Today was a short motoring day, cold, blustery and often wet. We had a lie in and set out just before 11, mooring up 5 minutes later at the BW services at the top of the Knowle flitght of 5 locks; numbers 51 to 47. Hatton flight descends from lock 46, for our readers who have a sense of where we are. The Knowle flight is a beast of a flight, with beasts of locks. It used to be a flight of 6 narrow locks, but in the 1930s was changed to five wide ones. This is the same as with Hatton - wide locks replacing narrow ones. But Hatton is a bit more laid back, slightly stately and the older locks are nestled just next to the new ones. Knowle is a beast. Huge locks, accessed by concrete bridges over the old narrow locks and gates wider and heavier than many on wide locks we've used. The weather didn't help, and Pete says this was his most stressful driving. The wind was howling and even though the rain was gentle, having wet pavements for footholds to push open gates was not easy. The pictures show the weather as well as the size of the locks. One picture shows Bella on the upper level in a lock a bit like a promentory into the lower level. Odd but fascinating. Pete found he was moving Bella furiously on an angle just to keep going straight. Think shopping trolleys x 20 tonnes and add water. Hmmmm. Anyway, we got through in an hour, making this 5 clicks an hour, not four. So we managed! On the lower pound, the wind had died down, the sun made the odd appearance and we enjoyed the scenery. We moored up at Lapworth around half past one; an excellent time to go to the Navigation, the pub just opposite the mooring. We dried out, had a Sunday roast, then walked to Lapworth station to check the timetable for Elizabeth to board a train for Warwick in the morning. Tomorrow starts her Jury Duty, the whole reason why we did this particular journey just now!
We set out bright and early this morning, anxious to make our way out of industrial Birmingham and into the countryside. Much of Birmingham is beautiful, but the canal network makes its way through the old heartlands of an old era; now much defunct, moved to the periphery of the city or indeed, moved to another country. Some of the network has been improved (regenerated, gentrified) and this better network is what we travelled through last Autumn, mooring up at Gas Street Basin and travelling north through the Aston flight of locks.
This trip, we decided to take the speedier route, hence our journey down the Birmingham and Warwick Junction canal. This took us through much more dismal scenery with warehousing old and new, repaired and not, much of everything covered in grafitti. The rubbish piled up everywhere and part of lock working was removing planks of wood, footballs, a gas cylinder, etc. We have decided that rather than witches knickers (plastic bags in trees, for our non UK readers), plastic bags in the canal are ducks' drawers. And yet, we had a priviledged view of the old buildings. One had a foundation of old mill stones. Fascinating. The first few pictures are of the run of bridges (you have to expand the pic to see them all), a typical grafitti clad section, an old Horsely Iron Works bridge surrounded by a few centuries of industry and then Pete working one of the locks at Bordesley Junction, where the Birmingham and Warwick Junction Canal meets the Grand Union Main Line. We finally made our way out of the 10 locks and 3 industrial miles to some trees! The next shot is of Sparkbrook cutting, theoretically beautiful, but every flat surface was covered with some kind of scribbled paint and any corner of the canal was filled with rubbish, even a pram and a garden bench.The day became more grey as we travelled, but we were still enjoying the variety of sights in and out of the canal. Until we realised that we were slowing down. It transpired that much of the rubbish was unseen at the bottom of the canal, yet really just under our hull, and our propeller had managed to catch not only some ducks' drawers, but some human's zipped gillet. Hmm. The pictures show that Pete opens the hatch, pulls out yuk, then proudly displays his find! One of the pictures is worth expanding right out - it is the embossing on the top of the weed hatch handle, warning us that if it is not put on tightly, we'll sink...We then stopped in Catherine de Barnes, a village just east of Solihul, for a well earned pub lunch. Pulling out again just after 3:00, we passed by a sunken cruiser and a herd of cows (we like these better than grafitti, even though they do have yellow labels in their ears). We moored up just east of Knowle, West Midlands on the Grand Union at 5pm.
