After we rescued Huddlesford, it was time to continue our journey towards Birmingham and Wolverhampton. This was along the Coventry Canal, although it turned into the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal near a place called Hopwas.
At Fazeley Junction, the Coventry Canal starts again and curves towards Tamworth, while the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal carries on towards Birmingham. We had to fill up our water tank here, partly because we had used so much water getting Huddlesford clean!
Soon after Fazeley you reach Drayton Manor. The original manor house has long since been demolished and now there is a huge amusement park there. This funny little castle-like bridge over the canal was built to go with the old manor house.
Polar and Grizzly moored for the evening near the Middleton Lakes nature reserve. We bears stayed on board Uppie while they went for a long walk around the lakes, as we wanted to keep Huddlesford company while he was still drying his fur and insides.Poor Huddlesford couldn't share our bear basket while he was still damp, so we sat in the cratch while it was still sunny, then made him a bed out of towels for the night.
Polar and Grizzly had more locks to work through the following day, with the thirteen Curdworth locks to go up. These are quite quick to work as they only have one gate at each end, although the gates are heavier than the usual mitred narrow lock gates.
As usual, we watched to make sure everything went smoothly and cheered whenever we finished going through a lock. Huddlesford found it slightly alarming at first to be in the deep, dark lock chamber with the sound of rushing water and Uppie bobbing about, but we all reassured him the Grizzly and Polar were always very careful.
Polar and Grizzly stopped for lunch part way up the flight to see some friends of theirs and to have lunch at a pub called the Dog and Doublet, then finished the rest of the locks and found another overnight mooring, not too near the M42 motorway.
By now, Huddlesford was thoroughly dry, so we told him he could snuggle up in the Bear Basket with the rest of us. This did make things rather crowded in the basket, though Huddlesford said it was very nice to be part of such a cosy hug.
In the morning, Polar and Grizzly worked Uppie through three locks at Minworth, then we found ourselves right beside the motorway. I didn't like that at all, as it was noisy and not at all pretty, but Hanley was curious to see how the road was supported as it crossed the canal and other roads."We go right under Spagetti Junction in a minute, little bears!" Polar explained. "And there are two different canal routes into central Birmingham here too - the Grand Union Canal, that goes up through Digbeth, and the Birmingham and Fazeley route up the Aston locks."
"Which one are we going along?" I asked her.
"We're taking the Tame Valley Canal up through the Perry Barr locks, then we're turning up the Rushall Canal towards Brownhills," said Polar.
And that did take us right underneath Spagetti Junction! It was very strange, because we could hear lots of traffic and emergency vehicle sirens, but there was also a thrush singing, as if we were out in the countryside.We definitely weren't in the countryside, however, as the pound between the first of the Perry Barr locks and the second one up was full of the most awful rubbish! There were lots of plastic bags, plastic bottles and take-away food cartons, but also much larger things like tyres and a big plastic cannister. Polar had to fish lots of things out of the lock with the boat hook, so she could open the gate properly, but it was difficult to avoid them crossing the pound because there was so much weed on the surface of the water, so we couldn't see all the hazards.The next few locks also had lots of weed but slightly less rubbish, and Polar and Grizzly worked steadily upwards. About half way up, we came to one of the sites where a stadium was being built for the 2022 Commonwealth Games and, soon afterwards, we got a very good view towards the centre of Birmingham.In fact we were just starting to relax and enjoy the journey, when we reached a lock where on of the paddles was completely broken and the lock was leaking badly. Grizzly called the Canal and River Trust to let them know, as the next pound was very low. In fact, Uppie got stuck at one point, leaving all of us bears and Grizzly stranded in the middle of the pound, and Polar had to let some water out of the next pound up to get us floating again.Above the locks is a long, straight section of canal with some very high bridges over it but also open sections with more good views across the city. There were lots of families out for walks and people in their back gardens, so we waved to the human cubs and they all waved back.If we had carried on along the Tame Valley Canal, we would have reached Walsall, but Grizzly's plan