Walsall

Tuesday 30th September

The weather forecast was for rain: it was not wrong! We set off, continuing along the Wyrley and Essington. We opted not to bother with the Cannock Extension, especially as Andrew and Christine had decided to take the longer route via the Walsall Canal and the Main Line. The route remained attractive and rural for a little further - even if much of it was once industrialised but wildderness has now reclaimed it.

At Birchalls Junction we duly turned off onto the Walsall and shortly arrived at the top lock where we completed a 'full service'. (For readers who have not been following us thus far, this means a use of the water point, sanitary station and rubbish bins!)



The locks were easy to work - apart from an odd one out, they all have single bottom gates which makes operation quicker, especially for those who no longer feel able to jump across the gap between two half-open bottom gates. Immediately after the bottom of the flight we turned up the town arm to moor in the basin with 'proper' pontoon visitor moorings, right amongst the shopping area. Entry to the basin itself was initially a bit puzzling as signs stated that a boom was in operation. Initially we thought this meant we could not enter the basin and would have to reverse out to the junction. However, it turned out to be a spring loaded floating boom across the entrance and we surmised that it was to prevent rubblsih being blown into the basin.

We went shopping for several days' food from market vstalls as well as Tesco, for those things we could not find elsewhere. Back to the boat and we took luncvh before setting off. Turning around in the basin proved to be somewhat more of a challenge than expected as a fierce wind was blowing and taking the boat sideways faster than we could move forward in a turning circle!




The Walsall Canal from here southwards was very weedy and progress extremely slow - perhaps only 1 mile an hour. Fortunately we only passed one boat all day as many sections had barely enough room for one boat between the dense weeds either side. Several times we had to stop to clear the prop from tangled weeds and plastic bags.

It took us three hours to reach Ocker Hill and the bottom of Ryders Green locks. We completed the flight of 8 locks (we knew there were eight locks because of the name of the pub at the top!) in just under an hour.



By now we were - relatively speaking - flying along with much better water and less weeds. We turned onto the Main Line at Pudding Green Junction but turned off at Albion Junction to head up to the Old Wolverhgampton Level. However, we immediately found a sensible mooring spot so stopped for the night.