Wolverhamton to Birmingham

Wolverhamton & Birmingham

Tuesday

Today we set sail for Wolverhamton we spent last night on a good mooring at Napton Boats at the autherley Junction good mooring but do not ask the staff at Napton Boats for anything they are rude, unhelpful and particularly thick. Having left the mooring we had first to climb the 21 locks of the first stage of the journey. The locks are only about 2 miles long, however by the time Noreen had prepared one lock the walk to set the next one, then walked back to close the first one she must have walk a good 5 miles I however only had the job of getting the boat in the lock out of the lock and controlling the flow, we soon reached a rhythm and we were through locks in about 3 hours making it 9 mins per lock including the distance between them.
We are now settled in a safe mooring only 200 yards from the main Wolverhampton railway station. The mooring is just through the first bridge on the right, its very nice with a little garden and good path however when BW put it in they omitted to put in any form of access which meant we couldn't’t get off but no one could get on i.e. making it very secure. On the way up, the locks we did not see another boat in fact we have only seen four boats all day. I am beginning to wonder just how bad is this depression the government say we out of is, everyone I speak to from all sections of society whether they be people you meet at a lock, people who own ₤120,000 luxury boats, pensioners getting around in there little boat or people just trying to have a holiday they all have one thing in common they are broke, and being very careful with money, and all complaining of inequality, injustice and immigration. I believe that traveling around we get a good solid opinion and the opinion is not good. However, we all believe in tomorrow and it will get better.
Tomorrow we set out for Birmingham it’s a good 5hrs away and the map is very confusing, unlike the rest of the country were we have one city one canal Birmingham has about ten canals I see now why the call it “Little Venice” I just hope we can find our way through the labyrinth of canals and make Broad street Basin in the heart of the city.
Birmingham “ if the world had piles that were it would be” that was a common adage in the 70s but what a transformation We are in a nice mooring in the centre at Broad street just opposite the Sea Life Centre I was a bit concerned last night as we are surrounded by Clubs Pubs Bistro’s and Restaurants I really was expecting trouble but be 23.00 hrs the whole place had closed down and we got a good nights sleep, all boaters should come for a couple of days today we spent today exploring the new Birmingham, good shops, great architecture And quite nice people. Noreen stopped to sit on a bench in the middle of New Street she left her hand bag behind on the bench it must have been ten minutes before we noticed it missing when we got back to the bench there was a lady sat there guarding it awaiting Noreen’s return as I said great people.
Tomorrow we set off again this time towards Warwick that is about two or three days we have decided to moor up in Warwick whilst Noreen goes off to School camp
We have another 21 locks tomorrow to get us to the other side of Birmingham so wish us luck and hopefully I can post this tomorrow night, as I have no Internet here
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We have no visitors this weekend so we are going to quite lonely