It was quite misty and felt a little chilly when we left Tipton at just gone 8am this morning, we had to wind at the entrance to Dudley No 1 Canal and then we were on our way, passing our mooring and waving farewell to our trading neighbours on Sparks. On reaching Factory Junction we turned left heading for Wolverhampton.
We reached Coseley Tunnel still in the mist and wrapped up in woolley hats and gloves. The work they have done to the landslide area looks great, although we understand the local kids do like to stand at the top and throw stones down at the boats, luckily we were going through to early to experience this.
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| Coseley Tunnel in the mist |
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| This is where the landslide happened |
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| And the other side |
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| We passed this swan nesting in the reeds |
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| Looks a nice conversion of this old building |
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| Multi-storey car park on top of Wolverhampton Tunnel, which isn't more than a huge bridge |
On reaching Horseley Fields Junction at Wolverhampton we kept left to stay on the Mainline, then a quick stop at Broad Street Basin to drop the rubbish, James also conjured up a lovely bruch to see us through the locks.
We were soon on our way down the Wolverhapton 21, we met several boats coming up but no sign of any in front or behind us going down. As we decesended the flight the weather cleared and we had brilliant blue sky and sunshine for the rest of the journey. At lock 8 we took a closer look at the area around the ground paddle and think James' incident Link in November 2013 was due to the very worn coping stone being icy. We managed the 21 in just over 3 hours this time and without incident.
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| Wolverhampton Top Lock |
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| The bottom gates have seen better days |
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| The coping stone at Lock 8 has seen a lot of use |
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| Wouldn't fancy being on this scaffolding |
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| Waiting at the lock for James and LJ |
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| Noticed this fog swimming around in the bottom lock |
On reaching Aldersley Junction we turned right and left the Birmingham Canal Navigations onto the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal. It was a very long boating day for us, but it was very enjoyable and a fantastic Spring day. It's lovely to be back out in the countryside again.
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| This section of canal is cut out of the rock, we'd just been though a really narrow section |
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| Nice to see the open countryside again, especially as it was sunny |
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| Strange bridge name |
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| And finally mooring in Gailey, we managed to squeeze onto the visitor mooring above the lock |
15 miles and 21 locks
Total 125 miles and 140 locks
Wow guys that's some good totals for a days cruising hats off to you both.
ReplyDeleteWe had an incredible sunny day down here in the south west up on the K&A.