The BMG Federation Committee all arrived at the boat successfully, and we had a very good set of meetings from lunchtime yesterday until lunchtime today. Thanks to one and all.
It was quite fresh in Birmingham today, and we set off at about 1.45pm for a trip towards the south. Canal Plan had suggested as a first offering that we went back down the flight of locks we had come up on Thursday and then turned south to go down some more locks. But the whole journey is projected to be 30 minutes longer if we set off the route we have now followed to go via Edgbaston, Bournville (and Cadbury's) and then turn onto the Stratford Upon Avon canal and go down towards Lapworth where there is a flight of 18 locks! So that's what we have set about to do!
This is the extraordinary building we passed on the corner of our mooring - the big crosses at the top of it are simply decoration and you can see sky through them - I don't know what you call them in architectural terms, they are a sort of stone trellis!
Within half an hour, this was the landscape we were travelling through - that looks warmer than it felt! I needed a gilet and a coat sitting on the back this afternoon.
We went through the Edgbaston tunnel which is only 105 yards long - there have been longer bridges!!
It had a towpath and lights in it, but it only takes boats in one direction at a time, so we had to wait for another boat to come through first. It's quite hard to see at that distance, but it worked for us. The other side of the tunnel you pass Birmingham University and by this time the canal is on quite a high aqueduct which carries it over the A38 and buildings. As you can see we were pretty high up, and there was not much traffic underneath when I took this!
After a couple of hours we came to the junction between the Worcester and Birmingham Canal and the Stratford upon Avon Canal. It was a very sharp turn. This is the view coming into the junction.
And this is the view once we had made the turn of almost 300 degrees to the left. The picture is looking back through the same bridge from the other side. I had needed all that open water to make the boat turn into the new canal.
Not very much further up we came to this very unusual lock - a guillotine lock which was designed to police boats going from the Worcester to the Stratford and to ensure that it was clear that they would pay for the transit into the new canal. As you can see, this lock had guillotine gates at each end, and the lock-keeper was responsible for ensuring that there was at least an inch difference in height between the two canals. They were certainly very litigious at the beginning of the 1800s, and I think the Worcester and Birmingham must have been among the worst.
The canal then wound around a lot, through mostly green swathed canal banks, but with houses visible through the trees in a lot of places. After a lengthy shady bit we came to the Brandwood Tunnel - 352 yards this time and with no towpath or lights! The rather eroded face in the plaque is apparently Shakespeare! I certainly didn't recognise him!
We went a few miles further on, before stopping just after a swing bridge (mechanically operated) so I had the joy of stopping the traffic whilst we went through. We are moored just past the bridge tonight. Chris spent quite a while after we stopped removing white packing bands from around the propellor. Hopefully steering might be easier in the morning. We finished off food left from last night's dinner and then went and had a pint at the local pub - there are very few on this canal, so it seemed a good place to stop. One of the other customers came over and said how sweet we looked, and should she take our photo! I'll leave you to judge.
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