Tyburn to Birmingham. 24 Locks & 1 roundabout.

Waking early this morning to the sound of pouring rain on the roof it was a case of shrugging the shoulders, finding the coats and getting on the move.

An hour later found us under the M6 motorway bridge, this place is bleak, impressive but bleak, bleaker than something very bleak in a bleak place.

This is where the turn is made to head for the city centre, the first set of 11 locks are the Aston flight leading you ever upwards to the famous Farmers Bridge flight of 13.

As a quick observation, all the road bridges along here have these doors cut into them or opening grilles painted red. Absolutely no idea what these are for and cannot even hazard a guess.






Farmers bridge really takes you around the houses and I mean that literally. The flight is like this nearly all the way up, as Adam commented every lock in a different location.








The BT tower was a guiding beacon for most of the way, the last four or five locks saw us eventually get past it.

Then, out of the blue was the sign we had been looking for, we have made it!

D was just that little bit overworked on these flights but as I had made good use of the emergency large whip today as opposed to the normal small one everything worked out just fine.

Once around the roundabout with attendant Goose population and we were at Gas Street Basin.

Hanging baskets everywhere along with throngs of people and trip boats scuttling all around was not quite the picture I had in mind, this is going to be a good stop over.

Best bib and tucker on and we were off out to the city centre, which is exactly the time the rain decided to come down again, only this time it stayed through the evening.

The speed with which a scene can change due to rain is quite staggering, everyone seemed to melt away leaving the trip boats amongst other businesses empty.

Hope its better tomorrow........................................

Curdworth to Tyburn. 3 Locks.





This was yesterday evening which was absolutely glorious, so we did it justice.
Well........It would have been rude not to.

Plan "A"

Today was going to be quite a short day as we wanted to leave our moorings a bit later than usual after a lazy breakfast, do a bit of shopping in the absolutely enormous Asda/Walmart superstore that is around here and move up close ready to do the twenty four locks into Birmingham tomorrow.

Plan "B" came along in the shape of sixty fishermen traipsing past the boat very early indeed and fetching up all along the towpath. We had one on our stern rope and one on our bow as we seemed to be right in the middle of the pegs.

When does the competition start? asked I of the stern rope man, In half an hour says he.

Onward!



When you consider that we are very, very close to the heart of Birmingham, these fields remind me of the American Plains. You just need half a dozen combine harvesters romping along to finish the picture off.





This sign got us both thinking, that is a lock beam and it is on its normal plateau so why would a no parking sign be there? Would it be for a lazy crew member, or perhaps it could be for ..........the P should give it away.




Anyway, we got to the superstore in the end which turned out to be the biggest store we have ever been in, it was so huge it actually took us longer to walk around it than to get to it, and we were moored quite a long way away.

Birmingham City Centre tomorrow, fingers crossed.

Until then....................

Fazeley Junction to Curdworth. 11 Locks and 1 tunnel.

On the move again in the sunshine....hoooooooray.

Made a fairly early start today as I had to reverse Ubique back out onto the Birmingham & Fazeley and up to the BW yard, you don't want loads of boats around when you do something like this.

No boats came past during the morning hours ritual of getting up and eating etc, until, that is, we let the ropes go! three boats came from what seemed to be nowhere so we had to hang on for all we were worth as they charged by.

Off we went only to be met by another two boats coming at us as we emerged from under the bridge, Narrowboat dodgems in reverse this time, the bowthruster proved its worth today.

Isn't this picture the epitome of the worst family snaps.

Right,

You stand by that sign and look natural, Ill take the picture.........say cheeeeese.

Now this is a bit more like it.

The gate has only been closed a little bit and you can see how much that bridge intrudes into the lock. Both chimneys had to come down just to get Ubique in, it was the same story for the next ten.

This small flight was a delight to work through, it had highly kept grass and a planted flower box at each lock. The two and a bit hours it took us to get to the top went in the blink of an eye and we were both a bit surprised when we reached the summit.

Such is the speed of life on the canals.

This is a tunnel, allegedly, oh no it isn't says I, that's a small obstacle.

It was surprisingly tight in there though and there was a huge gouge in the brickwork at the other end where the roof came in very tightly indeed.

This style of Narrowboat always amuses as it looks to me like a cardboard box stuck onto a plank.

The freeboard of the hull is practically non existent and would worry me intensely if I had to get on it.

Plan "C"

We have now decided to go and visit Birmingham's city centre via the Gas Street Basin as we have arrived here far too early for our guests and have got a whole week to kill.

The journey in should take a day or so, give or take the odd day or so....ish.

Until tomorrow....................................