...and then there was one

After our rain-soaked recce of the Stoubridge canal we made an early start from a lovely mooring about a mile before the town arm turns off.

We climbed the sixteen locks of the Stourbridge flight pretty easily, despite some of the gates being unbalanced meaning they try and open themselves as soon as you've closed them behind the boat. That aside, it's a pleasant flight with amazingly clear water and well maintained locks that even give the boat a bubble bath as you go up.

By the top of the locks the surroundings turn more industrial and a lot less scenic. We didn't explore the dead-end Fens Branch, but turned right to pass around the top of Stourbridge. The lovely clear water remains here, which is handy for spotting all the traffic barriers that lie just under the surface!

Half way up the next locks, the Delph flight, Victoria decided she'd done enough locks for one day so we swapped over meaning David got to appreciate the views showing how much height we'd gained.

The Delph locks are a quick and easy flight with very short pounds between the locks so we made it to our mooring at Merry Hell Hill in time for lunch, before venturing down to brave the vast shopping complex underneath.

The following day we continued on the Dudley No1 Canal to Parkhead Junction, where the Dudley Tunnel burrows under Netheron Hill, but only for very, very low boats which must be towed through by an electric tug due to ventilation problems for diesel engines.

We took the easy option and turned right onto the imaginatively named Dudley No2 Canal, wiggling through mixed surroundings all the way to Windmill End Junction. In preparation for the Netherton Tunnel David did our normal thing of taking the flowers and sack trolley down from the roof to allow us to see better and in case the tunnel turns low. As we approached the tunnel we realised this may not have been strictly necessary this time....

The 1.75 mile long Netherton Tunnel is more like the Channel Tunnel than most canal tunnels we've been through. It's dead straight, two way with a towpath each side and a huge high roof. So plenty of room for the flowers after all!

Emerging from the tunnel we were on the Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) and turned left onto the New Main Line to climb Factory Locks before turning south to reach the safe moorings at the Black Country Museum, just in front of the other end of the Dudley Tunnel we'd seen hours earlier.

The moorings beyond the winding hole where PM is in the above photo are free for museum visitors. We bought tickets online which give unlimited entry to the museum for a year so we could come and go as we wanted, coming back to the boat for a tea break when the museum was busiest!

The Black Country Museum is a unique recreation of a Black Country village with associated industries from the early 20th century. There are museum staff in costume to bring the history to life and live exhibits such as chain making and working steam engines. We really enjoyed it, especially the mine tour and the 1930's style fish and chips, which are second to none.

Back to boating on the Sunday and we crossed Birmingham, firstly on the Old Main Line, before dropping down three locks on the Gower Branch to join the straighter, more direct New Main Line. We helped some hire boaters with the Brades Locks staircase as they hadn't seen one before and were thoroughly mixed up, in danger of draining the canal and flooding Birmingham.

Disaster averted, we carried on, navigating our way through the maze of junctions on the BCN. We particularly like this one, where the canal we were on is crossed by another canal, with a railway next to it and the M5 ontop of everything.

We eventually arrived in the centre of Birmingham and moored near the National Indoor Arena. We had arranged to meet nb Leo here and they eventually caught up having done all the extra loops off the BCN main line on the way.

Having had a day looking round Birmingham when we were here in June we didn't hang around and left the following morning, retracing our route down the 13 locks of the Farmer's Bridge flight. This time we turned off at Aston Junction, avoiding the troublesome Ashted tunnel (see our earlier blog!), but leaving us another 8 locks to do down the Aston flight. This isn't the prettiest area of Birmingham but we made it down without incident.

We'd been aiming for Cuckoo Wharf secure moorings but when we arrived it wasn't exactly the idyllic city retreat we'd been hoping for. David walked over to Star City on the nearby Grand Union Canal to see if that was any better but in the end we decided to stay put.

We didn't have any bother and even managed to get TV reception to keep up with the Tour de France so not such a bad mooring after all.

The following day we said goodbye to nb Leo. We have decided to head South for our mooring this winter, while Leo had always planned to go North. Being in the middle of the country with a T-junction ahead it was decision time. We turned right at Salford Junction to head out of the city on the Birmingham & Fazeley canal, while nb Leo turned left to explore a lot more of the BCN on their way northwards.