We spent yesterday in Tamworth, as Elizabeth needed to take a train to London for a meeting. Pete did much domestic stuff and this morning, we set off just before 8:30 to a bright clear cool day. Two quick locks in Tamworth took us south to cross the river Tame. You can see it from the aqueduct piccy.We then travelled a few miles to Fazely Junction, the junction of the Coventry Canal, which we left, and the Birmingham and Fazely Canal which we joined. You can just see the junction and the sign posts in on of the pics. At the junction, there is a factory which makes cloth tapes which has been in continuous operation since the 1850s. The very fuzzy photograph is a shot through the window where you can just make out the machines.After then, we passed Drayton Manor and the very very odd bridge with towers at each end. Why, no one seems to know! Just after, we entered the Curdworth flight of 11 locks, taking us uphill going south towards Birmingham. We do like uphill locks! The gates go in our direction - into the lock on the way in and into the canal on the way out. And the rise is wonderfully gentle on single locks, unlike the rush of water in double locks. And Elizabeth loves watching the world come gently in to view. One of the pics is Bella rising up lock 8; you can see Blossom waiting to take Pete up to the next lock. This was a lock-wheeling day, helping us to race through the flight. Just after the flight was Curdworth tunnel, short but fun. There is a picture of us leaving it, and a pic of Pete just after it.A few miles later, we made the flight of 3 locks in the Minworth flight, stopping in the top lock to clear the weed hatch. Closer in to Birmingham and the canal is more and more full of rubbish... Oh well. After that, we made our way under the M6, just a moment east of Spaghetti junction in Brum. We did this last year and there is a post in October about it. But here's another pic! Then we moved into another new canal, the Birmingham and Warwick Junction Canal. This is parallel and to the east of the Birmingham and Fazely Canal's move into the centre of Brum. That is the route we took last year on the clockwise journey round the Warwickshire ring. We're doing the counter clockwise route this time and decided to take the canal with fewer locks. One of the pictures shows the Birmingham and Warwick Junction's acqueduct over the Tame again and under the M6.We came to a stop, 14 miles and 16 locks from Tamworth, at Star City Mooring. It is a pontoon near an amusement area with a Casino. We can see us going there.... Anyway, the sun was too nice not to put out the bench on the pontoon. What fun!
We're in Tamworth today, an easy 8 miles from Atherstone bottom lock. It was a beautiful sunny day, a bright and happy contrast from yesterday. As we set out, we saw this beautiful clear typical canal view.
Just after setting out, we stopped at the BW services point to take on water and put off waste. Just so you can enjoy the experience, we've uploaded a picture of the Elsan point, lids closed. This is essentially just a huge toilet (!) into which we empty our now green goo (the cleansing fluid we put in the cassettes mixed with, well, you know what) and then rinse and flush mightily. We are sure some of you did not want to know this, but hey! It is a regular feature of our floating lives. Near the red and white cone, you can just make out Pete fixing the hose to the water point, water going into the tank accessed from the bow hatch.
After that, we had a lock free journey to Tamworth, moored just above Glascote locks where we were last October. We write this from a Costa Coffee with free wifi, as the comms on Bella is, well, hardly coms at all. Also, part of our life!
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Yesterday we pulled out into a gentle rain, which by the end of the day, turned into a howling hooligan! We set out just before 9am and travelled west to moor up in Atherstone, just west of Nuneaton, for a conference call with colleagues. Just so those of you who think the canals are always beautiful can re-appraise, this is where we moored for the call. A sadly usual sight as we go through the deep inner industrial areas. We saw much like this on the Paddington arm of the Grand Union and on the Birmingham and Fazely canal, east of Brum. We'll see more on Friday, when we skirt Brum yet again. After the call, we set out and did the 11 locks of the Atherstone flight, descending 80 feet to the level working its way to Tamworth. With each lock the rain and wind increased and by the time we were moored up at 3:45, we were ready to stop! The wind whipped up even more fury and even 20 tonne Bella moved with the music! We chilled to warm candle light and the fluffiest toad in the hole we've ever made.
