We decided to stop a couple of miles short of the city of Wolverhampton at a little village called Brewood. The holiday rules paid off again we didn't go to the canalside pub, we walked into the village and found the locals pub. They had their Thursday night special on, two steaks and a bottle of wine for 20 quid. They weren't the biggest steaks we've ever seen but it was a good meal. The moorings at Brewood are very picturesque and quiet. Friday (lock day) we headed for Birmingham and hit the twenty one. That's 21 locks in 2 miles, all one after the other without a mooring. With 8 to go we were looking forward to the end, a young local fella on his push bike said he would give us a hand on the lock. We chatted with him while we locked and he decided to give us a hand with the rest. It was much appreciated. Turns out both his grandparents were born on boats. It was a long haul through the industrial areas, there were many closed off entrances to old canals that used to be part of the Birmingham network. It must have been like a maze back in the old working days. We moored at Cambrian Wharf which is right in the heart of Birmingham and near the Barclay Card Arena. It was Friday evening and had been a lovely summers day. The joint was jumping all the pubs and restaurants on the canal were overflowing. Saturday we caught the train to Rugby and the bus to Crick for the boat show. The train tickets were horrendously expensive. It cost 40 pound return for a 45 minute journey from Birmingham to Rugby. (We weren't aware we were buying a train). It was a good day out as we've decided to make some modifications to the boat and we were looking for ideas. We met Ian there who had all our mail and online purchases, it was great to catch up with him again, we're sure he will be a boat owner before too long. We spent the next couple of days exploring Birmingham and seeing the sites which included a visit to the Gay Village, the Jewellery Quarter, the Bull Ring and Market, and the Birmingham public library. There was a large armed police presence all around the city due to the bombing in Manchester. We asked if we could take a photo of them and started chatting with a group of the heavily armed police. Most of them normally guard nuclear facilities, government buildings etc. and were more than happy to chat with the public. Their role was to increase public confidence and many people appreciated their efforts and wanted to thank them. On Monday (Bank Holiday) afternoon we met big Emily and her boss Llew at the Brew Dog pub. (They have the best beer in England). We had a great afternoon catching up with friends and keeping out of the rain. Wednesday morning we were a bit slow getting started as we stopped in at the Prince of Wales for a couple of pints the night before and got chatting with some fellow boat people. It turned into a pub crawl around Birmingham. We're now at Tipton and moored right outside the Black Country Living Museum. Here is this weeks collection of videos and photos.
Cowley Tunnel
Cruising the Shroppie
Cruising the Shroppie 2
Permanent Mooring
Skinny
Under the Motorway
Rope notches on bridge from the horses towing boats
Some weird things you see on Canals
Tyrley Cutting - Shropshire Canal
Tyrley Cutting - Shropshire Canal
Tyrley Locks - Lock 5
Knighton Foods - Wharf used by Cadbury (1911) Centre for processing Milk
Grubb Street Bridge 39 - Telegraph Pole
Heron - Taking off
Old Car outside Tudor House in the Village of Brewood
Kens Favourite sign in the Butchers shop - Brewood
Lovely old building in Brewood
Our Mooring in Brewood
Armed Police Protecting the important people - Victoria Square Birmingham.
Lovely old Building in Birmingham
The Bullring - Birmingham.
The Queens Arms - Jewellery Quarter - Birmingham
Birmingham Public Library
The Secret Garden - Birmingham Public Library
Looking down through the rings - Birmingham Public Library
Shakespeare Room - Birmingham Public Library
Birmingham & Fazely Canal - Farmers Bridge Locks under the BT Tower
View of Birmingham from theBirmingham Public Library. There is so much construction going on in this city.
Council building - Victoria Square Birmingham
Our Mooring Cambrian Wharf - Birmingham. The Flapper Pub is on the right hand side. For those of you who love Punk Music
Ellesmere Port was our longest stay in one place so far. On Thursday we took the X8 (bus) into Liverpool for the Skeptics in the Pub event. We spent the day exploring Liverpool which took us around Albert Dock, the Art Museum and the Waterways Museum.
We couldn't resist checking out where the Cavern Club was, definitely the most touristy part of Liverpool. The original Cavern Club no longer exists but the reproduction right next door is allegedly faithful to the original and looks like all the photos you have seen. Its still a live music venue.
The Skeptics event was held in a grand old pub called The Vines its a little run down but still quite spectacular. The function room has a stained glass dome and the whole venue is littered with carved woodwork.
It was an interesting talk about the phsycology of people who are drawn to conspiracy theories. It was a suprise to us, the lady presenting was a fellow Aussie based at Kent University.
By the time everything finished we had to catch a different bus home which dropped us off a lot further from where we wanted to be in Ellesmere Port and meant we had to walk through some shady parts of town. Ken inquired of the Bus driver where was the closest he could drop us off. While they were chatting a young man (pierced tattooed freak) piped up and asked "Were you in Halfords yesterday"? We replied "yes" and he said "not a problem I'll walk you back to the port, its not far our of my way". He was a lovely young fella and we had a good chat on the way back.
