Dudley Port

Here I am Rune

Distance 0 miles

Total 777 Locks 28 Tunnels

Running total mileage 1164. miles

Another static day in cruising terms, although I covered a bit of a distance on the bike to get hold of some smokeless fuel from B & M. This was an occasion when I was completely let down by Google which showed a B & M store at Pensnett, just over 4 miles away. When I got there it turns out it was a complete fallacy and there has never been a store there, speaking to a local he directed me to the nearest one which was at Brierley Hill which, had I known, would have involved a far shorter trip than the one I made (round trip of about 11 ¼ miles!). Anyway the upshot is that we now have enough fuel to keep us at least until Christmas, all I need to do now is to get some diesel in and we will be set up for the remainder of the year.

Dudley Port

Here I am Rune

Distance 1.2 miles

Total 777 Locks 28 Tunnels

Running total mileage 1164. miles

As planned we are back at Dudley Port tonight and probably now until Sunday night/Monday morning. It is fairly convenient from here to the supermarket (Tesco’s) and seems a fairly peaceful mooring. I will need to try to find somewhere to source some coal for the fire tomorrow, we are not yet desperate but I would like to get hold of some before we are since it is becoming quite chilly out (but comfortably snug in the boat). When we move on it may be down to the New Main Line and then through Netherton Tunnel to the Dudley Canals and to refuel at Hawne Basin. Once again we are not desperate for fuel but I’d like to get some before we are. I’ll be interested to see what the price of red diesel will be since looking at the pump price for diesel I can’t remember the last time I saw it so low (£1:18.9p per litre at the Tesco filling station).

Black Country Museum

Here I am Rune

Distance 0 miles

Total 777 Locks 28 Tunnels

Running total mileage 1162.8 miles

Once  again a zero mileage day to give us the opportunity to visit the Black Country Museum. Again it was well worth a visit although some of the items presented as ‘history’ I can remember having in my own home as a child, principally a ‘dolly tub’ and ‘posser’ which was used before the days of washing machines. This was followed by the ‘mangle’ which pre-dated the spin drier, so-called a ‘mangle’ because that was pretty much what it did to any zips in the clothing that you happen to put through it to wring out the water.

Had a long an interesting discussion with the owner of a working narrow boat fitted with a Bolinder engine where he related the peculiarities of the Bolinder, too complicated for me I’ll stick with my Lister.

The entry to the museum was through an on line booking which is a bit bizarre since we sat on the mooring directly outside of the museum making the booking  which then gave us an immediate saving of a couple of quid on the entry fee, and by Gift Aiding it we can go back as many times as we like over the next 12 months.

Tomorrow probably back to Dudley Port so we are in a position to stock up for the week-end, I must try to get my hands on some fuel for the fire as well. 

The 'Bottle and Glass' Public House in the museum

Looking back up the main street of the museum

Dudley Tunnel

Here I am Rune

Distance 0 miles

Total 777 Locks 28 Tunnels

Running total mileage 1162.8 miles

As is often the case, we had a change of plan today and instead of visiting the Black Country Museum we decided to take a boat trip into Dudley Tunnel. Now for someone who is travelling the network and passing through a number of tunnels (28 so far), paying to go on a trip boat to look at another tunnel might seem unexpected however Dudley Tunnel (or more correctly Tunnels) is somewhat different. Apparently it was built principally as a means of extracting limestone from the mines and it is a honeycomb of caverns, tunnels and chambers. On this occasion we only went in as far as the ‘Singing Gallery’ but at some future date I wouldn’t mind doing the full 2 hour or 6 hour tour (they don’t run them during the winter). I does look as though Dudley Tunnel is probably the one tunnel that you could actually get lost in.

Tomorrow may be the day to visit the Black Country Museum although in between times I’m also trying to fix the washing machine which has, rather alarmingly, started to emit smoke when spinning!

                                                                          Trip into Dudley Tunnel

Black Country Museum, Dudley

Here I am Rune

Distance 1.3 miles

Total 777 Locks 28 Tunnels

Running total mileage 1162.8 miles

Back to the Black Country Museum, last visited by me in 2004 so I’ll have chance to see what changes there have been. On this occasion it is our intention to travel into Dudley tunnel on one of the electric boats (powered vessels not being allowed into the tunnel). It sounds quite interesting as the tunnel takes you into the limestone mines which the canal was built to take the limestone from. 

Today’s photos are just of the entrance to Dudley tunnel and also of the gaslamps at the entrance to the museum. The lamp in the foreground is of the mantle type whilst the one in the background is just a burning gas flame, having been here all night I can honestly say that neither Gaslamp gives out very much light!

The gaslamps of the Black Country Museum

Dudley Tunnel entrance