Birmingham City Centre

Here I am Rune

Distance 4 miles

Total 2411 Locks  114 Tunnels

Running total mileage 3404.9 miles 

Since the weather forecast for Monday was rubbish, we remained at Merry Hill until today (Tuesday) and then enjoyed a pleasant, although still very cold, trip from there to Birmingham city centre. Again there were few boats on the move, although interestingly two of the four that we met, were in Netherton Tunnel. Not that it is much of a problem passing in the tunnel as there is plenty of space provided that you move to the right part of the canal. The emphasis on the last bit was because the second boat that we met in the tunnel left it until the very last moment before moving across to the left side of the tunnel so that we could pass left side to left side, as per navigation instructions. My thinking as we approached one another in the tunnel went from,”..it’s OK he’ll move over in a minute…”, through,”…I hope he is going to move over soon…”, to “….for god’s sake will you move over….”. I had to put the boat into neutral and come to an almost stop, partly because I thought that maybe he had a problem with his boat, engine failure, something around the prop or was having to bow haul it from the towpath.  Turns out that there was no noticeable problem other than he just wanted to be on my side of the canal.

Approaching Netherton Tunnel

Not sure how long we will be in the city centre but given the forecast for more rain tomorrow, we won’t be going anywhere until that has passed.