Birmingham

Here I am Rune

Distance  11.8 miles

Total 3447 Locks  194 Tunnels

Running total mileage 5007.5 miles

After nearly 3 weeks on our mooring, we are back out on the move again, back into the centre of Birmingham again. A fairly straightforward trip with probably the easiest passage through Gosty Tunnel that we’ve ever had, just a few leaves around the prop as we entered the tunnel and that was it. Slightly more concerning was when we came to moor up in Birmingham when something wrapped itself around the prop as I tried to stop at the mooring. I then had no propulsion either forward or reverse and therefore no steerage either. Fortunately I had slowed down beforehand but we still drifted across the canal and hit a moored boat (gently) as I had no control over the boat. When I went down the weedhatch whatever had caused the problem had dropped off (so will be a problem for someone else) as all I recovered from the prop was a trivial amount of weed and plastic, nothing to account for the complete loss of drive.

Not sure how long we’ll be remaining here, we haven’t got onto the 14 day moorings so we may need to move.

Halesowen

Here I am Rune

Distance  11.8 miles

Total 3447 Locks  191 Tunnels

Running total mileage 4995.7 miles

After mooring in central Birmingham for 6 nights, we’ve moved on today to get to our mooring in Halesowen before the bad weather forecast for Thursday moves in. Having said that we were pestered with pretty strong winds throughout the trip from Birmingham City Centre out here to Halesowen to the degree that I actually looked forward to getting into Gosty Tunnel to get out of the wind for a short while.

The intention now is to be on our mooring until sometime the beginning of next month, so not many updates until October.

Birmingham

Here I am Rune

Distance  5.7 miles

Total 3447 Locks  188 Tunnels

Running total mileage 4983.9 miles

Today was a very pleasant run into Birmingham, I have to say that passing the Cadbury Factory and the University is bar far the best way into Birmingham, other routes in tend to take you through somewhat run-down areas. To make the trip even better, it was sunny for most of the trip as well.

We are now moored near to the Birmingham Arena where we will be staying probably until the beginning of next week.

Kings Norton

Here I am Rune

Distance  10.6 miles

Total 3447 Locks  188 Tunnels

Running total mileage 4978.2 miles

After the trip up Lapworth, today was an easier day for the crew, just three lift bridges to negotiate, one of which was fully automated. The canal has started to get shallower as we’ve come further up which has slowed us down a bit, although, since we aren’t in any rush, that isn’t a problem.

Tomorrow we’ll head off into central Birmingham to moor up for a few days with a few bits to do.