A slightly gentler day down the Curdworth flight to Fazeley

Thursday 1^st May; Minworth Green bridge to beside Fazeley Mill marina

Unsurprisingly, we slept well last night after our exertions!  This is a reasonable spot, as in spite of the number of busy roads round about, with housing and a massive Amazon warehouse a couple of hundred yards away on the offside, there are enough trees to hide the buildings, which with a rise in the ground shielded us from most of the road noise.  It was already hot when we started off at 8.45.

The water level had been low when we arrived last night.  It had recovered somewhat by this morning, but seemed to get worse again as we neared the top Curdworth lock.  We were going to call CRT but there was no need – a tug with 3’ draught had run aground above the top lock yesterday afternoon, and CRT had been running water down from Minworth for a couple of hours already, which explains the slight improvement.  The tug had just managed to get itself moving again with the help of the CRT chap there, but struggled to get past us – you would have thought they would have been sent on their way towards Minworth before any boats were allowed down the flight this morning, but apparently four already had been.

Early paddleboarder portaging up towards lock 2

The reason for the low water yesterday was probably due to CRT running water down to an empty pound part-way down the flight after somone had left a paddle up.  After our delay yesterday we were relieved to be held up for only 10 minutes.  We had to turn the first 9 locks, but apart from the first two most were close enough for me to lock ahead.

Lock 4 has a rowing boat filled with flowers on the approach

Jess and I walked between the locks, enjoying the cool shade from the uncut hedgerow.

Reflection

Lock 8 top gate was in an even worse state than it had been last year.  I expected it to have been replaced over winter, but no such luck.

This time I remembered not to use the footway over the lock - there is no notice on the towpath side!

We pulled in at Bodymoor Heath for the domestics.  Food waste bins haven’t reached this far yet.  We weren’t surprised there wasn’t one at Cambrian Wharf, as the building where the bins are housed is quite small, but there wasn’t one here either.  At least we got the water topped up.  A boat came up from the last two locks as we finished, so they at least were ready for us.  We were down by lunchtime.

The bottom lock and pretty cottage

The gentleman who lives in one of the lock cottages looks after the lock surround.  I asked him about the numbers on the cottage walls, which are like the ones at Minworth locks – two hundred and something I think these were.  Back in the day, all lock cottages on the BCN were numbered, though the numbers aren’t used now and many of the cottages are long gone anyway.  He kindly closed the bottom gate for us.

Now we were on the lookout for a shady spot for lunch, out of the scorching sun.  A suitable stretch near the old gravel pit conveyor bridge was free.  Normally we would have stayed put for the rest of the day, especially as we heard a cuckoo as we had lunch, but having belatedly realised we would have little time for hanging around if we were to get to Calcutt in time to get home for appointments, we pushed on to moor alongside Fazeley Mill marina at getting on for 5 o’clock.  Dave wanted to wash the boat roof, which was covered in dust and bits of blossom, fluffy willow slugs catkins, and tree bits.

Dave used the window-cleaner blade to clear the dew from the solar panels this morning, and thought he'd do the same on the boat side.  This is what happens when you use it on damp dusty paintwork!

The boat soon cooled down with a hopper window out and the sun behind the trees on the offside.

Looks nice, doesn’t it?

A piledriver was intermittently noisy in the marina.  From what we could see through the trees it was installing new electric pillars, but they soon stopped and it was quiet.  Later in the evening there was thunder and rain on Dave's clean paintwork.

11 locks, 7½ miles