We have enjoyed travelling with nb Leo for the past 10 weeks and it was a bit sad to leave them but we hope to meet and travel together again next year. Now we're on our own we will definitely have to keep the blog updated as we can't rely on Leo's blog to do it for us any more!

For our first night out of Birmingham we stopped near Curdworth. It was a really nice mooring and great to be out in the countryside again (even if you could see and hear the M6 toll).

Today we've had an easy day, coming down most of the Curdworth flight to moor near Kingsbury Water Park. We've heard tales from nb Leo of empty pounds and lots of rubbish on the BCN so far and can't help but feel just a little bit relieved that we made the decision to come this way out of Birmingham. Nevertheless, good luck to nb Leo on their BCN adventure and we hope things improve for you in the next few days.

Birmingham bound

We've had a very easy week this week steadily making our way towards Birmingham again. We're dawdling a little more than usual to allow nb Leo time to catch up with us after they went home for Le Tour.

We had a couple of days in Stourport, moored on the pontoons on the river before making our way back up through the canal basins and onto the Staffordshire & Worcestershire canal.

Typically, we managed to set off from the river at precisely the same time as a few other boats left, and the same time as plenty more boats were coming down off the canal so the basins were pretty busy. This wasn't helped by a fuel boat forcing his way down the upper staircase, meaning there were two many boats in the small offset pound near the dry dock. Not sure why he couldn't wait but here is David rolling up his sleeves to play a game of 'narrowboat chicken' with the impatient boater.

Saturday saw us stopping in Wolverley and we were relieved to get decent TV reception (after about an hour of "left a bit right a bit, OK don't move!") for the start of the Tour de France. We don't watch much TV really but didn't want to miss Le Grand Depart in Yorkshire as we know the roads the race used very well. David was impressed that the solar panels could more than keep up with the demands of the TV and the new, more efficient inverter, allowing us to watch the live coverage without worrying about draining the batteries.

We moved on to Kinver on Sunday, choosing a spot in full sun (for solar energy) so we could watch day 2 of the Tour. Finally got good reception in our second mooring spot, except when a boat went past and the TV went off - maybe we should ban boats from moving while the Tour's on?

Yesterday we had a good walk up Kinver Edge, which is a great view point, before returning to the boat to, you guessed it, watch the final UK stage of the Tour.

Today we have had about our shortest day's boating ever, just about managing one mile and two locks. We made up for it by having a hilly ride into Stourbridge and up to Merry Hill to check out our route for the next few days; which certainly looks like harder work than what we've been up to this week. Our ride was made more interesting by the heavens opening and us both getting drenched. Soaked to such an extent that when Victoria dropped off the back of the Brompton Peloton David actually believed her when she said she'd fallen in. Only joking, just the rain, that goodness it held off for Le Tour!

Double Droitwich

In a return to blogging form here's an update on the past week's travels, rather than the past month as we have been doing so far this year...

We reached Worcester last Wednesday, dropping down the wide locks from Diglis Basin down to the river

We had hoped to moor on the floating pontoons downsteam of Worcester, which we reckon are the nicest moorings in the city, but unfortunately they were full by the time we locked down onto the river.

Instead, we went upstream and moored near the racecourse. No bad thing as we had a great view of Worcester cathedral, which is very close to the river

We moored up in time to make it to the race course (right by the public moorings upstream of the railway bridge) for the last race, but a rushed decision on which horse to back didn't pay off.

The following day we set off up the Severn before joining the recently restored Droitwich Barge Canal at Hawford Junction. The barge canal is nominally wide (14ft locks) but very shallow and reedy in places so passing two wide beams would be interesting to say the least.

Due to the reeds and shallow edges, there is virtually no opportunity to moor until you reach the basin in Droitwich but here there are excellent 48hr secure visitor moorings with a water point on the end.

We had a couple of days exploring Droitwich, including a swim in the open air pool which is filled with a brine mixture (Droitwich being a former salt town) so very floaty!

