Hi Folks, We spent the night above the Wolverhampton 21, and then in the morning Mum and I rode back down the flight on the two folding bikes we have on board. There were a few boats in the flight, but many seemed to be waiting or messing around! I overheard what would have been the first boat up the flight saying it took them 3 hours to get up - the boater they were talking to (about to go down) thought that was good! There were several "helpers" on the flight, but it seems they didn't bother to tell the boats coming down to leave the bottom gates open, so more work for people.
When we reached the car Sue Day with a horse (not sure of it's name) was just joining the towpath. They were walking up the 21, and then picking up Kildare to take her back to the Black Country Museum. When we got back to the top President who was moored on the opposite side of the canal had already gone, leaving their "butty" boat behind. We had plenty of time, as we only needed to get back to the Lichfield Boat Club where we are leaving the boat for awhile ready for the Jam 'Ole Run later in October. I wanted to do some of the lesser used bits of the BCN so we ended up going down the Wyrley and Essington Canal. There wasn't much depth, and we pulled up a plume of silt and other debris behind us. We weren't even making 3 mph, and some of the worst bits we were crawling along at 2 mph, but we did make steady progress. We met a fisherman who asked if there were any more boats, I said I didn't know, but I didn't think there would be. Apperantly he had to give up fishing yesterday as there were so many boats! We reached the Walsall Canal, and dropped the 8 locks. We had a look at the basin, and got asked by a fisherman on the branch if we were coming back again. I said yes, to which he didn't look too pleased. He looked a little more happy on our return as he caught a huge fish just before we reached them, though he didn't even look in our direction - it's alright, it's a free service we provide! (For those that don't know, canal boats push a "bow wave" of fish in front of them as well). After clearing the weedhatch further down the arm, there didn't much point before, but now we were on a more used section we had much less problem with rubbish. It was getting late by now, so we decided to stop in the Ocker Hill Tunnel branch. There are some moorings in the arm behind security fencing. The gate is normally open until 7pm, but it isn't on a BW key so you would need to gain the attention of one of the residents there. The visitor moorings are on the BW office side. We walked up to find the shops but they are a bit of a walk, so we gave up at the Chip shop! We got two Birmingham sized portion of chips (massive), Dad had the fish, and I had sausage and mushy peas. Cheers, Mike -- Michael Askin http://shoestring_DOT_zapto_DOT_org/
