Wolverhampton 21

Immediately after setting off we encountered the three Brades Locks, the upper two forming a staircase. Surprisingly, we met a boat coming down - in fact we saw quite a few moving boats today, even into double figures!



We continued along the Old Main Line, known also as the Wolverhampton Level and turned up the short branch to Dudley Tunnel and the Black Country Museum. However, we did not stay to take a look around as time was pressing and we wanted to be sure of completing the Wolverhampton flight in reasonable time. We passed through the Coseley Tunnel.



Shortly after returning to the Old Main Line we joined the New Main Line which was constructed by Telford and runs directly into central Birmingham, although at a lower level by about 20 feet. It was a speedy run up to Wolverhampton where we stopped in the basin at Broad Street (max 1 hour stay) for a full service. It was only after we had backed out to a mooring that we discovered that we did not need to have turned into the basin (despite the large BW sign telling us to do that!) It was quite windy today so any manoevering like this was rather tricky.

We walked the short distance into the town centre in search of a wifi hot spot. After we had bought our drinks at the Wetherspoons pub, we discovered that neither laptop would connect to the hotspot. We did try another free wifi and, although Andrew's laptop was able to make a connection ours did not. As a result, any emails not sent to canalboat will have to wait for another day.

Back at the boat and we commenced the descent of the famous 'Wolverhampton 21' at 2:45. For the first half of the flight we found the locks full - several boats came up and passed us which helped, but the second half were all empty and, in many cases, with the bottom gates open. So, although we managed 10 locks in the first hour, our overall time was 2 hours 25 minutes - not bad as we predicted that time as a best target!



The last few locks are increasingly rural - all of the flight is now so much more attractive than when we were last here about 25 years ago. At Aldersley Junction we turned south onto the Staffs and Worcester and before long we arrived at the first lock where we moored. We are in need of filling up with diesel and there should be a boatyard just below this lock but it was too late by now to expect them to be open. Hence an early-ish mooring.