Crew - Graham and Brenda
Fruit of the day - Damsons

After an enjoyable evening spent in the Navigation Inn, we were dismayed to awake to cold grey skies this morning. We reversed back to Kingswood junction and turned left towards the Stratford canal. I eased Jannock through the narrow ex-lock and then swung her right round to moor up at the water point to fill the tank. We then set off down through the 18 locks passing through some very pleasant countryside, what a delightful canal, especially as the sun had come out and was very pleasant. Shame about the strong wind that accompanied it, this became Brenda's excuse for the occasional bump when entering locks. She returned from her trip to the Lawsonford rubbish skip loaded up with damsons. The closeness of the locks enforced a lunch break in a pretty sunlit wood. It made sandwiches taste all the better.

Some of the barrel roofed lock cottages have been converted into very desirable residences along this stretch. At one of the locks near Preston Bagot a duck waddled up to the lock wall adjacient to where Brenda was stood on the rear deck and started quacking at her. She engaged it in conversation and it kept quacking back as if it understood what she was saying.
We stopped just after Wooton Warren aquaduct and picked some off-side blackberries for our tea. Another excuse for the poor quality of steering was a prop full of fishing line which G. spent ages untangling. It caught all of the early autumn fallout. We finally moored for the night in the countryside between 57 and 58. We should make it to Stratford tomorrow.

Crew - Graham and Brenda
Fruit of the day - Yellow Plums

We left our peaceful rural overnight mooring and travelled the one and a half miles to the first lock of the day where we were second in the queue to descend. We then started the 16 lock descent down into Stratford and I soon found that I was helping both the boat in front as well as the one behind.
When we passed the Stratford Court base I was amazed at the number of craft not in use.
We arrived at Bancroft basin and tied up on a pontoon mooring and immediately had a drink with the crew of Blue Moon, the boat that had been travelling down the locks in front of us. We amused ourselves by spending most of the afternoon watching the tourists trying to climb onto the boats to have their photos taken. We went shopping in Stratford this afternoon and went for an Avon bank walk this evening.

Crew - Graham and Brenda
No fruit today as we are still inundated with the last three days worth.

We awoke this morning to the sound of boats departing from the basin. Brenda went off to do some more re-provisioning in Stratford whilst I did an oil and filter change on Jannock.
When she returned we invited our neighbours in for coffee before deciding to head north again to Wilmcote. We set off up the first three locks with me cycling ahead to set the next whilst Brenda brought Jannock up the current lock. As we left the second lock I found that a South African hire boater had closed the paddle and turned the next lock against us, not very friendly as it was almost empty when I had opened the paddle. I explained to him about the importance of checking that no one was approaching before turning a lock and got an appology from him.
On arrival at Wilmcote we walked down past Mary Arden's house and used Mary Arden's village shop as well as testing Mary Arden's pub and decided to return to the latter for an evening meal. No fruit today as we are still inundated with the last three days worth.

Crew - Graham and Brenda
Fruit of the day - Blackberries and Apples

Last nights meal in the Mary Arden Inn was superb. Consequently we awoke late this morning and had a very leisurely start after inventing the traditional boaters breakfast of 'scumbled eggs'.
Brenda decided that feeding the toast she burnt, whilst preparing said breakfast, to the ducks actually reduced our carbon footprint because we were locking up said carbon in said ducks!
We finally set off at 10:15 and almost immediately stopped to pick apples from an offside tree. They we obviously cooking apples as they didn't taste as good as they looked so the hunt was then on for some blackberries to accompany them. We were passed by two other boats as we harvested blackberries from another offside bush.
We continued on to Wooten Warren where we stopped for a pumpout at the Anglo Welsh base. Not cheap at £16.00 but I have not found anywhere suitable for a self pumpout on this stretch. The AW lad who serviced our needs was excellent and told us that they used a Swarfiga product to clean the boats. He then let is have a sample as we didn't want any blue added to the tank.

