To Crick: Day 9

Mad O’Rouke’s Pie Factory last night was very good again — and very good value.  And we had a very quiet night on the moorings by the health centre.  This morning, a boat came past heading towards Wolverhampton while we had breakfast, and another followed just as we were about to leave.  We made a very short journey through the bridge to Coronation Gardens  where there’s a rather anonymous water point.  The park has a statue of the boxer, William Perry, the Tipton Slasher.

We got washing going while the tank filled, and then set off again at 8.30, through Tipton Junction without turning down to the museum, and on along the Old Main Line.  One thing we’ve noticed in the urban areas is the proliferation of coots.  Lots of them seem to have very small chicks at the moment, with the mothers sitting on nests with her wings over them.

There’s always plenty to see on the Old Main Line, including lots of old basins.

We passed Brades Hall Junction, where we had an unfortunate incident with the staircase locks a few years ago.

Before Oldbury Junction there are some new houses being built, sandwiched between huge warehouses, and with the M5 thundering overhead just a few dozen yards away.

Then it was our turn to head under the motorway.

There’s a huge new waste to energy plant being built alongside the canal.  In fact it turned out it’s right by the Spon Lane Locks.

We went over the Stewart Aqueduct over the New Main Line, through Summit Tunnel, and took the obligatory photo of Smethwick Pumping Station.

At Smethwick Locks, the pound between the top and the middle locks was very low, so we spent a few minutes running water through the lock to get some depth.  It was no hardship waiting in the sunshine.

I’d also opened a top paddle on the middle lock to fill it, so we could go straight from one lock to the other.  But then we spotted someone at the middle lock trying to empty it.  As Adrian was now heading out of the lock, he sounded his horn a few times until the guy closed the bottom paddle, and shrugged in the direction of his boat.  When I got to the lock I explained to him that we’d spent a while topping up the pound, and he’d just been emptying it again.  It may have been that the guy was a novice, because when Adrian had left the middle lock he closed the gate, before his boat had gone in!  Anyway, we then had the unusual sight of boats swapping between two locks on the Smethwick flight.

After the third lock we joined the New Main Line at Smethwick Junction.

The housing development at the Icknield Port Loop has now reached the Main Line, with one block of flats finished and lots more scaffolding going up.

We headed through the Oozells Street Loop, hoping for a mooring there, but the only space was under the bridge, which we didn’t fancy.  So we continued through, and reversed up the Main Line.  We are next to a garden in memory of Albert Rooke, apparently known as the Harbourmaster of Birmingham.

This afternoon, we wandered along through Gas Street Basin to The Mailbox to buy something for dinner tonight.  The actor, Simon Williams, was sat outside one of the restaurants there — he’s probably recording The Archers at the moment.  Since we’ve got back there’s been some thunder and a few raindrops, just as we’re heading out to meet a former colleague of Adrian’s for a drink in town.

9 miles, 3 locks.  (56 miles, 54 locks)