The June Rose: Monday 28 September 2015

As usual when we have stood still for a few days we are always ready to get moving again! We’ve loved Birmingham and have had no problems being moored right in the centre of town, except that it was extremely noisy at night - so for those of us that wake up to every little sound, a good night’s sleep is what is called for!

We have been told that when you leave Birmingham heading for the Grand Union you have to clear the outskirts of town to be able to moor safely so we got up early, emptied the loos, filled the water tank, made a quick visit to Tesco to grab some supplies and we were on our way by 8.10am.

Nice bright morning although it was still a bit chilly when we set off the sun soon warmed up and in the middle of the day it was lovely and hot, then as evening approached it cooled down again.

We got away in front of a couple of hire boats but had no sooner begun Farmers Bridge flight of locks (13) when we caught up with a couple of working boats loaded with diesel, coal and gas. The first of which is engine powered but the second one is a butty that the first one pulls so when going through locks the butty has to be pulled by manpower! Unfortunately they were also heading for the Grand Union so we followed them through the six locks on the Digbeth Branch and the six Camp Hill locks at the start of the Grand Union. In fact when the first boat entered the first lock it was so heavy that it was grounding out on the cill so they had to off-load some of the weight in order to get it into the lock which caused a hold up of about an hour. By this time there were about 6 of us waiting to get through the locks!

Once we cleared the locks they had a problem with their prop so we were able to pass them. There were no more locks but we still had another eight miles to go before we reached our destination for the night. As you leave the City centre you feel the mood change and whilst it is ok in the day time you wouldn’t want to moor overnight, once we cleared the outskirts the canal has high banks covered in trees so we were unable to see our surroundings and in the shade it was pretty cold. We could hear Birmingham Airport which was only a couple of miles away, according to the book, but we couldn’t see the planes! Eventually we turned the corner and arrived in a village called Catherine De Barnes where there are several moored boats facing both directions who have stopped here for the night. We are in the Solihull area near Hampton in Arden. We reached our destination at about 5.45pm. A quiet night in and an early night!

Heading for Fazeley and there is another one of the glitter balls - they must have had a boat to put this here as this sign is on an island in the middle of the canal!

Saying goodbye to Birmingham.

Reminders of home (well work anyway!)

BT Tower from Farmers Bridge flight of locks.

Banksy or stensil?

Another reminder of work - it's just like being in the City!

Leaving the City Centre behind.

Shame about all the graffiti.

Steve leaving the windlass where he shouldn't...

I'm in this tunnel alone - Steve has gone ahead to set the lock.

That's Debenhams peeping out from behind the buildings!

There's the Grand Union on our left!

Anyone for a cuppa!

The working boats - stuck on the cill trying to get into the lock!

Some more "not sure what they are birds" - there were three caravans parked on this verge - when I took the photo I didn't realise they were feeding from a bowl - obviously being fattened up for dinner!