We went down the 21 Wolverhampton locks in a mixture of sunshine and torrential showers. Two boats were following us and both had several crew who all pitched in to get the three boats down in about three and half hours. There was a lot of water about, with some of the pounds overflowing over lock gates and towpaths. Jo steered the boat and Robin did the locking as the gates were not easy to get across for scaredy cats. At the bottom of the locks we turned right onto the Staffordshire and Worcester canal (the one we would have come up if we had gone via the river Severn) but very soon made a left turn onto the Shropshire Union. This photo was taken from Aldersley lock at the start of the
Shroppie, as it is affectionately called. It is clearly a very different canal from the industrial one we have been on through Birmingham and its surrounds.
About five minutes after we started up the new canal and taking the photo, it started to rain and tipped it down for a good two hours. It took a while to find a mooring as much of the bank has a nasty ledge. Thankfully supporters of the canal have sponsored a cleared area and a set of rings a mile short of Brewood village. We took shelter there and allowed our very wet captain to get warm and dry. Lots of hire boats have been coming steaming past (making for the pub in the village perhaps!) so it could be an interesting bank holiday weekend. Lets hope the rain stops. Next bigger than a village settlements will be Market Drayton and then Nantwich, both quite a few pages of our map book away!
No comments:
Post a Comment