It seemed pretty chilly when we set off this morning at about 8.15. Just through the bridge ahead of where we moored is the Merry Hill Waterfront development.
After about half an hour we reached Blowers Green Lock, which is a deep one at 12ft.
Above the lock is a junction. Straight ahead are the locks up to Park Head and the Dudley Canal, which isn’t open to powered boats; the Dudley Canal Trust runs electric trip boats from the other end. We were turning sharp right, moving from the Dudley No 1 Canal to the Dudley No 2. We were thinking of stopping for water here, but the tap is out of order.
Along this canal there are rather nice mile markers (actually they come every half a mile) in the shape of the Cobb’s Engine, and there are different information signs too.
There’s a lovely iron bridge over the end of what used to be the Two Locks Line. If it was still functional, it would have allowed us to cut the corner off.
It came as a bit of a surprise to see a boat coming the other way, particularly as it was in a slightly narrower section which used to be a tunnel. There’s a high bridge over it, which has spawned one of those names that always seems a bit mangled.
We reached Windmill End, where there were a few boats moored. A boat was on the water point here, so we didn’t stop. The junctions here all have nice bridges, but there’s not really a view of the Cobb’s Engine House, because of the trees.
Netherton Tunnel is over 3000 yards long, and takes over half an hour to get through.
I amused myself in the tunnel by trying to take a photo up the air shafts. Once I’d worked out how to stop the phone doing the nighttime thing where it wants you to stay still for three seconds, the results were better. I’m quite pleased with this one.
After the tunnel we went under the aqueduct which carries the Old Main Line, then at Dudley Port Junction turned left onto the New Main Line. This is looking back, so we came from under the right hand bridge.
All the Factory Locks were in our favour, so we made light work of them
At the top, a boat had arrived to go down, but was so close to the lock we couldn’t get out until they’d reversed a bit. It’s also very weedy, and we seemed to have very little forward propulsion. That combined with the other boat being in the way meant the turn left towards Tipton seemed like hard work. The weeds and the water lilies have grown a lot since we were here a few weeks ago. We needed to stop to clear the prop, so we thought we’d combine that with a visit to the water point by the park — but there was a boat moored there, and the hosepipe wouldn’t reach. We set off again with a clear prop, only for a boat to be coming through the next bridge. After we’d gone through we turned around at Tipton Junction and retraced our steps, mooring at our usual spot outside the health centre. The other boat here was also moored there last time we were here in May, and was also here (although in a slightly different place) in 2023.
This afternoon it’s been sunny but windy. I’ve spent the time editing a couple of podcasts. As we’re in Tipton, we’re treating ourselves to another visit to Mad O’Rourke’s; hopefully they’ll have some Peaky Blinders, which they were out of last time.
10 miles, 4 locks. (65 miles, 85 locks)
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