Sunday 8th May
We started off at 8.40, but we have some early birds in our group
(which by the way is 12 boats not 10 as I said earlier). Seven boats left
before we did, but 3 of them went up the Cannock Extension, so we are 5th
in line as we do today’s trip.
We stopped at Brownhills for water and to get rid of rubbish (no recycling!) and soon reached Catshill Junction where we turned on to the Anglesey Branch which is about 2 ½ miles long and leads up towards Chasewater Reservoir but doesn’t quite reach it – in fact, you can’t even see the reservoir from the canal.
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| Anglesey Basin |
Nevertheless, it was worth the journey as it is an attractive stretch of water with good views of the countryside in places. Back we went to Catshill Junction and on to the Daw End Branch. Our destination for tonight is Longwood Boat Club where 12 boats were a snug fit in the available mooring space. We ended up as the middle boat of three.
After a day which had been cloudy and quite chilly, the sun came out and it was much warmer.
We have not had too much trouble with weed today – Steve just cleared
the rubbish after we moored. We decided to go for a walk and discovered that
the Beacon Way ran near by so we had a very pleasant way through Hay Head wood.
During the evening we all gathered in the Boat Club clubhouse for
fish and chips and a quiz. It was an
enjoyable evening enabling us to continue to get to know our travelling
companions.
Today’s miles and locks – 12.25 miles 0 locks
Total miles and locks – 73.00 miles 55 locks
Monday 9th May
After 2 lock-free days, there are the 9 locks of the Rushall
flight to do today and we are on the Rushall Canal as soon as we start off.
A hire boat went past around 7 o’clock – perhaps they had seen us
all moored up and thought they would get a head start on us.
Boats from our group started moving at 7.30, but we didn’t leave until after 8.00 and were 6th or 7th in the fleet. Obviously, it was quite slow going down the flight, as each lock had to be refilled after each boat had gone through, but the weather was fine and everyone helped where they could. We were even joined by Richard Parry (C&RT’s CEO) who had been invited by the Explorer Cruise organisers to come along to get to know this part of the BCN.
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| Happy Families on the Rushall Canal |
The Rushall Canal is very straight, a real contrast after the Wyrley & Essington; it’s not very long, having been built to connect the Daw End Branch to the Tame Valley Canal, which we joined at Rushall Junction. Unlike the contour canals, this one depends on cuttings and embankments to cope with changes in the terrain, before a straight section to Tame Valley Junction and we turned right on to the Walsall Canal (I hope you’re keeping up all these different parts of the BCN!).
Not only does this canal have its fair share of weed, but it is
also very shallow. We didn’t have any real problems, just took things carefully
and slowly.
Just about seven hours after we had started this morning, we
turned into Walsall Town Wharf and moored with the boats which had already
arrived.
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| Walsall Town Wharf |
We had a quiet evening on the boat.
Today’s miles and locks – 12.25 miles 9 locks
Total miles and locks – 85.25 miles 64 locks
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