On Sunday we left the basin, passing through the pretty Vines Park, where the barge canal joins the Droitwich Junction Canal and becomes narrow-beam. The canal then passes under the M5 in a notoriously low culvert. We were glad the water level was low and we made it with several inches to spare

After climbing a further six locks we arrived back at Hanbury Junction (from where we last blogged) just in time to perform some reversing narrowboat ballet with a boat that was just leaving.

On Monday we said goodbye to nb Leo who are going home for a few days, leaving Leo in a marina near Worcester, but will catch us up again later in the trip. We backtracked to Droitwich, getting under the M5 safely but this time with much less room to spare due to higher water levels - watch for people dropping the lock above you as the clearance is pretty limited!

Whilst in Droitwich we invested in a new inverter (gadget that turns 12v battery power into 240v mains power for non-boaty readers) and had excellent service from Sterling Power Products who are based nearby - thoroughly recommended.

Today we have descended back down the Barge Canal to the River Severn and are now on a lovely mooring just below the bottom lock, albeit one with no land access.

Birmingham and back

We've had another extended blogging break recently but have now had our laptop repaired and should be back to more regular updates again (no promises though!). This is quite a big catch up blog but I'll try and keep it brief....

We left off in Gloucester, from where we had to retrace our route up the Severn as far as Tewkesbury, where we joined the River Avon.

We bought two week licenses from Bob the lock keeper who was also a mine of useful information about river conditions and moorings as well as photos of the terrible flooding this area suffered from last winter.


We enjoyed our first few days on the Avon but noticed that even with low water levels the flow around some of the bridges and wiers was pretty lively.

As we approached Evesham the weather turned and we had around 18 hours of constant rain. After mooring on one of the many flood safe moorings along this river there was nothing to do but watch the river rise and rise. We were breasted up with Leo and another boat nb Abigail and had three days in Evesham waiting for the levels to drop.

The photo below shows the river at its highest - when we arrived in Evesham you might've just about spotted the roof of the boats from this view point. Note the scaffold plank kindly provided by the Avon Navigation Trust so we could get off to avoid total cabin fever!

After three days the river had dropped into amber (safe to proceed with caution) in Evesham so we set off. Above the next lock the flow was really fast and we crawled along, barely making progress against the flow. We made it to Offenham Lock and a safe mooring but by this point the river was well into the red. Beware of the Avon after heavy rain!

Fortunately with a decent dry spell the river continued to drop and we eventually made it to Stratford upon Avon. This is a lovely place with a fantastic riverside park area and a beautiful basin where the canal meets the river. We were lucky to get prime spots in the basin so had a couple of days exploring Stratford.

We enjoyed the climb out of Stratford for being back in narrow locks and calm waters. Victoria's mum, Sue, met us by train at Wooton Wawen, staying for a couple of days and helping us work the locks all the way up to Kingswood Junction where the Stratford canal joins the Grand Union.

From Kingswood junction we headed north towards Birmingham on a section of the Grand Union we've not done before. We climbed the five broad locks at Knowle, swapping with other boats as they descended.

David carried on with nb Leo to Catherine de Barnes (last recommended mooring before Birmingham) while Victoria took her mum into Birmingham to catch her train home.

We had an early start the following day, and our longest boating day ever with 25 locks and 9 miles to cover to Birmingham. The journey was surprisingly pleasant, clearly urban but not as bad for rubbish in the canal as we expected.

We did have a bit of an incident in Ashted Tunnel as the towpath is so wide it forces boats over to the edge of the tunnel. I'd read about this and the recommended technique seemed to be to pull the boat over towards the towpath as far as possible using ropes. The water levels were so high when we went through that this wasn't enough. In the end we had to drop the pound several inches and borrow a burly CRT man who was nearby to ballast Pas Meche down enough to clear the tunnel. We made it through with a very light scrape on the handrail but things could've been a lot worse. Why the towpath is so wide I don't know!

After that excitement we flew up the 13 locks of the Farmers Bridge flight, passing under towerblocks much like on the Rochdale 9 in Manchester.

