Monday 25th July

A lovely peaceful night :-) In fact we were up early – well for us anyway! Our plan today was to go down the Worcester & Birmingham to King’s Norton Junction where the North Stratford Canal comes in. We will come into that junction again next month from Stratford so we wanted to see the top of the Worcester & Birmingham. King’s Norton Junction was lovely and we did debate on staying the night but we have a heavy day ahead tomorrow so needed to be in the centre of Birmingham so we did an about turn and retraced our steps. Cadbury World is on that part of the canal with plenty of mooring outside. We went back along Gas Street Straight and turned right towards Cambrian Wharf where we got water. We did another about turn and headed up the Main Line as we wanted to do a complete loop using Oozells Loop. However it wasn’t as easy as that!! There are two entrances to Oozells Loop which means there are four ways of getting in – from the right and left of each end. The way we chose is not possible for a 60 foot boat and we almost got stuck across the canal! Richard backed up and we went on up the Main Line until we could turn round and then go into Oozells Loop – see photo. The Loop is interesting as there are some seriously expensive looking flats, quite a few residential moorings and also Sherborne Wharf. Looking over the wharf is the one of the last warehouses to be built for a famous canal carrying company Fellows Morton & Clayton. This building now contains modern apartments. Sherborne Wharf was once a busy canal carrying wharf for Fellows Morton & Clayton and the two small white washed brick buildings in my photo are original. Further round the loop and under an old bridge we came to the visitor’s moorings having passed a gym where musclely men were working out! At the end of the loop is the National Indoor Arena which is one of the busiest large scale indoor sporting and entertainment venues in Europe also just along Gas Street Straight in the International Conference Centre which stages more than 400 conferences and related meetings and events each year.