was to turn off at Rushall Junction and take the Rushall Canal back out into the countryside. This meant working through eight more locks.Unfortunately, there were more broken paddles and leaky gates, and even more very low pounds where Uppie got stuck. Polar insisted on working all the locks, because she is heavier than Grizzly, so Uppie floats a little bit better if Grizzly is steering, and she can get the lock gates to move more easily with her extra weight to counter-balance them.Polar did lots more running backwards and forwards, filling locks at the top of the flight so she could put enough water into the pounds in between to keep Uppie moving. She was very pleased to have help from lots of kind passers-by from all sorts of different communities, including cyclists, ramblers and families out for an evening stroll, but it was still almost dark by the time we reach the last lock (which Grizzly operated) and we still needed to potter on a little further to find somewhere to moor for the night.But now, having worked up through all those locks, we wouldn't have any to worry about for several days. In the morning, we found Ogley Junction, where the route from Huddlesford originally linked up with this end of the Wyrley and Essington canal, and took the Anglesea Branch up to the Chasewater reservoir, although we couldn't find a good place to moor, so we didn't go to look at the reservoir itself.We did find a good mooring for the evening, at a very nice place called Pelsall Common. Polar had printed off some notes from the BCN (Birmingham Canal Navigations) Society about safe places to moor and we didn't have any trouble from bad humans anywhere. In fact, the humans of Birmingham were some of the friendliest we bears have met anywhere. All along the route, people waved and one little human cub called out "Thank you for coming!" We had only passed two boats the day before and only saw two boats on the move that day too. It is a very, very quiet waterway.
Because there are so few boats about, there are lots of water plants, which can be a problem if they get tangled around the rudder or the propellor. We were all amazed at how clear the water was - we could see right to the bottom of the canal and saw lots of shoals of fish, from little tiny ones to big, scary pike.The last section of the Wyrley and Esington Canal was quite difficult to work through due to all the weeds and some litter, and one afernoon Grizzly had to ask River Canal Rescue to send a mechanic out, to help us get weeds, fishing line and plastic off of the propellor. But we were lucky to find a good morning that evening, next to a big pub where we could get a big roast dinner!The last section of the "Curly Wyrley" to Wolverhampton was the weediest of all, and even the Main Line canal from there to Tipton had a lot of weeds in, so Polar and Grizzly had to stop regularly so they could clear them and Uppie could get moving again.
They found that they could get most of them off by leaning over the back of the boat and using a litter-picker to grab weeds and plastic trailing from the rudder, although it was always important to make sure the engine was in neutral and the propellor wasn't turning when doing that!
At Coseley, there is a tunnel. Like most of the tunnels on the Birmingham Canals, it is wide enough for two boats to pass and it has a towpath, so Polar didn't mind steering through it as she had plenty of headroom. We did meet another boat, but both of us slowed right down and passed safely, with no bumping.
After more struggling with weeds and waste plastic, we reached Tipton, where Polar and Grizzly planned to moor Uppie for a couple of days. They had to go home, you see, so Polar could do some work and they needed somewhere safe for Uppie - and us - to stay.
Fortunately, there are some good, secure moorings at the Black Country Living Museum and they weren't too busy so we found a good spot.
While Polar and Grizzly went to look for some friends who were visiting that day, Endon checked the strawberries - and found some were ready to eat!
"Yay" we cheered, and carefully shared them between us.
In the evening, Hanley tuned in his little radio for the football, as England were playing Germany. Grizzly said we could have a few sips of beer bubbles if England won, which they did!
Hanley Bear said this local beer was very good, but he still prefers Titanic beers, brewed in Burslem!In the morning, it was time for Polar and Grizzly to go home. "We've left you some raisins, nuts and cereals for your meals, so you don't have to cook anything, and an emergency jar of marmalade," said Polar. "But we'll be back tomorrow evening, so be good bears!"
Apart from finding and eating some stroopwafels and sleeping in Polar and Grizzly's bed, we were very good bears, as we had a special treat to look forward to when our human guardians came back. I will tell you all about that in my next post.
