Birmingham to Croxton Flash

On Friday 11 August Sarah caught a train home and we sailed out of Birmingham on the Birmingham Main Line Canal.  A heron watched us pass from it's perch in a tree.  

The heron watched us from a tree

We were sailing on the 'new' canal constructed to reduce the travelling time by cutting across the loops of the old main line canal.  There were several junctions where remnant loops of the old canal left and then rejoined our waterway.

One of the many junctions with the old main line canal.

There were also a couple of aqueducts linking the old main line to canals heading south. 

One of the aqueducts.  In the background the canal narrows down to allow one boat through, out of sight is a similar channel on the right hand side.  We assumed these islands where built for toll purposes as there were several on the canal.

We found a place to moor away from the industrial areas and the nearest houses were 200 yards away behind some trees on the opposite bank.  What we didn't notice was the large marquee in one of the back gardens and all was quiet until the party started.  The very loud bass vibrated through Brent III and through our heads for most of the night until 11pm.  

The next day we sailed up to Tipton Green Locks where Kev picked up a passenger, 3 year old Josh who clearly thought steering the boat was more fun than walking the dog with his Dad.  Josh rejoined his Dad after the third lock and we continued on a narrower, shallower canal.  We pulled up for the day at Wolverhampton at the top of the 21 Wolverhampton Locks.  

Moored up at Wolverhampton with the top lock in the background

I had a walk around the town and found Wolverhampton had a trail of decorated wolf statues and a collection of smaller versions in the museum. 

Some of the wolves in the museum

On Sunday we were up early to go down the locks.  After the second lock we had an empty pound which didn't take much filling but then a walker told us the long pound between locks 16 and 17 had drained out.  We had to let water down from the locks above it before we could continue and finish the flight.  At Aldersley Junction we turned onto the Staffs & Worc canal heading north and when we moored up it was well away from any houses or marquees.  

During the next 2 days we continued to sail north using early morning starts to avoid the queues at locks.  This section of canal seemed to be very popular with hire boaters sailing in a ring from the Shropshire Union.  

Early morning mist near Tixall

On Wednesday we turned onto the Trent & Mersey at Great Haywood Junction and sailed on to Weston-Upon-Trent where we enjoyed an excellent lunch in the Saracens Head.  The next day we were back in the pub car park, meeting Shaun who was dropping off some deliveries and Little Ted who is going to have a boating holiday.   It has to be said Bess and Brinny weren't overjoyed to see Ted but, unfazed, he soon settled in.

Little Ted enjoying a walk on the towpath

Our journey continued through Stone and on Saturday we arrived at Stoke-on-Trent where our early start enabled us to pull onto the Toby Carvery moorings and enjoy one of their breakfasts.  

On Sunday we sailed up to the Harecastle tunnel and waited for the first passage at 8am. The tunnel is 2926 yards long and is narrow so has one-way traffic.  Before entering the tunnel we had a run through safety and emergency procedures with CRT staff who advised we would be in the tunnel for 40 minutes.  

Waiting for the first passage through Harecastle Tunnel.  The curved black and white bar shows the lowest height restriction in the tunnel.

We were the first in the tunnel with one other narrowboat following; when both boats were in there was a loud roar and rush of air as the fans were switched on.  In the lowest section the uneven tunnel roof closed in on us and I could reach up and touch it with my hand.  Kev doesn't dawdle in tunnels and when we came out at the other end the tunnel-keeper called out to us "that was a nice quick one - 31 minutes".

We almost immediately came to the first lock at Kidsgrove and 5 more followed in quick succession.  They were in our favour and the only boats on the move were travelling in the opposite direction so the locks would continue to be in our favour.  While the going was good we kept going and descended another 8 locks before pulling over. 

During the next 2 days we came down another 17 locks into Middlewich where we stopped briefly for some shopping.  We then continued out into the country and found a quiet place to moor near Croxton Flash.

Our journey from Birmingham to Croxton Flash