Hawne Basin

Here I am Rune

Distance 12 miles

Total 4829 Locks  328 Tunnels

Running total mileage 7,177.8 miles

And our final trip of the year was slowed quite a bit by frozen canal, all the way from Birmingham back to Hawne Basin. In the normal course of events we wouldn’t plough our way through Ice that thick, but we had to get back to the Basin before the weekend so crunched our way through. Fortunately the boat is being blacked next spring so any damage to the balcking can be fixed then, but in all the time we have been cruising, I think that was the thickest ice we have encountered, we were in fact brought to a halt on the Main Line at the bottom of Brades where I had to smash the ice with a pole. It was the one occasion when going through the tunnels was a real pleasure, the only places not iced up.

The closure of the canal was extended to 10.00am today to finish clearing up the pollution incident at Bromford Stop/Spon Lane, it must have been challenging to clear the pollution from a frozen canal, but it certainly looked better than when we passed through en route to Birmingham.

So that’s it for this year, see what next year holds.

 

Birmingham

Here I am Rune

Distance 12 miles

Total 4829 Locks  325 Tunnels

Running total mileage 7,165.8 miles

So, for what will undoubtedly be our final cruise of the year we have headed off…..back into Birmingham! The boat almost knows it’s own way now and we have managed to moor up at my favoured location, although there are actually quite a few boats in Birmingham at the moment. 

Only passed two boats on the way, one in Netherton Tunnel and one below the M5. There is quite a bad pollution incident at Spon Lane and it looks like they are intending to close the canal tomorrow until Thursday to try to clear it up. As luck would have it our intention wasn’t to return until Friday anyway so it doesn’t affect our plans. If it isn’t cleared, there is an alternative, although it is longer and will involve 6 locks. Given how early it gets dark at this time of year, if we have to go back that way we will need to set off earlier.

 

Hawne Basin

Here I am Rune

Distance 12 miles

Total 4829 Locks  322 Tunnels

Running total mileage 7,153.8 miles

Well, instead of only staying until Friday we decided to remain for the weekend although moved between 3 separate visitor moorings in Birmingham. It’s a bit confused there at the moment since they took a lot of the mooring notices down for the Commonwealth Games period and haven’t replaced them so, except for our first mooring outside of Brindley Place, other moorings by the Arena have not time limit on them (other than the standard 14 days). I checked in the CRT Cambrian Wharf office to see what the rules actually were and was told that they remain the same as they always were but ‘we may have a problem with enforcement’ well if the time limt signs have all been removed, I would think they have. To satisfy the rules we stayed at Brindley Plcae for the 2 day limit, moved onto the Arena moorings (supposedly also 2 days) and then onto the 14 day moorings at the end of Oozels Loop by the Roundhouse, so I think we complied OK.

A fairly straightforward trip back to Hawne Basin, I think the boat almost knows it’s own way back here. What the future plans are? We’ll have to see.