There was some rain before we got up, but the forecast wet start to the day didn’t materialise. We had a lot of locks to do today, so wanted to set off in good time. At about 7.45 a boat which had come down the locks late yesterday afternoon and moored just above the bottom lock, came down — so I said he could leave the gates open, and we untied, crossed the junction, and went into the chamber.
The scene at the junction was very different last evening, when we were entertained by the Stourbridge Arm Canoe Club playing polo there. They had a goal hanging on the bridge and one across the lock, and they certainly took no prisoners.
Back to today, and the middle part of the flight is very pretty, with old warehouses and sympathetically designed new build flats, the Red House Cone, Dadford’s Shed, and the old pub which is now a house. There are also great views across the valley.
Locks 10 and 9 are very close together, like a mini-Bratch, with no proper pound between them. The water is held in a big lake behind the lock cottage.
Until lock 8, all the locks had been empty which was great, but after that they were all full, so a little more work. I guess this was where the downhill boat crossed with an uphill boat yesterday.
When we got to the penultimate lock, there was a man there from a boat waiting to come down. The pound between the top two locks had been empty when he arrived, and he’d been running water down. Fortunately there was now enough water for the two boats to pass.
We rose up the top lock, and the whole flight of 16 had taken 2 hours 20 minutes, which we thought was pretty good. We then set off on the two miles of so of the Dudley Canal to the bottom of the Delph Flight.
When we got to the Delph, all the locks were in our favour, with no other boats in sight. There wasn’t as excess of water around though, so the waterfall-style by-washes weren’t really running.
While each lock filled, I was going up to the next one to open the gates. Then at one lock, something happened that we’ve never experienced before: a fisherman closed the towpath side gate so he could step across to the other side! I had to go and re-open it, at the same time asking him what on earth he thought he was doing. A bit further up, there was an egret fishing, and a family with a little girl watched us come up a lock. Three locks from the top, three volunteer lock keepers emerged from their little building to lend a hand. The eight locks took an hour. We carried on and moored on the embankment overlooking the Merry Hill shopping centre.
We went for lunch in the M&S Cafe, then did a top up food shop there as well. We’re sure there used to be a Sainsbury’s here, but it’s not here now. (Research reveals it closed at the end of 2016, and was where Next now is). We also bought some new kitchen knives in the ProCook shop, as ours were well beyond their best. Two of them didn’t fit our block though, so we took them back and in the end decided to buy a new block as well. Even though we were refunding the original purchase, we could still use the 15 per cent off voucher that came with it, so it was a win all round.
Back at the boat, I did an oil change on the engine, as was 249 hours since the last one. Coincidentally, I also did an oil change on these moorings in 2021.
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