Aug 22

Today was again one of those days that reminded me why I wanted to do this. I have left Birmingham city, and toured along the main line: There are so many choices…

I did my first 3 locks single-handed. Lots more work, and much slower, but I can manage in narrow locks where I don’t have to power the boat to keep from banging into things.

I got to Tipton, and moored for the night in the clearest canal water I have ever seen: I could see the bottom of my boat! There were loads of weeds and lilypads, but I would trade that aggravation (gets around the prop) any day for clear water. Walked around some, watched cricket (but didn’t understand a lot of the subtleties of the game) on the tube in a pub while I had supper, then back to the peace of the boat where I did some reading.

Today I went towards Dudley tunnel. This is so narrow, long, they won’t let powered boats through. If you insist, they will let you ‘leg’ through (lie on the top of the boat, and push yourself along by ‘walking’ on the roof of the tunnel.) The tunnel is almost 3000 yards long. I’d be exhausted after 100 yards, so no go for me. However, there was a ‘living museum’ beside the canal, and I didn’t understand until i got in what that meant. This is a museum of buildings, with people playing their roles as if they were really there during the time (about 1925?) The buildings are much older, however.

I even got to go into a real coal mine. Something like that would simply not happen in Canada: too dark, slippery, with obstacles about 5′ from the floor. I did the mine at Brittania Beach on the way to Whistler, and this was much more realistic and less ‘tourist-proof’. You really got a good idea of the working conditions from 1700 – 1940 or so. The whole place was great, and the area is famous in Britain for forging almost all of the metal chains that were used throughout the country. It was hard, miserable, and very poorly paid work, but much was done right in the area. I have a link of chain the blacksmith forged while we watched. They can’t sell or even give away the chain because it is not proofed for safety, so all the work they do now is simply recycled. What a pity.

Late in the day, I went through the Netherton Tunnel. This is a wide-bore, with room for boats to meet, and with 2 tow paths. It was constructed to relieve the congestion caused by the slow working of the Dudley tunnel. Very easy (but long) passage. I then turned south on the Dudley #2 canal, which used to go through a third major tunnel, the Lappal tunnel. It is closed to navigation at the present so this is a dead-end branch. Lovely views towards the west as the canal follows the contours along the side of the ridge that the tunnels go through. This ridge, made of layers of limestone and coal, provided much of the raw material that made Birmingham the center of the industrial revolution here, and led to the county being known as the ‘black country’- pollution from iron smelting, coal fired industry, and all associated with that. There is little left, except vast numbers of large, brick warehouses and industrial works, largely abandoned.

I went through a VERY tight tunnel to get to the end of navigation: there was less that 15cm clearance from the upper corners of the boat on either side, to the curving tunnel walls. Made driving a little sketchy!