On Friday we did a bit of shopping and picked up our new curtains. Saturday it bucketed rain so we spent the day polishing curtain rails, fittings and tarting up the boat (with the new curtains).
On Saturday afternoon when the rain stopped we headed back to Stoak ready for the car show on Sunday.
Sunday was a nice day so around lunch time we headed to the Bunbury Arms for the car show. When we arrived there were only five MG's and a Volvo, we thought it was going to be a fizzer. A few more cars turned up over the next hour and we got chatting with the President of the club. In the end they made us feel like royalty and even presented us with a commemorative cap at the prize giving ceremony.
What a lovely bunch of people. We've have promised to come back next year.
The rest of the week has pretty much been cruising, according to the locals its been quite hot and we're in for a hot week. Only today a man said "its been a scorcher today" (it reached 24 today and was sunny). We found it very pleasant.
One of the unexpected highlights was the Secret Nuclear Bunker at Hack Green. (Decommissioned in 1992) Took us back to our school years when the threat of nuclear war was on everyone's minds.
We had a big day today our biggest flight of locks so far (Audelm locks are a flight of 15 and Adderley locks are another 5). We now have a system going to make it a little quicker. We definitely earnt our pint today.
Travelling slowly makes you take notice of the changes happening around you. Last month we were seeing all the new little ducklings, now we are seeing the cygnets and the goslings. The little ducklings are now bigger but their numbers are fewer. (Somethings eating them).
Here are this weeks photos and videos (they are a little long). Enjoy
Entering Chester from Northgate Locks
Houses on the Canal
View of the approach to Ellesmere Port
Sculpture Room - Art Gallery Liverpool
Liverpool Docks - Royal Liver Building, Cunard Building, & The Port of Liverpool Building
The Vines - Liverpool - Where we attended Skeptics in the Pub event
It's strange how sometimes things don't turn out how you expect. We decided to go to Liverpool for a Skeptics in the pub event run by the Mersey Side Skeptics, who produce one of our favourite pod casts. We had the route all mapped out and then found one of the canals we needed to use was closed so we changed our plan and have gone to Ellesmere Port and will use public transport for the last leg. At Chester we found the Staircase lock was closed for repair preventing us from getting to Ellesmere Port. Chester is an old Roman City so we weren't too concerned as the lock was due to open on the Sunday, so we decided to stay the extra days. On the Thursday night we moored in a trendy area of Chester and had the worse night of our trip so far. The drunks were out annoying the boaters (rocking the shit out of them in the middle of the night). On the Friday we moved out of Chester a short way to wait for the locks to open. We enjoyed the next few days exploring the City of Chester. The races were on and all the Ladies were frocked up with their facinators on. We decided to use some of the extra time to look for some new curtains as the ones in the boat are quite manky. We looked around to see if we could get some replacements made. Turns out made to measure curtains are very expensive and the lead time varies from 4 to 8 weeks which didn't really suit as who knows where we will be then. Once the locks reopened we continued towards Ellesmere Port. We didn't travel far as we wanted to visit Chester Zoo on the Monday. We moored up near the road to the Zoo and and got chatting to a couple and their children who would like to buy a boat. They gave us directions to the best pub in town which was a couple of miles walk away. A bit later on the way to the pub Phil popped up at one of the bridges. "its your lucky day" he said "I'm a black cab driver, I'll take you to the pub". How could we refuse. He dropped us off then vanished. We had a great meal and a few Pints before walking back to the boat. Monday we spent all day at Chester Zoo and managed to see everything except some of the Monkeys. We had ummed an arred about the price of the ticket but it was well the worth the price. Excellent Zoo. Tuesday we finally made it to Ellesmere Port and are moored in the basin with the exhibits of the Waterways museum (we are a temporary exhibit).
Our first night walking around Ellesmere Port we thought "oh no what the hell have we done here". It's a working class area with lots of industry and the town is a bit like Footscray, securely locked up at night. This morning we had to do a few domestic duties. We went to what we thought was a laundrette but turned out to be a laundry. We had a chat to the old lady running the place and surprise surprise she had relatives in Australia. She said "ah just leave your bag here I'll do the washing for you. Won't even cost you a tenner". (Thats a win). Later in the day after wandering around the town Ken spotted a lady in a disused shop near the dock who appeared to be a making curtains. We knocked on her door to enquire of her services. (She has a brother living in Williamstown). Turns out Martha can make new curtains for us by Friday for a third of the price the shops have quoted. So we have locked in our order.
Here are our photos for this week. Hopefully we will get a better video of Chester on our way back through to Birmingham next week. (Have had alot of wind noise problems)
Coming into Chester
Camping in the Bush.
Chester Market Cross
Street Scene Chester
Street Scene Chester
Chester - Above the streets - Medieval Buildings.
Chester - Looking out above the Streets from the Medieval Buildings
Chester City Wall
Club Cricket. Chester.
New Housing Estate. Chester.
Monkey - Chester Zoo
Pink Flamingos. Chester Zoo.
Horse Stables for the Canal horses.
Unusual boat.
Canalside Pub.
Horse stables at Ellesmere Port Museum. (For Lindsay)
We're and exhibit.
Nice when your filling hose matches the water tower.
