Week
Two - 7th to 14th July 2012)
And the rain stopped,
and the sun shone, and we had to wear sunscreen, which made us all
sparkly – oh, the indignity! My birthday, so cards and pressies
with breakfast, and away to the south, heading for Stourport Junction
and the lock-mountain we have to climb to get to Birmingham.
Today I mostly did
steering, and not just through locks, which was fun, and rather
exciting, because somewhere between last year's debacle and this year
– and with the absence of too much breeze – it seems to have
gelled in my brain and I was mostly getting it right! Sunshine brings
out boats and joggers and cyclists and dogwalkers, and the towpath
was a busy place. Went back down through Bratch, where the
lock-keeper said that yesterday was probably the worst weather he'd
seen bar once, and the Severn is shut once again. I think we were
lucky.
Fields full of
black-and-white horses, (they were even sorted into spotted and
patchy) squirrels chasing up trees, a pheasant in a cornfield, and we
glittered on....
There has been
something odd happening along the Staffs & Worcs – someone
unknown has been leaving 'faces' ….on the ends of tree stumps, on
trees and on posts along the banks, two eyes, a nose and a mouth have
been nailed. It's not always on the towpath side either, so there is
a rumour it's a boater or even a BW man....
We water up at Greens'
Forge, get rid of some rubbish, and moor for the night below the
lock, conveniently close to the pub.
It wasn't an early
night, and we are pleased to manage an 0930 start, heading to the
junction with the Stourbridge Canal, where I hand over to Drew for
the turn (there are too many gongoozalers!). Stourton Locks are
really pretty, the side pounds lie to the left as you ascend, giving
some lucky homeowners a lovely water feature at the bottom of their
gardens, complete with water lilies and reeds and fish. The water's
reasonably clear, and we can see lots of different sorts of fish
from small fry to larger ones that I think are dace. Drew hangs over
the side with his underwater camera, but only succeeds in recording
blurry weeds and water.
A couple of kayakers
tell us that the Stourbridge arm is closed, because there is a
police incident. A narrowboater a bit further on says it's closed for
a couple of hours, so we moor up at Wordsley Junction (which is the
last place before we'd have to start up another lock flight) and Drew
goes to find out what's happening.
He returned with the
news that it was open again, so we headed for Stourbridge, along a
more cluttered canal with lots of white waterlilies (and the
inevitable clogging of the propeller), running beside the old
glass-making works and old warehouses, past small boys fishing, and
the police incident tent (there had been a body in the canal
apparently) which was just packing up. The Town Wharf was crammed,
boats moored two and three deep, and no free spaces.
With the help of a
bearded and bay-windowed gent from the Canal Trust, we turned in the
winding hole and moored beyond the bridge not far from the water
point. Had a reasonably early night so that the shore party could go
to the gift shop in the morning, and I did some necessary washing of
clothes.
Again, there are not
many boats moving on the canal – of the 4 we saw all day, naturally
2 were in the locks! The Stourbridge Flight (16 locks) has a
'mini-Bratch' partway up, and a very convenient off-licence at lock
9-10. Industrial elements creep into the scenery as we skirt round
the edges of Dudley; a bottle kiln at the Redhouse Glassworks,
boatbuilder's sheds, and Unknown Obstacles under the water. Now on
the Dudley No 1 Canal, we start up Delph Locks, which are
interesting- the run-off goes down a sort of sluice beside the lock,
pounds full of ducks and moorhens.
We clatter against
something submerged halfway up – a fisherman say helpfully 'that'll
be a trolley'. The last lock is under a road, and reminds us that we
are getting closer to Birmingham. We moor up at the Waterfront, a
large and rather flash development near the Merryhill shopping mall,
and check the weed hatch – plastic bags, weeds and a piece of old
climbing rope....
The cafes and
restaurants seem rather subdued even after dark, and we have a
peaceful night, with pretty (although pretty wasteful)
colour-changing lights.
Morning brings the
inevitable fact that we need a pump-out of the waste tanks. We check
the guide books to see where we might get one – not a lot of
choice.
We're heading for the
Netherton Tunnel, passing the end of the Dudley Tunnel at Park Head
Junction (you can only go through this by being towed by an electric
boat) and pootle along quietly. A couple of dredgers are stirring up
the canal, creating more mess than they seem to be removing.
Somewhere around here the anchors for the Titanic were assembled, and
the casings for Barnes-Wallis' bouncing bombs were made. A large
sunken rounded casing in the canal makes us think they may have done
a preliminary try out of the latter...
Looked to get a pumpout
at Withymoor Island, but they were closed (although you couldn't see
the sign until you'd practically moored up).
