Saturday 23rd July

We had a leisurely cruise this morning to our overnight destination – firstly through suburbia and eventually through a more industrialised area. It smelt pretty rank in places! When we got to our destination it was awful, so bad that I’m going to write to British Waterways and ask how they can call it a mooring place. We had no choice but to carry on down the 6 locks of the Camp Hill flight passed the junction with the Birmingham and Warwick Junction Canal, up the 6 locks of the Ashted flight and eventually onto the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal at Aston Junction. We knew that there were 13 locks in the Farmer’s Bridge flight but neither of us were prepared for what we came across! A lot of them were under bridges and buildings – two being right under a new apartment block, it was quite eerie. It was hard work too for both of us as my knee was objecting and poor Richard had all the locks against him and, as it was so windy and the pounds so short, he had to have both the gate of the lower lock and the gate of the higher lock open together so I could drive straight in without being blown about – it was a lot of walking :-( At the second to the top I was bombarded by rowan berries and sticks by a group of kids in a park – I ignored them which I think made them carry on even more. At the top lock is Cambrian Wharf where we debated stopping but it was right next to a pub so decided it might be a bit noisy. We turned into, what I will call, the Gas Street straight and it was lovely - lots of activity and flowers everywhere. We found Gas Street Basin and turned in having no idea what was what but found a 24 hour mooring spot – there are only two in the basin the rest are residential. You can moor down the straight but it was in shadow and our stern got all the evening sun :-) We went for a walk and a very nice burger in the evening and found more mooring spots on the Oozells Loop and the Main Line which we would consider for next time.