After visiting the very disappointing craft farm there, we left Wooten Warren and headed north to Preston Bagot where we stopped above the second lock. I then cleaned Jannock's roof with the recommended product and was well impressed with the result, so much so that I then proceded to completely repaint the roof as well due to there being plenty of sunshine and no wind or overhanging trees. Meanwhile Brenda created a superb apple and BlackBerry pie for dessert after our dinner. I have placed the baited crayfish net into the river that runs beside lock 37 to see if I can catch any. Might have more local produce for dinner tomorrow night if we're lucky. Visited the Crabmill this evening, expensive posh food but an excellent local beer, UBU by the Purity Brewing Company at Wooton Warren. Superb!

Crew - Graham and Brenda

Well, I must have discovered the only river in the UK that doesn't have any crayfish in it! Oh well, better luck next time. This morning we awoke to our first really grey day. We set off towards Kingswood and it even started raining for about 5 minutes, not long enough to get really wet but we did don coats believing it was going to last longer. The journey was fairly un-eventful making it to the Navigation 14 day moorings by 2 PM. Brenda created lunch, a veritable feast of last nights leftovers, before I spent a couple of hours `ackling`. I did a Di Blasi run back to get the car and then, whilst we were eating our evening meal, we were treated to a wonderful flying display by a whole squadron of bats immediately outside our window. Day trip to Warwick tomorrow before going to Blue Lias in the evening.

Crew - Graham and Brenda

We awoke to a fine sunny morning and so after breakfast we went to Warwick in the car. Did the market and hit Sainsbury's on the way back and returned to Jannock for lunch.
After lunch I reversed Jannock the 300m to the winding point, winded and then reversed back to the mooring we started from. This was to give me access to the starboard side for paint maintenance purposes.
We went to Blue Lias this evening to attend the GiG there. A great evening as usual, with another play wot Bill wrote acted out by true amateurs. He brought the house down by announcing that he had to go and rescue "pissy up a true." They don't write em like that any more.

Crew - Graham and Brenda

We arrived at Jannock after 10am and then moved her round through the Lapworth link lock into lock 19 where we ascended using a single paddle whilst I unloaded our stuff and the Di Blasi from the car in the adjacent carpark. Once loaded we set of up the Lapworth locks following "the Andrew" (now in private hands having been decommissioned by the Navy) We were tail end Charlie of a group of 5 boats heading up and we only met 2 boats descending the flight. I managed to say hello to Neil R. as we passed his boat.
At Warings Green we met a hireboat whose crew wished to moor for a visit to the Blue Bell Cider House, it was a pity that we were actually in the place they wanted to moor and they did not appear to understand that they would have to move out of our way before we could grant them access to their desired mooring place. Their steerer successfully got his bows to miss us but forgot his stern and subsequently gave us a hefty clout. We suspect from all the cans and bottles evident on the boat roof that a visit to a hostelry will only make matters worse.
We finally moored for the night near the winding point before Shirley ready for an early passage through to Kings Norton junction tomorrow and dined on a beef stew created in the trusty slow cooker.

Crew - Graham and Brenda

We rose early and set off just after 8:15, immediately passed through the Shirley lift bridge and then breakfasted on the move in two shifts. The beauty about cruising this stretch early on a Sunday morning is most of the local oiks are still abed. However we did pass through all manner of flotsam and jetsam between Shirley and Kings Norton which served as evidence of their existence. Passed Blue Moon moored at Lions boatyard, obviously occupied (unlocked) but no sign of life. We turned south at the junction and headed for Wasts Hill tunnel. The damp state of the Northbound craft prompted me to don my waterproof jacket and Brenda to take up her normal position in the bows armed with a whistle. We have a system, you see, when there is a lot of water coming from the roof she blows the whistle from inside the open front door and I then take avoiding action so that I do not cop the lot whilst stood prone on the rear deck. It works well and generally takes about six seconds after the whistle for the downpour to appear at the blunt end.