We water up at the
Bumblehole Nature Reserve, and head into the dank, dripping depths of
the Netherton Tunnel. This is probably the longest one we've done –
3027 yards – but is very straight, so you can always see an exit. I
do believe that tunnels are plotting against boaters, trying to turn
us into flowstone, drip by soggy, splattery drip....
We emerge, blinking,
into the light on the Birmingham side of the hill, and make slow
progress through ranks of fishermen lining the banks.
Hoped to get a pumpout
at Caggy's Yard, but had gone past the miniscule jetty before we
realised it was there. Hit the canal rush hour at Factory Locks –
interesting though, with working boats coming down the locks, with
unpowered barge in tow – this had to come down the lock behind its
powered unit, so we just sat and waited until it was clear, and then
alternated with several other working boats going through the locks,
resulting in close negotiations in small pounds! That done
successfully, I even navigated my first junction without mishap,
before the rain came on again.
Made it into the Black Country Museum
moorings (no space but a water point, and a self-operated pumpout)
and Drew went to get a card for the machine.
Lord High Panjandrum,
King of the Kharzi officiated, (with any number of bad puns and
off-colour song parodies) and then proved he is also the King of
Spin by turning our 68-footer in the smallest of spaces. Moored by a
small park, ready for a trip to the museum, and a welcome break from
travelling.
I'm not going to detail
the museum – you can read all about it here on their website. The
day was mostly sunny, with only a few showers, and very pleasant!
Thursday saw us back on
our way, wending our way through the maze of bridges and underpasses
and junctions that form the Birmingham Canal Navigations.
Under the M5, there are
odd juxtapositions of structures – footbridges to nowhere, Spon Lane Locks (which are a listed building) the oldest working chambers
in the country, roads that run over canals and under railways....
Summit Tunnel has a
tall archway, almost egg-shaped, and leads us to the last three locks
of our trip – Smethwick. They only have one gate at each end, which
is unusual, and the downstream gates are Very Heavy – around
2080kg. Drew celebrates by breaking into a sprint to reach the last
gate.
We weave our way around
some of the side-loops of the BCN – the Soho Loop, past the prison
at Winson Green and under Asylum Bridge, to good views over the city,
and round the Icknield Loop where the BW boats are moored several
deep.
Sliding under Sheepcote
Bridge we find ourselves a rare mooring spot opposite the National
Indoor Arena – and only a boat's length from where we moored in
2007. The place is FULL of boats - this is obviously where they've
all been hiding!
Drew changed from
boater into consumer, and headed off for the Bull Ring, and the Apple
store, returning triumphant (if footsore) with a new MacBook... and
the rain set in overnight.
Shore party paid a
visit to the National Sea Life Centre in the morning, before we set
off for our last night's mooring somewhere near Alvechurch.
And in Gas Street basin, disaster struck. We had to pull into the side to let a tourist
boat past, and he took so long that we got hard alongside the quay.
Drew hopped off to give the nose a push, turned to come back to the
stern and slipped. Didn't get up. Made 'painful' noises.
I managed to ge the
boat secured with the help of passers-by, and a very helpful lady
rang for an ambulance. Drew wasn't sure what he'd done, but he still
wasn't getting up. Many thanks to all the helpful people of
Birmingham, was were real stars in trying to sort us out. The
ambulance came, (gas and air) and diagnosed 'dislocated knee' – oh
hell. Needs to go for X-ray. We need to find a temporary mooring, as
we can't stay here. One helpful bloke finds another helpful bloke,
who goes to find us one. The ambulance crew help Drew up to sit him
in the chair to take him to the ambulance and – pop – the kneecap
goes back in. It's gone in right, so there's no need for the X-ray or
the hospital, which is a relief, so he's signed off and – after
profuse thanks to the folks who helped – we can go.
Driving is its own
distraction, and Drew takes the helm again to take us down to
Alvechurch, by the Cube and the University, through the Wast Hills
Tunnel, past Kings Norton Junction and the reservoirs at Lower
Bittell. We meet quite a number of obviously new-to-it boaters, all
heading for Birmingham, albeit erratically!
Mooring for the night
isn't easy, and it's a disturbed night, followed by an early morning
of packing up and cleaning out, before we reach the yard at
Tardebigge once more. The Anglo-Welsh guys help us moor and assist
with hauling our gear to the car, and we make the weird transition
from 4 mph back up to motorway speeds. All get safely home, knees
nothwithstanding. I guess if it had to happen, it happened at about
the 'best' place it could – after all the locks, and where we
weren't in the middle of nowhere.
Need to start planning
next year. A few changes in the wind...
Just for fun, my journal cover, above, and as usual, a map of our travels can be found here!
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