Birmingham (Aston)

Here I am Rune

Distance 2.9 miles

Total 2379 Locks  106 Tunnels

Running total mileage 3376 miles 

After a few days of leisure in Birmingham City Centre we have now got back on the move again to cover the slightly less salubrious areas that we didn’t get to last time we were here. Today involved a trek down the Farmers flight of locks immediately followed by the Aston flight, so it was 13 locks followed by 11 before we got to our overnight mooring at Cuckoo Wharf. Not much in the way of distance but quite a lot of work! Timewise it took us about 3 ½ hours so compared favourably with the passage through both Hatton and Lapworth flights, particularly as there are more locks involved.

The one display that we went to whilst in the City Centre was an exhibition in the central dedicated to Ernest Shackleton, something of a hero of mine, with a brilliant collection of film and photos taken on his expedition to Antarctica.

Tomorrow the plan will be to go out to Salford Junction which is a section of canal below the M5 motorway and then come back to Birmingham back down the Grand Union Canal to Bordesley  Junction and then back up the Digbeth Branch to Typhoo Wharf and then hopefully moor for the night at the Aston Science park.