River Thames Cruise - Week 2

Monday 20th February - Black Country Living Museum to Birmingham

Today we moved the boat from our mooring to the water tap and filled up with water, emptied the rubbish and prepared the boat to cruise to Birmingham.

We returned along the canal towards the Birmingham Main Line Canal and then turned right to go through the Factory Locks.













There are three Factory Locks and we were helped through them by two volunteers, which was a nice surprise.













Each of the locks has a large side pound off to the right.

The canal to Birmingham is long, straight and wide.  This is a  boatyard called Caggy's Boatyard.

This is the turning to the right which we took last autumn to go on down through the Netherton Tunnel.

The M6 looms into sight and then we get to the more built up side of Birmingham.

I do like to see tasteful street art and I thought this looked very good.








Once into Birmingham we saw nbBeefur and waved to them and managed to catch up with Dave and Sue for a chat on the towpath.

I went to have an explore around Birmingham Library, a fascinating building, looking like a fondant fancy!!

From the 3rd floor I took a photo of Dave and Toby, can you spot them?

In the middle and open to the elements is a space for playing table tennis, you can see people studying through the glass windows.

We also had a walk through Gas Street Basin which has working boats and hotel and restaurant boats moored, with some privately owned boats as well.








Tuesday 21st February -  Thursday 23rd February 2017

We have decided to stay in Birmingham for a few days to enable us to explore the city and give myself chance to recover from this nasty cold virus.
Thursday saw the advent of Storm Doris, high winds and rain, which caused much destruction in the city centre.





We found The Real Family bronze sculpture by Gillian Wearing. She invited residents to nominate families they thought best embody the city.  It is of two sisters and their children.
'A nuclear family is one reality but it is one of many and this work celebrates the idea that what constitutes a family should not be fixed.' - Gillian Wearing

The waves on the canal confirmed in our minds that it would not have been safe to cruise in this weather.








Friday 24th February - Birmingham to Catherine de Barnes







We made an early start this morning and went to the left of the island to put on water and begin our descent down 13 locks through Birmingham's centre.

Today it was like a mill pond, how different from yesterday!!!

The canal goes under buildings and railway viaducts, in this case the Post Office Tower building!

The view of the tower as we emerged out the other side.

We turned right on to the Digbeth Branch and went through the Ashted Tunnel - very low and slightly crooked in the middle, I was pleased I didn't scrape the sides of the roof!!














We then passed through new buildings for the University of Birmingham and then turned right again onto The Grand Union Canal.

The stop lock was open on the Grand Union Canal and we cruised straight in.

The next 6 locks carried us up towards Catherine De Barnes and our overnight stop.







These locks were the dirtiest locks we have ever been through.  We had to stop after every lock to clear the weed hatch and before we could get out of the locks we had to clear the rubbish with the boat hooks.  A CaRT worker passed us as we were struggling with the weedhatch and took photos saying he would get a team out to clear the rubbish, too late for us but hopefully in time for another boat.

Just past bridge 89 we came across a tree across the canal, blown down by Storm Doris.  The team were very quick and efficient in removing the tree and chopping it up with their chain saw!







We then proceeded on to Catherine De Barnes and moored up for the night.  This was a really hard day, but left us, strangely, with a great sense of achievement!!

Saturday 25th February - Catherine De Barnes to Knowle

We set off with the intention of cruising down the five locks at Knowle, but we decided to moor up just past bridge 72 to walk into the village of Knowle for supplies and by the time we returned it was pretty windy again and raining, so decided to call it a day and watch the rugby instead!!!




We passed under the M42, Toby enjoyed the view!







Tomorrow we shall tackle the 5 locks at Knowle, our first wide locks on this cruise.

Sunday 26th February - Knowle to Kingswood Junction





Woke up to a much pleasanter morning and made an early start towards the Knowle Locks.  I loved this bright yellow house with red and blue doors









We emptied rubbish and tried to put on water, but the tap sprayed more water on the towpath than in the boat, so soon gave up on that!!




The first of the locks just waiting to descend. The five wide locks used to be six narrow locks until the 1930 improvements, when they were changed into wide locks.  The remains of the narrow locks can still be seen along with the large side ponds.

The locks are quite deep and look out over open countryside.  Crossing the pounds between the locks was a challenge with the wind cutting across and pushing the boat off course.

Ella in the wide lock

We met Trevor, the lock keeper, who helped us down the locks.  The locks are manned all year round and maintained to a high standard.

Coming out the bottom of the locks we then cruised another five miles until we got to Kingswood Junction. 





On the way we passed many fallen trees in the canal, this branch was completely detached from its tree and we were warned about it by a farmer in a tractor.

This was a much larger tree across the canal and we got stuck in the silt on the side of the canal and Dave had to use the pole to push the boat past the tree.








We found another water point just past bridge 66 and filled up with water before mooring up for the night in front of the short branch canal linking the Grand Union Canal and the Stratford Canal.

River Thames Cruise 2017 - Destination Henley-on-Thames

Week 1 -  Overwater Marina to Black Country Museum

Welcome to our 9th cruise aboard nbElla, our plans for this cruise are our most adventurous yet.  We hope to get onto the River Thames as far as Henley, explore the South and North Oxford Canals and some of the Grand Union Canal.  We have allowed ourselves three months at a very leisurely pace.

Monday 13th February - Overwater Marina

Today Dave went down to the marina to meet Tim, the engineer from Bourne Boat Builders. He was going to fit a missing part on the gear lever which allows the engine to disengage from the propeller.  We think it went missing when we had the problem with the gear box oil leak.  Whilst he was there he checked the engine bay and said that the gear box was still leaking oil, and advised us to talk to Beta as it needed a replacement part.
Once he was back at the house we waved goodbye to Lizzie and our granddaughter Bea and set about closing up the house and loading all we needed into the Landrover.
We then drove down to the marina, loaded up the boat and spent our first night in the Marina!

