intrepid pony: Underground Boating

Heron drying in the sun

under buildings...

...and alongside the elevated M 6

It was a bright sunny morning so the Captain set off at 8.00 to try and beat the heat though the other boat beat him to it by half an hour. However it re-moored before the first Minworth lock. A couple of Indian gentlemen watched us lock up, and asked sensible questions about boats and locking.

They walked on to the next lock and waited for us to cruise up. This time the Captain worked the lock and chatted to them. As they wandered off over a bridge the boat went aground but I steered it back to the middle of the canal.

“This pound is very low”, the Captain muttered and took the helm from me as if I had deliberately steered into shallow water.

Salford Junction

He made it to the jaws of the lock making me jump onto the narrow shelf by the gates. I opened the gates but the boat bottomed out in the mud and stopped. The Captain jumped over to the shelf and pulled the boat through by hand. Without his weight it just floated over the mud and slid into the lock chamber.

“Didn’t realise I had put on that much weight,” the Captain muttered.

We had to empty the lock after we left as water from the lock was seeping into the neighbouring lock cottage. Two ruined sofas stood outside but I wondered how the lock water could have done such damage. Perhaps the cottage had a basement as it stood backing onto a steep hill. However it happened soggy furniture is no laughing matter.

Lottie up on the lock side

We had an easy cruise round to Salford Junction bemused by the vast row of car sales and service buildings. As we eased along the canal a heron was drying his wings only feet from us. Unusually it stayed put while we cruised by almost within touching distance. After we passed the heron dived in and emerged with a fish speared on its beak.

We got an break from the sun by cruising through the basement of our first building. it was like a tunnel only the roof was held up on the left hand side by pillars, between which we could see outside.

Huge boat mural

At Salford Junction we turned... straight into a boat coming across the aqueduct. What a place to meet our second boat of the day. The Captain backed up and let them pass without hitting anything.

Within minutes we met a second boat.

“That means all the locks will be set for us,” I said.

“Unless there is someone ahead of us,” the Captain replied.

New development with fake lock waterfall

The locks were at our level which meant less winding up paddles in the heat. We passed the only mooring on the concrete Aston flight deciding to have lunch between the Aston and Farmers flights giving us just 13 locks in the afternoon heat wave. It was a good decision in one way as we met another boat which reset the leaky locks for us but at several of the locks we were cooked by the blazing sun.

Aston flight

Fortunately other locks hid in the subterranean basements of the tall buildings. At one several men stopped drinking their beer to admire Lottie. She wouldn’t let them stroke her but I saved the day by explaining that she had been mistreated by her first owner,

“Dreadful!” one man exclaimed. “How could anyone mistreat such a lovely dog.”

“Proper man’s dog,” another chap agreed.

The only hazard were cyclists who approached too swiftly for us to recapture Lottie. She however was on her best behaviour neither chasing them or getting in their way.

At the junction with the Digbeth branc

The decision to pass the only mooring on the concrete Aston flight proved to be a mistake. When we tied up at the visitor moorings on the Digbeth branch we found there was a building site next to the rings. Lunch was not as restful as we had hoped as unseen vehicles roared behind the towering fence.

view of B T tower from a lock

into the underworld

staircase to the street

Lottie was suffering with the heat as she had been unable to dip in the canal as she usually does when she wants to cool down, so I wrapped her in a damp towel. After two hours we turned round and rejoined the main canal into Birmingham.

view back from an underground lock

back outside looking back

Thankfully part of the flight was in the building basements which gave us a break from the sun. Unfortunately a boat had gone up the flight so that all the locks needed emptying before we could ascend. It was hot work but we speeded it up by one person preparing the lock ahead while the driver opened the gate and lowered the paddles.

However we passed a hire boat between locks 5 and 6 whose lock operator had left all the bottom gates open. It was handy for us but it would have been tough if a boat had followed them down. She claimed she had been told we were coming up but admitted she found them ever so hard to open. I guess she didn’t want to close them with so far to go.