Brownhills

Here I am Rune

Distance 5.3miles

Total 757 Locks 28 Tunnels

Running total mileage 1140 miles

Woke up to the first proper frost of the winter, and very attractive it made our mooring appear too (photos). We even had our first ‘icebreaking’ session travelling from our mooring to Pelshall Junction itself. Admittedly the ice wasn’t very thick but we were still breaking it up as we progressed. It was strange how only a short section of canal had frozen, where we were moored didn’t freeze and around Pelshall junction itself hadn’t frozen, just a 100 metre section in between.

Once we had broken our way through the ice, we then went up the Cannock Extension Canal up to its terminus at Norton Canes, it is only 1.5 miles though. Turning the boat there was slightly challenging as it has to be done in the entrance to a boatyard and there is a bit of a shelf under the waterline directly opposite just waiting to break the rudder. We successfully managed it (although I wouldn’t like to do it in a strong wind because there isn’t a lot of space to work with. It was then back to the Wyrley and Essington Canal to take us to our moorings for tonight at Brownhill. This seems quite a good mooring, directly opposite a large Tesco’s and adjacent to all of the facilities (water, rubbish and elsan point) so it is possible that we may stay here for a day or two, particularly as there are no time limit boards up so it is allowed to stay here for up to 14 days.

The one other success of the day was to manage to contact a gas fitter to come out to repair our broken oven. He turned up in double quick time (before we had chance to have lunch after mooring) and had the job done in less than a couple of hours, which included checking our gas system for leaks. Well pleased with the result.

The view towards Pelshall Junction

 

 

 

 

 

The view towards Pelshall works bridge

 Interestingly although both of these pictures show open countyside, there were at one time ironworks around here (Yorks Foundy) but now it has all reverted to nature.