Monday 4th September 2006
I slept well, but woke up at six o’clock, when no-one else was up. I decided to go for a walk rather than lying in bed, as I’ve found that’s usually much better for me. I got about a mile and a half before the towpath started to get rather overgrown. So I turned around and arrived back just as the others were stirring. Looking at the sky, it was difficult to guess how the day would turn out. There were patches of clear sky but also a fair bit of cloud. Some of that was light cotton-wool type cloud, but there were also some darker clouds that looked a bit threatening.
I saw Nick at the front of the boat as I returned about seven o’clock. It seemed that people generally were stirring. I checked the weed hatch and we prepared to leave, setting off just after five past seven.
There was a winding point just a little way ahead of us. We turned around and went back to Windmill End Junction, then followed the isolated section of the Dudley No. 2 Canal towards towards Hawne Basin. Penny, meanwhile, had got out at Windmill End and run ahead of the boat. She’s going to be doing a sponsored run of ten kilometers and she’s doing a training run every other day. She went back and forth, eventually meeting up with us some way before the Gosty Hill Tunnel.
We reached the tunnel at a quarter past eight and were through it in about ten minutes. It wasn’t long but it made quite an impact. It was quite fun to go through a tunnel so narrow that you don’t have to steer — and so low in places that the helmsman needs to duck. Alan said he found it unpleasantly claustrophobic on the way through, when he wasn’t steering, but he found it was much easier on the way back, when he was steering. You can’t actually steer in so narrow a space, so in theory it shouldn’t make any difference — but there is still a difference in one’s perception.
We got to Hawne Basin at ten to nine, turned around and went back through the tunnel to where we’d started at Netherton.We continued in the same direction as we’d originally been going yesterday, in the direction of Park Head Junction. During the morning, the cloud was gradually increasing. It was also rather chilly.
We got to Park Head Junction about five past eleven and reached the top of Delph Locks just before midday. It took us about three quarters of an hour to complete the flight and we moored just below the flight at just after a quarter to one.
The mooring wasn’t ideal, as we had to use the plank to get off — and then hide it in the bushes, hoping no one would steal it. There was no way, however, that we were going to miss the chance to visit the Bull and Bladder. Penny had insisted from the start that a visit to this pub at some time during the holiday was a ‘non negotiable’ item. It’s easy to see why. The beer, produced at a brewery nearby, is very good indeed — and that includes both the mild and the bitter. What’s even more extraordinary is the food — nothing fancy, but really excellent ... and amazingly cheap. All in all the sort of pub that tempts you to move to Birmingham.
We set off again at twenty to three. The weather was now quite warm; still cloudy but no rain. While Nick was getting us under way, I leaned over at the front of the boat and retreived a float for some anglers, who had got it stuck in a tree.
We had an interesting time with Stourbridge Locks, which we entered about a quarter past three. Some people at the top lock told us that one of the pounds lower down had been emptied by some vandals. There wasn’t anything to be done about this, except to hope that the water coming down the flight would have filled the pound enough for us to get through, by the time we got that far.
The rumours were correct. The pound below lock seven looked as though it had been drained overnight. There was water coming into it from some source over to the side, but the level appeared to be nearly threee feet below normal. As the boat came down the lock, we waited to see if it would ground in the lock. We stood ready to close the sluices immediately if there was any hint of grounding — but in the end it was quite all right. I’d noticed that as the lock was emptying, the level of the pound below rose to a level only about one foot below what was normal. By the time this had happened, if you hadn’t known beforehand, you wouldn’t have known that anything was wrong.
Locks nine and ten were so close together, I thought at first we’d come to a section of staircase lock (photos 2083-4). I wondered whether the tiny space between them qualified as the smallest pound on the system — though I’m told Bratch Locks may beat take the prize in this respect. We also passed the ‘Red House Kiln’ (photos 2088-9) owned and run as a visitor centre by Stuart Crystal glass.
We were through the flight by ten past five. Then we turned left towards Stourbridge. At twenty five to six we reached the town, and stopped to take on water. Just after six, we moved off, turned around at the winding point and came back to take a mooring. It wasn’t easy to find a space big enough for our sixty-nine foot boat. We just managed to squeeze in between two other boats — and I do mean squeeze.
Once we’d got settled we went off for a drink at the Royal Exchange. We enjoyed the beer(from the same brewery as the Bull and Bladder) and also the friendly company. We had supper at an Indian restaurant called Cellars. There was some divergence of opinion amongst us as to the food. Some voted it the best ever; others said it was fairly ordinary. What spoilt it was the terrible long time we had to wait for the food to arrive. None of us are fans of ‘fast food’ — but there are limits! We were all getting a bit tired and irritated by the time the food came, which rather spoilt the meal as a whole.
At least we’d moored quite early, so it was still comfortably before ten o’clock when we got back. Nick says we’ve got about forty locks tomorrow — so we’re going to need a good night’s sleep!