Walsall

We made a slow start this morning but were eventually off by ten o'clock.

Overnight Mooring Location

Despite the sometimes extensive weed growth in the canal, there is plenty of wildlife and we will include one or two pictures as we go along. We continued through the rest of the country park, under the motorway and on then to Sneyd Junction.

M6 Motorway

At one time, another canal joined in here and the remains of the first lock can still be seen.

Derelict Lock at Sneyd Junction

We stopped at the services to fill with water, clear rubbish and elsan and chat with locals. The buildings of the one-time maintenance workshop are now used by a canoe centre and workshop where they were making canoe - and the odd coracle!

Former Maintenance Workshops at Sneyd

Coracle For Sale

 Progress was still quite good (although a rain coat around the prop did have to be removed at one point) and shortly before noon we turned down the Walsall canal at Birchills Junction and soon after began the descent of the flight of eight locks. The former Boatmen rest and Lock Cottage stand alongside the top lock.

Walsall Top Lock and Boatmens Rest

A regular supply of onlookers helped with the locks so we made quick progress. There was a problem with the last pound which was flooding so much that Christine had to make what turned out to be quite a long diversion to set the bottom lock.

Walsall Town Basin

We turned on the Walsall Town Arm and negotiated the 'boom' (which we understand is to prevent rubbish blowing into the basin) and moored in an otherwise empty space on one of the pontoons. Time for lunch.

Mike went for a walk around the shops and failed to find what he was seeking in Waterstones and there was no newspaper at WHSmiths! He did, however, splash out a couple of pounds on some fruit from one of the market stalls and a couple of sticky buns from Gregg's for tea time.

Turning around to leave the basin was as difficult as we recalled from our previous visit - wind blows around the buildings quite fiercely. However, forewarned meant that we took precautions and used a rope on the end of the pontoon to avoid being blow totally out of direction.

Progress down the Walsall suddenly became very slow indeed with a lot of the weed which grows tough strings under the water. Mind you, the first of several forays down the weed hatch was again largely plastic, including some of the gift wrap string which did not want to break away!

Progress at times was barely 1 mile an hour with frequent attempts to de-weed the prop. We slowly progressed under the motorway once more, wondering how many of those driving overhead even realise that there is a canal underneath. We did eventually (some 26 hours after the last one) pass another moving boat!

We had to pull in at 5 o'clock to make a business phone call, after which we continued but soon picked up better speed as the weed seemed to clear. It was now too late to make our planned overnight objective as the eight Ryders Green locks lay ahead. So, we found a reasonably green location and moored up, even thought we were some distance from the bank - just close enough to jump ashore from one end, the other sticking out much further.

Overnight M|ooring

As we started to close up for the night, a passing walker told us that there was a 'proper' mooring just a short distance ahead. Christine set off with her mobile phone and deemed it worthwhile and summoned Mike to bring the boat on down.

8.6 miles - 8 locks