Cheshire, eventually: Day 10

I was awake early for some reason this morning, and eventually I got up and walked up to seemingly the only shop in Tipton which has a full range of newspapers (we’d done a recce yesterday).  I bought the only copy of The Guardian they had, because I’d been told The Water Road would be featured in the best podcasts of the week section.  It’s a very nice review, but you can always rely on The Grauniad to mis-spell something, and in this case it was the title.

Hopefully they’ll get it right when it goes online on Monday.  We ended up setting off at about ten to eight; I pushed the boat as far out into the channel to try to avoid all the weeds, but still managed to get some round the prop.  A quick blast of reverse got most of it off though.  We made our way back to Factory Junction, where the old buildings are some sort of community centre.  The locks we came up yesterday are beyond the bridge on the right, we were going round to the left.

It’s funny how you don’t seem to see coots in the countryside  but urban areas are full of them.  They build their nests so they’re floating free, so they must occasionally wake up and find they’ve drifted overnight.  One just through the junction had built on a floating piece of wood.

Coseley Tunnel was the first major feature of the day.  The portal this end not only has very dangly brambles, but also some impressive steps up to the road above.

After the tunnel the weed was much less.  Even around Deepfields Junction, where we’ve got stuck in the past, was pretty clear.  And for lots of the stretch the water is clear enough to see hundreds of fish, as well as the weeds and the plastic bags.  As we approached Wolverhampton, the was an odd obstruction, but there was nothing to say what the problem was.

We got to the top of the locks in a much better time than I’d feared, thanks to the weed being much less bad than it could have been.  Since leaving Stourport on Tuesday, we’ve climbed just over 425 feet; now we were about to start going back down again.  We went into the top lock at a minute to 10.

The first couple of locks just needed a top up, the third was empty, but after that they were all pretty much full.  And in the main part of the flight they’re close enough together that I could go ahead and get the gate open.  We met two boats coming up, which also helped.

Our luck ran out at lock 15, because after that they all needed filling — and it was becoming increasingly hot too.

The lower part of the flight passes close to Wolverhampton Race Course, and there was a Motorfest event on, from which we could hear the rather excitable PA person describing all sorts of jumps and tricks.  We were quite relieved to get to the bottom few locks, which are more shady (and Motorfest was on a lunch break).

We completed the 21 locks in exactly three hours, which we thought was pretty good going.  Having to turn the final third of the locks really slowed us down.

We carried on to Autherley Junction and moored up, it was 1.15pm.  Fortunately there’s a bit of shade here, and there’s also a nice breeze.  It’s always good being near a junction for entertainment value.  So far we’ve had someone being very confused by a hire boat coming out of the junction backwards.  We’ve also walked round to the hire base for an ice cream.

8 miles, 21 locks.  (73 miles, 106 locks)

To Crick: Day 7

We had a lovely evening with Helen and Andy last night.  Their journey north to Penkridge took a bit longer than estimated, so when we knew they were close we walked up and set Otherton Lock for them.

They moored right behind us, and we had a good catch up over dinner and drinks.  This morning, Adrian had a conference call at 9, so by the time we’d said our goodbyes it was 10am before we were moving.  A boat had just come down Otherton Lock.  Rodbaston Lock is right beside the M6, and it’s no wonder the lock keeper who used to live there couldn’t stand the noise, with his cottage later being demolished.

At Bogg’s Lock a boat appeared just as we’d left so we could leave the gate open, and at Brick Kiln Lock another boat was coming down.  There were four volunteer lock keepers at Gailey Lock, three of them being trained.  The Roundhouse still looks lovely, and the shop is still open, and provided ice creams.

We stopped on the water point, after a bit of juggling with the boats waiting for the lock, and also got some washing going and got rid of the rubbish and recycling.  Then there’s the long lock-free section, which first passes through the chemical works, with signs about not stopping or mooring.

There are some ridiculous corners on the next section, particularly around Hatherton Junction.  But there are also some very pretty bits.

As we passed under the M54 bridge, we finally escaped the clutches of Staffordshire, passing into the West Midlands.  Apart from our weekend in Cheshire, we’ve been in Staffordshire since 5 April!  The motorway bridge has some decent graffiti artwork underneath it.

Shortly afterwards there’s a new development of massive warehouses, with a coffer dam in the canal and signs asking boats to coast past.

Then comes the Pendeford Rockin’, where the stone was so difficult to cut through that a channel was only a boat wide, although there are passing places.  In fact we met a boat at the first one, quite conveniently.  The next narrow is much longer.

By now we were in the housing estates of Wolverhampton, with a few shopping trolleys in the water, and electric bikes and scooters buzzing up and down the paths.  As we approached Autherley Junction, where the Shropshire Union Canal goes off north, a very long boat came out.  We waited for them to turn north, then went across the junction and moored up.

10 miles, 5 locks.  (39 miles, 30 locks)

Wending to Wales: Day 24

We had a lovely evening last night, because we met up with Sharon and John whom we met in 2015 when we did the Hatton flight together with three boats in each lock.  They now live in Gnosall, so we met in The Boat pub and had a really good couple of hours chatting about boating and other things.  The Boat is quite small but was really busy when we got there, which was nice to see.

This morning there was very little incentive to get up when there was rain hammering on the roof.  We waited for a bit of a lull, and as we were about to set off, Sharon and John came past with their dog so we were able to have a proper goodbye.  Soon after setting off we were at the very short tunnel, blasted out of the rock.

It rained on and off all the way to Wheaton Aston, where we stopped at Turner’s Garage for diesel.  Then Adrian walked up to the lock so we could go up.  They were dredging and back-filling some piling below the lock.  Above it, the gusty wind was at its worst, blowing us onto the lock landing and making it hard to get off.  The Shroppie alternates between cuttings and embankments, and the wind and rain were generally less noticeable in the cuttings.  Stretton Aqueduct always looks as it it needs a bit of TLC, because it could look really attractive.

The low point was probably the approach to Brewood, with a long line of boats moored on the offside, on an embankment, with the rain blowing horizontally across.  In the cutting that follows was the mossiest boat I think I’ve ever seen.

After this, the rain came down in stair rods.  Even the cuttings provided very little protection.  Adrian provided me with soup and bread on the move, with the plate having a little tin foil cover to keep the worst of the rain off.  But there were still wildlife highlights.  I reckon I’ve seen more than a dozen kingfishers today, including one near Bridge 10 which sat on a branch as I passed.  Not the best photo as my phone was at full zoom, it was raining, and the boat was moving.

Then after Bridge 5 I saw a heron catch a big fish.  It was then slightly put off my our approach so flew off with it, before find a spot to stand with its catch.  Same excuses for the quality of the photo.

A mile or two before Autherley Junction the rain stopped.  At the junction we followed a boat up the stop lock, and then turned right out of the junction onto the Staffs and Worcs.  We moored up with a couple of other boats just down from the junction.

This afternoon, I did an oil change which was slightly overdue.

13 miles, 2 locks.  (293 miles, 182 locks)