Tuesday 14th February - Overwater Marina to Market Drayton 

Made an early start and prepared the boat for leaving the marina and the longest cruise we have done so far!!  We reversed out of our pontoon, turned the boat and headed out onto the Shropshire Union Canal and turned right heading south towards Audlem.





The canal is very quiet, the weather is cold but bright and a little breezy.  Almost perfect conditions!

The reception block at the marina where a cafe makes the most delicious sandwiches! We shall miss them!









As we approached the first lock Dave walked on ahead to make sure all the locks were open and ready to be worked.  Audlem flight has been closed for a number of weeks with work being carried out on 3 of the 15 locks.  All was good so we began our climb up the locks.






It took us about 2 hours to complete the flight.  We had a couple of boats ahead of us and one behind us.  Many of the boats had been waiting for the flight to open.  







Once through the the flight we headed for the 5 locks at Adderley and met a boat coming down the locks which meant that they were going to be set in our favour and made it much quicker. 








We also passed a solid fuel boat heading towards Audlem.  There are several of these boats on the system and they cruise around delivering fuel to boats on the canal, very convenient!














We then headed through Market Drayton and out the other side to open moorings with views across the fields.  It is one of our favourite moorings and where we shall spend our first night.







Wednesday 15th February - Market Drayton to Norbury Junction

In the morning we waited for the Beta engineer to arrive and he replaced an O ring and said that might do the trick..we shall wait and see!
We soon set off on our way up the Tyrley Locks - I usually approach these with a certain amount of dread as the by waters are so strong and push the boat out of line with the lock, but this time it was quite different and we found the locks a real joy to work our way through!!!

Once through the top lock we passed 'Spirit of Phoebe', the smallest narrowboat I have ever seen!!

At Cheswardine is Wharf Tavern with a large winding hole.  We rarely use the pub as it is not dog friendly and the opening hours are strangely erratic.

It does have an enormous campsite in an adjoining field so I guess it must be camper friendly!!









We carried on to Norbury Junction and as the weather had closed in and Dave had got soaked on the back of the boat we decided to call it a day and moor up for the night.

Thursday 16th February - Norbury to Brewood

Our overnight mooring at Norbury is one of our favourites - the scenery is spectacular, this was the back garden for the night!

We stopped at Gnosall to put on water and I began to give the roof of the boat a bit of a clean.  With the winter came black soot marks from the chimney and green algae, but a scrub with diluted vinegar soon brought it back to new!!










Just outside Gnosall is Cowley Tunnel - a very short tunnel which was originally intended to be much longer. It was opened out during construction in 1831 due to dangerous faults in the rock and leads into a steep narrow cutting through solid rock.

This turnover bridge moves the towpath from one side of the canal to the other and leads into High Onn private moorings.  

The last time we came past here one was for sale, but it has now been sold and a new boat is berthed there.  We were intrigued as to how you could buy a part of the canal bank!!!









We continued to Brewood and moored up next to the Christmas tree like last time, the weather again deteriorated and we found the towpath to be a sea of mud!!  
In the evening we met up with our friends Anne and Steve and enjoyed a catch up and meal at The Crown Joules in Codsall.   

Friday 17th February - Brewood to Bridge 8

We had a very quiet day as we were planning on making a very early start for the Wolverhampton 21 locks tomorrow.  We did essential shopping in Brewood and then moved the boat 40 minutes up the canal to some visitor moorings literally in the middle of nowhere. It is very peaceful and we were 1 of only 2 boats moored up for the night. 





For Christmas my future son-in-law gave me a marquetry keyring holder with our boat name on it.  He made it himself and used different woods to create the stunning effect. A beautiful addition to our boat - thanks Pete!







Saturday 18th February - Bridge 8 to Dudley Black Country Living Museum

We set out early as we had just over an hours cruising time until we got to the start of the Wolverhampton Locks.  Quite a feat for me - 8am, unheard of!!

We arrived at Autherley Junction and had to wait as a sole boater had been waiting for another boat to come along and help him through the lock!  
This is the toll office, now used as a gallery.












We turned right out of the junction and headed towards Aldersley Junction with the BCN (Birmingham Canal Navigations) and the Wolverhampton 21 locks.

Here we met another sole boater who had collected his boat, nb Serenade four days ago from Stourport and was on his way to the Oxford area.  With only four days experience of narrowboating Adrian tackled these locks with the greatest of ease!!

As we glided into our 6th lock, the engine cut out and tiller jammed.  We had picked up a huge piece of wadding around the propeller and it took Dave over half an hour to cut it free.  It filled three bin bags which we left beside a bin, a better place for it than the canal!!

The last three locks and pounds were incredibly low and Dave had to let down extra water as Ella got stuck on the bottom of the canal several times.  This is the first time we have seen a canal as low as this!

 Great excitement as we got through Wolverhampton Top Lock!






We carried on to The Black Country Living Museum, winded the boat and moored up in the secure visitor moorings.  We finally stopped at 4 o'clock, after an 8 hour day and soon settled down for an early night!!

Sunday 19th February - Black Country Living Museum 

Today we have decided to have a quiet day and not go anywhere at all.  Unfortunately I have developed a humdinger of a cold and just need a day to get over it!!  

Our mooring backs on to the north portal of the Dudley Tunnel, and last night it was lit up in an eerie red light.  The tunnel has only one ventilation shaft and powered boats cannot use it.  If your boat will fit, then you can be towed through the tunnel, but Ella is too tall to fit through.











Toby has made new friends, he was put outside so Dave could wash down the stern and the next thing we know he is enjoying a chin rub!!!