We moored up at 3:30 yesterday, just under the bridge to the east of Hartshill British Waterways works. It is a wonderful example of old industrial buildings, with many in the complex having rounded walls instead of corners. We can't quite make out why, but there must have been a good reason! The picture shows the shed under the clock tower and if you enlarge the picture, you can see the black and white BW signs hanging from the left of the main building.
So, yesterday we did 18 miles and one lock. The one lock was at Hawkesbury Junction where the Oxford Canal joins the Coventry canal and is only a foot deep! Seems crazy, but there we are! We were delighted, while in the lock, to see Gosty Hill's fuel barge just pulling alongside a boat in the basin between canals. We needed (wanted) more coal and he carries Taybrite, one of our faves. It was fun pulling alongside his barge and having the coal lifted straight from his boat into our bows. Sorry not to think of this as a photo opportunity! Pete then deftly moved us from the Basin to the Coventry canal, turning completely back on ourselves. What a helmsman!!
Three more fun things yesterday:
1 When Pete was at the tiller and Elizabeth was inside getting dressed, we were alongside a railway line and along came a goods train. The driver waved at Pete and sounded the horn! The little boy in Pete was thrilled to bits!
2 Josie spent much of her time OUT on the deck with us!!! She even pretended to sleep, outside, in the open air, lying on top of the deck panels with the engine just below. Woah. It has taken the best part of a year and a half, but hey. She's joining us now.
3 When we sat in the Malt and Shovel, Hawkshill, we shared a corner bench with a cat looking just like our Norman of years ago. We were convinced it WAS Norman. Jeffrey, did Adella somehow end up in North Warwickshire and give Norman to a family member? It was a real treat for us!
Here we are, frost on the ground, moored up near All Oak Wood, Brinklow. Wonderful. We're on our way. We are not sure when we'll be back in Blue Haven other than to collect post. April? June? November? Whenever, it will be just a stop over trip as we make our way through more of the canal system this year. We set out yesterday at 12:30 after we had woken early to go to Oxford, collect James and take him to Heathrow for his move (however long) to the USA. He's planning on settling in New York and will spend the first few weeks staying with a friend of ours in Manhattan. The day started grey and mizzly but just got better! Sun for James' flight and sun for our different kind of flight. We were through Hillmorton locks by 12:45 and had a leisurely afternoon cruising. We were reminded again why we do this. The beauty of the canal system takes our breath away time and time again. It was all sealed last night, when out of the confines of a city, we could see the stars. Wonderful.
Today was a short motoring day, cold, blustery and often wet. We had a lie in and set out just before 11, mooring up 5 minutes later at the BW services at the top of the Knowle flitght of 5 locks; numbers 51 to 47. Hatton flight descends from lock 46, for our readers who have a sense of where we are. The Knowle flight is a beast of a flight, with beasts of locks. It used to be a flight of 6 narrow locks, but in the 1930s was changed to five wide ones. This is the same as with Hatton - wide locks replacing narrow ones. But Hatton is a bit more laid back, slightly stately and the older locks are nestled just next to the new ones. Knowle is a beast. Huge locks, accessed by concrete bridges over the old narrow locks and gates wider and heavier than many on wide locks we've used. The weather didn't help, and Pete says this was his most stressful driving. The wind was howling and even though the rain was gentle, having wet pavements for footholds to push open gates was not easy. The pictures show the weather as well as the size of the locks. One picture shows Bella on the upper level in a lock a bit like a promentory into the lower level. Odd but fascinating. Pete found he was moving Bella furiously on an angle just to keep going straight. Think shopping trolleys x 20 tonnes and add water. Hmmmm. Anyway, we got through in an hour, making this 5 clicks an hour, not four. So we managed! On the lower pound, the wind had died down, the sun made the odd appearance and we enjoyed the scenery. We moored up at Lapworth around half past one; an excellent time to go to the Navigation, the pub just opposite the mooring. We dried out, had a Sunday roast, then walked to Lapworth station to check the timetable for Elizabeth to board a train for Warwick in the morning. Tomorrow starts her Jury Duty, the whole reason why we did this particular journey just now!