The surroundings get progressively nicer as you climb, reaching the redeveloped area around Cambrian Wharf at the top lock

This then leads you into Birmingham's canal showcase area of Gas Street Basin and Old Turn Junction. We found a couple of mooring spots on Oozels Loop, which seemed a lot quieter than the moorings in Gas Street and along the main BCN route through the area.

 



We stayed in Birmingham the following day doing some sight seeing as well as seeing a physio for David's neck which has been painful for a few weeks.

Reversing out of Oozel's Loop (no, you can't turn a 57' boat and yes, I did try....) we left Birmingham via Gas Street Basin to join the Worcester & Birmingham canal

This way out of Birmingham is a bit shallow and slow going but otherwise pleasant and easy with no locks to work. We waved at the trains, getting them to hoot their horns, and saw Cadbury World and its purple station at Bournville before reaching the 2726 yard long and very drippy Wast Hill tunnel.

You emerge from the tunnel into rolling green countryside and the Worcester & Birmingham has been like this ever since. After a stop in Alvechurch we overnighted at Tardebigge top lock, timing our departure the next morning perfectly to slot in behind a couple who were very new to boating and a single hander. Having heard of people completing the 30 lock flight (the longest in the UK, dropping 217' in just over two miles) in two or three hours, we realised we would not be breaking any records today.

Still, it was an enjoyable flight with all paddle gears and gates working well. We took the descent steadily, helping the people in front where needed to speed things up and in the end got to the bottom in about five hours, including a tea break or two along the way.

After a day off at the bottom of Tardebigge we spent last night at Hanbury Wharf, where the newly restored Droitwich canals join the Worcester & Birmingham (turn right for Droitwich).

We are now on our way to Worcester, where we plan to rejoin the River Severn.

Long way south

Sorry for the lack of blogging recently. Our laptop had a bit of a blip....

We survived the Pennines then headed south on the Trent and Mersey, meeting up with NB Leo in Stoke on Trent, up the Caldon canal and back, across the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal, down the River Severn and into Gloucester.
 
Here are some photo highlights:

Victoria and our Silsden visitor Elliott baking Easter buns onboard.

We had a good day out up Skipton Moor with Gemma, Victoria's friend from university.

Enjoying the Yorkshire countryside, at the edge of the Dales.

Victoria braced for the 21 locks down the Wigan flight, plus 2 onto the Leigh branch. Despite searching for another boat to partner with, we headed down the flight alone. Very stiff gates, leaky locks, taking six hours in total.

We followed the Bridgewater around the edge of Manchester before joining the Trent and Mersey at Preston Brook. Unlike last year, we made it through Middlewich without damage to gearbox or wallet (see last year's blog!) and enjoyed the climb up the paired locks of  'Heartbreak Hill'.

We made it through Harecastle Tunnel unscathed (tip for boaters with tall boats is to fill with water before you go through) and met Dave's parents on NB Leo in Stoke on Trent.

From Stoke we detoured up the Caldon which is very scenic and in places extremely narrow. Here the boats are on a river section at Consall Forge where there is a restored steam railway. We abandoned Pas Meche before the notoriously low Froghall Tunnel but did just manage to get through on Leo. The basin the other side is worth visiting, even if only on foot.

Having rejoined the Trent and Mersey we went south to Great Haywood before turning right onto the Staffordshire & Worcestershire, which is new territory for us. The canal is scenic and interesting all the way but definitely at its best west of the summit level as you descend towards the Severn. Here PM and Leo are waiting for Kidderminster lock to fill.

The Staffs & Worcs canal terminates at Stourport, where two double staircase locks drop boats down onto the River Severn. We went first and waited for Leo to join us on the wide river.

The river is probably the best place to see Worcester from, the cathedral comes almost down to the banks. Here we are following Leo as we approach Worcester bridge.

After Worcester we stopped at the pretty village of Upton upon Severn before a final night stop about 13 miles outside Gloucester. The approach into Gloucester is tidal at spring tides but fortunately we didn't have that to worry about. The last 3 miles are on a narrow and fast flowing channel which you have to come off into Gloucester lock, or face the weir which lies to the right in this photo. I'm glad to say we made it into the lock, although this junction could be quite exciting if the river was high.