The moorings at Aston Business Park were really quiet, apart from the fact that the boater behind us thought 1am was a suitable time to split kindling and chop logs. We could hardly believe what we were hearing. Last night, a boat heading our way arrived and also moored there, so with loads of locks to do we thought we should probably get ourselves organised and away this morning. Consequently we slipped out of our space at just before 8, and a few minutes later were entering the next of the Aston Locks.
We had eight locks of the flight left to do, and they were all in our favour which speeded things up. We were going into the top lock at 9.
We had a brief pause here so Macc could come out and go to the loo, as grassy areas are in short supply up the Farmer’s Bridge Locks.
There’s a brief respite between the two flights, maybe ten minutes or so, when we switched to the diesel engine having done the locks on electric. I rather liked this turret-like building which must have been here before but which I don’t remember. In small print underneath it says it was a flour mill, 1868 (ish) – 1904 (maybe)!
I’d steered the Aston Locks so we swapped over for Farmer’s Bridge. The first couple of locks were full and needed emptying. The mural at the bottom lock has been there for as long as I can remember, and has survived really well.
Very shortly the BT Tower begins to dominate.
At the lock that’s almost right under the tower, we had trouble getting out because the pound above was so short of water. Fortunately a couple of volunteer lock keepers had turned up litter picking, and were only too pleased to swap to working locks. They ran some water down and eventually we got out.
The next lock is right under a bridge, and really isn’t very pleasant. One lockie stayed with us while the second set all the locks right up to the top. The Islington Footbridge, which has been closed for years because the deck was rotting away, is being done up. The painters have a pontoon underneath.
The lockies had warned them we were coming, so as we rose in the lock they moved it out of the way. This involved untying a strap from the bridge and throwing it to a man on bank so he could pull the pontoon round — but it took several attempts before they managed it. Once the pontoon was moved, the guys on board disappeared for a tea break.
It’s good the bridge is being repaired because it’s a useful short cut and it had been looking decidedly worse for wear. One of the lockies reckoned it had been closed for about ten years. With every lock open and waiting for us we flew up the flight and were soon nearing the top.
An American family were keen to watch the boat rise in the penultimate lock, and the kids pushed and pulled the gate. At the top, we thanked our helpers who were then setting off to help a hire boat down, once they’d filled with water. We pulled in in front of them, mostly to get rid of rubbish because we haven’t seen a bin since Fradley. We thought we might top up the tank and there are two taps there, but having connected the hosepipe and turned on the tap the water only trickled out so we didn’t bother. We weren’t in any great need. Adrian walked round to check out the mooring situation, while I brought the boat through Old Turn Junction.
There was a space on the sunny side of the Main Line, just beyond a cafe boat and an ice cream boat. The bollards are always the wrong distance apart, so we’re quite close to the boat ahead (which we also saw at Fradley and the bottom of the Curdworth Locks).
After lunch, I walked into town to do some banking for my dad and to do a first shop at Tesco. On the way, there was a protest about the ongoing bin dispute.
When I got back, Adrian went for a wander into town; we can’t go together these days because Macc is still too young to walk very far. It’s been really warm and we were also a bit concerned he wasn’t drinking enough. You can’t make a dog drink, so he’s had some ice cubes that he seemed to like licking and crunching on. Since we got here, the solar panels have been going great guns, so the batteries are higher at 4pm than they were when we set off this morning.
2 miles, 21 locks. (82 miles, 74 locks)