Narrowboat Vegvisir

A quiet night was spent, with no rogues appearing to take an interest in us overnight. Andrew having clocked that I was having a tussle opening a can of beans, rushed off in dawn's early light to be outside a hardware shop as it opened, to get a new tin opener. I had coffee ready for his return, and then away we went down the Dudley No. 2 canal, right to the current end of navigation at Hawne Basin. Originally it connected to the Worcester and Birmingham canal but mining subsidence caused the closure of the through route. Even so, there is one tunnel,  (You can just see the exit as a tiny pinprick of light ) with a section in the middle where it's drooped. Not so low that I needed to get  off my steering step though. And into the basin, through a very low and narrow bridge.  I dipped out of doing that and let Andrew take over. Onto the wharf, for diesel,  pump out, water, and laundry. Then onto a mooring for the night, and long, ho...

So here is our mooring spot And just beyond that bridge was this; A swirling maelstrom of cars and people, a shock to the system, I can tell you. What is out of view to the left is the new Metro tramline being built. Heavy duty steel piling being sunk into the hillside.   We ventured down on  the evening of 12th, because we had a CO monitor to replace, and my airbed was not holding air, so we figured we'd get a replacement which if also unsatisfactory we could bring back for a refund next morning.  And we has a meal at wagamama: first time for both of us and really good. The weather in the morning was very unsettled, so we treated the exploration as our daily exercise, keeping the wall to our right to make sure we inspected everything, but mostly maintaining a brisk pace. The airbed was a success, hurray! But I was tempted by some Skechers shoes and a fleece, and then it was lunchtime.. Ask Italian, also really good. Back to the boat to digest and ...

Up and busy this morning,  after a disturbed night. There was a fox shrieking its way along the canal, which was fine, except that our neighbouring boat left their dogs outside overnight. The dogs took exception to the fox and started barking right outside of our boat. Their owners took something like 30 minutes to respond and a other 10 minutes of faffing to calm them down. The plan was to get up the 16 locks of Stourbridge flight before the rain showers forecast for midday, so we were unmoored by 8.20am. Well, it's early for us. No sooner had we arrived at the bottom of the flight, than concerned locals were telling us the canal was empty further up. A CRT volunteer (vollie) came past and said he'd go and have a look, but that we should also report the issue. So we did, and carried on uphill, passing the Glass Museum on our way. No time to  stop though! The locks were very closely spaced. And you can tell we are on the Birmingham canals be...

Well the sun is out, mostly, but the wind has turned chilly, so it's on with layers for my turn at the tiller. We dropped another couple of locks and filled the water tank.. 100 litres taken on. After a couple of hours we were at the junction Making a sharp turn left. And straight into a flight of four locks. I messed around in the middle while waiting for the crew to get the first one ready. Once in, it all went smoothly.  It made quite a change to see the locks from below. Lovely view looking back: And in fact the whole canal was eye candy, all the way along. And In a short while we came to the junction for the Stourbridge Arm. Sunday afternoon and the towpath was busy with people taking the air. And as we headed into town, you would think we were still in deep country.   Went as far as we could, turned at the end, back a couple of hundred metres, and moored up. A...

We enjoyed our allotment mooring so much that we stayed for a second night. Andrew had an Amazon order to collect from the post office nearby, and we needed a hardware shop. But there was also sightseeing to do. Local magnate Thomas Bantock had bought a perfectly ordinary farmhouse and transformed it into a mansion with grounds. His son inherited, and had 6 daughters, none of whom wanted the place. So on his death he gave to the Council, as you do. We were advised that all the furniture could be used unless marked otherwise, and indeed encouraged to make ourselves feel at home. So there's Andrew, snug beside a Hobbit fireplace. After such grandeur, we decided to treat ourselves to an upscale Italian restaurant just a few metres from our mooring, which was most enjoyable.  Next morning, we had deal with a downside of boat  life. The loo had been blocking increasingly often, and it was time to take action. I will draw a veil over what Andrew h...