Up! 12th May 2026

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 because the bridges dont have numbers:
 Before long the vollie reappeared, reported that all was now well and the pound was refilling nicely, and then he joined our crew! What an amazing help. With two of us, one could go ahead and prepare the next lock while the other stayed down to close up the lock we had just used. It really sped the process up.

As we went along, we mentioned that we were planning on stopping at Farmers Hill before continuing up the Delph locks in the morning. Cue much shaking of head and sucking of teeth. That's a rough area, was the opinion. I wouldn't stop there overnight.. much better to go up the Delph locks and stop there.

Ok, so not 16 locks, 24. Here we go again 

And nearing the top

A few hundred yards further and we were at last on a lovely mooring: no roads nearby, rings, cctv. And an absolutely massive shopping centre just down the hill, where we repaired for dinner.

So being a day ahead of schedule, we can loaf about tomorrow and mooch around the Cathedral of Consumerism that is Merry  Hill Shopping Centre. Night all.

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