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We took three hours and ten minutes to reach the top and then set off to meet friend Don on "Cranford II", who was waiting for us on his mooring at the Mid Warwickshire Yacht Club. Don cruised along with us and we moored up together on Rowington embankment, where there are wonderful far reaching views. We all ate together on board.
Sunday, 28th September
We stayed on the mooring for another night, and went out to lunch with Don, and Catharine and Mamdooh, our postmen. We had a strange experience at around midnight. We were just getting ready for bed, when I heard voices outside. Where we were moored is a very quiet spot, about a ten minute walk from the nearest road, and I wondered what was happening. Then there was a knock on the side of the boat and I cautiously opened the side hatch a crack. "Police!" said someone outside. I opened the hatch a little wider and it was indeed the police. They were looking for a missing person and gave us a description of who they were looking for, but we couldn't help. It seemed rather late to be knocking....Don had been in bed with the light out, but they still knocked on his boat too.
Monday, 29th September
Don had breakfast with us, and then we said fond farewells and set off north along the Grand Union. It was a glorious day. We turned onto the North Stratford Canal at Kingswood Junction and came up the nineteen locks of the Lapworth Flight. There were quite a few boats coming down, so it made it easier. Trev cycled ahead and prepared the locks for me to steer through.
At the top, we continued on to Dickin's Heath to moor up. Tomorrow we shall go on into Birmingham, as long as the weather isn't too bad. I hear it's set to change.
Tuesday, 30th September
The last day of September, and it certainly feels like Autumn. It was cold and wet as we travelled along today. It's about eleven miles into Birmingham and I spent most of it indoors. It rained most of the way, and as there were no locks, I wasn't needed.
On the way into Birmingham, Catharine sent me a text, to tell me that the Conservative Party Conference is on at the International Conference Centre, right in the middle of Birmingham and there was loads of security. I rang BW who said that there was a security barrier across the canal and all boats were being searched! This was a first for us. We continued on into the city and sure enough, in Gas Street Basin, there was a security barrier floated across the canal, and a policeman on duty. We stopped and he asked me where we were going. I said we wanted to moor outside the National Indoor Arena, where we usually moor. "Well," he said, "to be allowed through the barrier, you'll have to have your boat searched." "OK," we said. So he phoned for "the search team(!)" and we sat and had lunch whilst we waited.
Eventually "the team" arrived, two very pleasant young policeman. One said he just needed to walk through the boat and make sure there was nothing large and ticking on board.............I asked him if would be so kind as to take his boots off--I forgot to tell you we have had a lovely new carpet laid, to replace the wood laminate which made the boat feel like a 21st century modern flat! (but I digress)--and he said he would do it just for me! Wasn't that nice? He didn't find anything large and ticking, so the barrier was untied and we were allowed through--with a police escort!!!!!!!!!! The place was alive with high viz jackets. We then went through another barrier at the other end and moored up.
In the evening we walked into town and saw the film "Mama Mia". Great fun! Meryl Streep is such a versatile actress. Is there anything she can't do? I've seen her in "Kramer vs. Kramer" "Sophie's Choice" "The Devil Wears Prada" and now "Mama Mia". Every one required many different talents. She's brilliant! After the film, we went to the "Tin Tin" Chinese restaurant for a meal, so it was a lovely evening.
Wednesday, 1st October
We left Birmingham this morning and travelled along the Birmingham Main Line Canal, past Winson Green, to Smethwick Junction, where we turned right onto the Wolverhampton Level. This took us up through three locks and over the Birmingham Main Line Canal. Smethwick locks is a pretty green oasis in the midst of an industrial wasteland. If you look at the second picture below, you'll see the unusual hexagonal lock keepers hut, which has been covered with graffiti. On top of the boat, you can also see all of the wood which Trev found as we were coming up from Warwick, some of which he's been sawing some every day, and the coal, ready for the winter.
Usually, when we come up from Birmingham to Wolverhampton, we do it in a day, and it's a very long day. So we decided this time to break our journey in the Black Country Museum, the only place safe to stay overnight on the route. For those of you who've read "The Hobbit" it feels like "The Last Friendly House in the West"! We've only stayed here once before, and we had a warm welcome then, and we had a warm welcome today. Mooring overnight is free, and we are locked in, so we feel secure. Apparently there is a fish and chip shop just round the corner...........We can use our BW key to get in and out. There are lots of visitors here at the museum, and they come along and have a chat. One of them wanted to know if we were running trips! We could have made a bob or two! Trev fetched us fish and chips in the evening, but my fish had a vey peculiar yate, and I couldn't eat it.
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Onward and upward! Here we go again, this time through Wolverhampton and then down the "Wolverhampton 21", twenty-one locks to join the Staffs and Worcs Canal at Aldersley Junction. I'm glad we decided to moor up in the Black Country Museum, as today was quite a long day. We made good progress on the first half of the flight, but then we caught up a boat which was being single handed, and it slowed us down. We took over three hours to do the flight. At the bottom of the flight is Aldersley Junction and we turned left here, passing a fisherman who was very intent on doing something to his line and not speaking to us! His feet were very close to the water, and I said to Trev that we should have created a wash and wet his feet, then he'd have noticed us!
Now we're on the Staffs and Worcs Canal, and we're going to meet friends, including Brenda, an old running friend of Trev's, at Compton. And by "old" I mean long standing! (I once introduced a friend of mine to another friend by saying "This is one of my oldest friends". She went bananas; "How dare you call me old," she said, so now I try to be a little more careful!) We stayed at Compton for two nights, and ate at The Mermaid pub each day, and had a thoroughly good time.
On Friday morning I awoke to hear Trev having a conversation with someone (he's always up ages before me) and he was buying coal from a passing working boat. Thud went the coal on the roof--seven times, that's how many bags he bought. It was all that the carriers had left, they were on their way to buy new stock.
Saturday, 4th, Sunday, 5th October
Today we turned the boat round in the winding hole, and set off back along the Staffs and Worcs Canal, past its junction with the Birmingham Canal Navigations where we came down on Thursday, and on up to Autherley Junction, where we turned left, through the Stop Lock and on to the Shropshire Union Canal. We filled up with water and then ran the gauntlet of 'a misery of fishermen', a term we've coined as the collective noun for a totally uncommunicative section of society! They won't have eye contact, they're always busy tying maggots onto the line as we pass, which seems to require their undivided attention, and the only time they speak is if they think we're going too fast. Needless to say, we don't think we are.................. We once had a complaint from a fisherman because we approached him too quietly and made him jump. "You should sound your horn," he said. Trev said we didn't sound the horn as that seems bad manners to us, and then went on to tell him that there is no pleasing fishermen whatever we do! And it's true; not one of them thanked us this morning for passing slowly by their long line.
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We moored up in Brewood for two nights. The mooring is not one of our favourites, it's in a deep dark cutting and hardly gets any sunlight, nor television or mobile 'phone connection. But the village is pretty and has a friendly feel. People smile and say hello to you in the street. We got some shopping and I had my hair cut, and on Sunday morning Brenda brought her son, daughter-in-law and three year old grandson Leo to see the boat. They are over here on holiday from The States. Then in the evening, Trev's cousin Ann and her husband picked us up and we went out for a meal.
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