We met two Northbound boats inside the tunnel, the first had his solid fuel stove working that filled the tunnel with thick acrid smoke, I'm glad I wasn't steering his boat as the draught would have been blowing it all in his face for the entire tunnel. When we appeared out of the southern portal the sky was a lot darker than when we'd entered 30 minutes beforehand.
We took on water before the bridge at Hopwood and then decided to visit the Hopwood Arms for lunch. This establishment has been completely re-furbished since my last visit having no separate bars any more and concentrating on being a food pub instead. It was heaving with customers today. Luckily Brenda found an empty table whilst I got the drinks, so we ordered our food soon after we sat down. It was almost an hour before the food arrived but it was very well prepared for pub grub, Brenda said that it was the best cooked steak she'd had for a long time. On completion of the main course we enquired of the waitress how long a dessert order was taking until delivery and she replied 10 minutes. Ok, so we ordered a dessert but got up and cancelled the order after waiting for 25 minutes, I paid for the main course and we left. The waiter accepting payment stated "I've just been into the kitchen and we're two chefs short today". That's funny because I'd just spent almost two hours watching him go in and out of the kitchen since we'd arrived.

Crew - Graham and Brenda

As we boarded the weather began to improve dramatically.
A short, quiet chug took us to central Birmingham. We moored outside the National Indoor Arena. For supper we went along Broad St. and had a delicious meal at Bombay Mix. The breads were so light, and fruit cocktail in the rice was delicious, believe it or not. We did wonder what the cuisine would be like at Bombay Mick' s. Then onto the Tap and Spile for a restorative pint and a sit down. We needed it after having negotiated the crowds in party central: the pink fluffy cowboy hats, the deeley boppers, killer stilettos, star spangled hotpants and a Union Flag tutu.... hang on, that's all girls! We weren't much impressed by the many stretched limos and the pink humvee, BUT we rather fancied the vehicle operated by The Red Hot Limo. Co.
How cool to be delivered to an event by a disco-fied fire engine complete with hunky crew? Now, about that sit down...

Crew - Graham and Brenda

We set off after breakfast along the mianline towards Smethwick junction where we locked up the three locks with the assistance of a local who brought his own windlass. He advised us against taking Jannock down the engine branch as he said the residential moorers down the end were not very visitor friendly. We continued past the pumping station, through Summit tunnel and then under the M5 towards Oldbury junction.
Note to self :- remember this route for when it's raining as you spend a lot of time under the canopy of the motorway and it is far less boring than the new mainline.

As we continued along the old mainline I was amazed at how clear the water is. You can easily see all the fish, shopping trollies, motorscooters, bicycles and sometimes the canal bed as you are passing along.
At Tipton junction we turned into the Blackcountry museum but soon reversed out again as there was a boat rally there and the arm was full. Down to factory junction where we turned right and descended the 3 locks onto the new mainline. At Pudding Green junction we turned into the Wednesbury Old Canal and then forked right into the Ridgeacre branch above Ryders Green locks.

The water up here was a vivid green colour with black and orange sludge fetched up as we passed. It got very narrow and shallow before Swan bridge but we winded at the head of navigation and returned along a very much smellier canal. Good job Brenda has got a 'Basingstoke Airfreshener curry' cooking in the slow cooker in the rear cabin, it did exactly the same job with the Ridgeacre smell as it did with the Basy last year.
We arrived back at the NIA at 5pm ready to receive visitors in the evening.

Crew - Graham, Brenda, Don and Pat

Our guests stayed the night and so we planned today as a guest entertainment sort of a day. We set off around the Oozells St. loop and then followed that with a trip around Icknield Port loop (can you see the Heron in the photo, right) followed by the Soho Loop. As we were completing the last, Brenda and Pat commented that they liked the stately home in the park, until we pointed out to them that they were looking at part of Winson Green prison, then they changed their minds. Back into Brum to moor once again and walk to China town for a wonderful 'eat as much as you like' lunch for under a fiver a head.

Then the girls hit the market and came back with the EEC beef and lamb mountain. Luckily, our guests agreed to take the haul home with them and freeze it for us until we arrive back. Setting off towards Braunston tomorrow ready for blacking next weekend.

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