And sometimes it means rather a lot

Wednesday 30^th April; Birmingham to Minworth Green bridge

Another brilliantly sunny day which warmed up very quickly.  

Bee bee hotel – look closely at the cells below the bee

Plenty to see along the towpath as I walked Jess first thing.

Early morning giraffe

We had spent the last few days thinking about the route to take from Birmingham to Calcutt. 

Part of Albert’s Garden alongside the Arena moorings

We had three routes to choose from – via the North Stratford and picking up the Grand Union at Kingswood Junction; going down the Farmers Bridge flight, turning right for the Grand Union all the way from the Digbeth Branch; or going straight on from the Farmers Bridge flight for the Birmingham and Fazeley, Coventry and North Oxford route.  The middle option was easily discarded – we are not keen on that route.  Even though the third option would take a day or so longer than the first, we opted for that, though later on in the day we questioned our judgement!  We entered Farmers Bridge top lock at 8.30.  The scaffolding (for replacing faulty cladding) that was on many buildings for what seemed like years had all gone, but yet more was being erected near the top of the flight.

Cheery scaffolders, though they didn’t hang about for a photo-op

To start with, the locks were either ready for us or nearly so, and they are mostly so close together that it is easy to lock ahead.

Cool and shady in the canyon between the office blocks

In the bottom half of the flight is one of the nastiest locks on the system.  It is entirely under a bridge with a building rising up over it, we can’t quite remember what is up there though we have been through it numerous times.  It is deep, dark, noisy and echoing and there are railings along the towpath edge as the roof is low.  But the worst bit is the offside bottom paddle.

The offside paddle is hard to see against the graffiti

It is only accessible across the bottom gate, and although there is enough space to operate it safely it feels dangerous.  At least the gate is a single, not a mitred pair, so you can lower the paddle and walk across back to the safety of the towpath side before you open the gate.  If you were afraid of heights, you wouldn’t want to do this one.  With two locks to go, the first volunteer arrived and walked on to set the last two locks for us, before going back to help a single-hander.  We had a short rest as we cruised to the top of the Aston flight.  Half an hour earlier, a cyclist had warned us there was an empty pound a few locks down.  He had reported it, but we arrived there before CRT. 

Water level way down

I started letting water down, leaving Dave in the lock above.  Several of the pounds have a wide section like this one, so I didn’t think there was a risk of the pound above getting too low.  A CRT chap arrived about 10 minutes later, and showed us how to let water through a lock with a boat in it – start with a full lock, leave one top paddle open, open the bottom two half-way, and wait.  The lock stays full, the water  stays fairly calm and slowly, slowly the water level below rises.  After a while he closed the top paddle and we were able to carry on down as normal.

Going down at last, CRT in attendance

Apparently there was a boat coming down behind us, though we didn’t see it till we were nearly at the bottom lock.

I wonder if the thimble mill made other items too?

I was very hot by now, as the locks are hard work and there was a lot of walking.  At the final lock the offside ground paddle delivered a fountain right into my face – cooling, but I’m not sure canal water is recommended as a face wash!  We stopped at the lovely-sounding but grotty Cuckoo Wharf to take on water and dispose of rubbish (no recycling) and thought, it’s only lunchtime, should we go round to Star City and stop, or should we crack on towards Curdworth?  We went on.

Ornamental balustrade across the river Tame, below Spaghetti Junction

We had lunch on the move, then moored on the bollards at Butler’s bridge in deep and welcome shade, where it would be safe to leave Jess aboard while we went up to Lidl.  We were half-tempted to stay on the mooring as it was so cool, but it was right under the flight path to the airport as well as near a busy road, so on we went.  The top Minworth locks were against us, and at the second I couldn’t get the bottom gate even half open – we had the same problem last year.  I asked a passing walker if he could lend me some muscle and between us we got it open.  He even stayed to make sure I could close it again, which was very kind of him.  Finally we were approaching the bottom lock, with another boat emerging, hurray!  Below this lock is one of the best conker trees on the system.

In full candle

We moored not much further on, before Minworth Green bridge.  Not surprisingly we didn’t feel like cooking!  The Boat wasn’t doing food, and worse, had no bitter, but a couple of drinkers directed us further down the canal to the Hare and Hounds.  That didn’t have bitter either, but Guiness and Peroni would do while we perused the menu.  It’s a busy road-house with attached Fuzzy Ed’s Funhouse soft play, and full of young families having their tea.  When we realised the wait for food was well over an hour we went back to the boat and had a fry-up, delicious!

About 8 miles, 27 heavy locks, 8 hours including the trip to Lidl, quite enough for one day thank you very much.  And more to come tomorrow.