It was cold and misty this morning.
It actually seemed to get even colder a little later in the morning, because when we were getting ready to leave at about 8.30, there was quite a hard frost on the roof of the boat that didn’t appear to be there earlier.
There was still a bit of mist on the water as we made our way south.
We passed through Coven and then as we went under the M54 we crossed into the West Midlands. It was only when I looked at the map later that I discovered why the bridge is so wide: as well as carrying the motorway, there’s an A road each side too, as this is right near a junction. There’s plenty of graffiti under the bridge too.
Shortly afterwards is the narrow section of Pendeford Rockin’. This is where the stone was so hard to cut through that the canal builders made it wide enough for only one boat, with a couple of passing places.
We didn’t need the passing places because we fortunately didn’t meet anyone coming the other way. As we approached Autherley Junction, I got off at the bridge to check what was going on at the stop lock. Having not seen another moving boat all morning, there was now one in the lock in front of us and one coming north on the Staffs and Worcs, also wanting to turn in. Adrian made the turn and came alongside while I reset the lock.
This lock has a fall of only a couple of inches. The bottom gate doesn’t open fully, and then the hire base just beyond had barely left enough room for a boat to get through.
The Shropshire Union is another new canal for KV, but it’s another one that feels like coming home for us. Debdale was based at Norbury Junction for a while, so we did the Shroppie a lot. We’re now on the canal we’ll be wintering on, although that’s still a good few miles away. We continued past the Wolverhampton Boat Club, and then another couple of narrow sections (although nothing like as long as on the S&W) and then went under the M54 again. The bridge here is much smaller. By road, the two crossings are 1.3 miles apart which would take about a minute by car. By canal, it’s a big V shape of 4 miles and a lock, and had taken us an hour and 20 minutes. The graffiti here is Halloween themed.
There’s another narrow section just before Bridge 6, and a boat coming the other way which hadn’t yet reached the bridge waved us forward. However, he then got stuck in the mud on the offside; I offered to give him a pull but he said he’d be fine — which he was, it just took him a few minutes to get away. We moored up on the rings between Bridges 7 and 8; it’s a nice quiet spot we’ve used before. We can see the other side of the big incinerator place we could also see from last night’s mooring. Having turned north, it seemed cold again so we’ve got the stove going and had soup for lunch. Then I took Macc for a walk along the towpath, which he really enjoyed as most of it was off the lead.
8 miles, 1 lock. (302 miles, 193 locks)