Skipper for the day

Yesterday was a day of many, many locks and I got to be the skipper for the day, so I was on the tiller and Peter, Val and Peter were off the boat, working the locks.
The Tardebigge flight is the longest flight of canal locks in the UK. We went through 43 locks in total in a little over three hours. Each arrow on the map is a completely separate lock, as the canal travels steeply uphill. 
We were very lucky to find all the locks already at the lower level for us, so once the lock gates were heaved open, I could enter the narrow lock, wait for gates to be closed behind me and the paddles to be raised and water to gush in to fill the lock, then exit the lock at the higher level and move straight on to the next lock, which one of the guys would have already prepared by opening the gates.

We had a very smooth operation going and moved along quite well.
Once we were through all the locks, we then had two long tunnels to navigate. The first was the Tardebigge Tunnel which is 530 metres long and takes about fifteen minutes to navigate. It is very dark in the tunnel, although you can see the proverbial light a the end of the tunnel. A bit after that is t Shortwood Tunnel, which even longer at 613 yards. Surprisingly you still need to pay attention to steering, even though you’re travelling in a straight line.


Finally we emerged and eventually found a suitable spot for the night, on the side of the canal near Alvechurch. We went for a short walk through town although strangely the people who had already walked about three kilometres working the locks weren’t up for a long walk. I thought it was good to stretch my legs though.
We woke to sunshine and a cold morning, the forecast top temperature today is 6 degrees.


Comments

  1. Neville CannNovember 22, 2025 at 11:53 PM

    Well winter sure has arrived but good to hear you are keeping warm and enjoying exploring places like Birmingham. Yes history reminds us how fortunate we are to live at this time in history and human development. That’s not to forget that we seem to have manufactured our own problems that threaten that calm. You are now into your last month. Time passes quickly. We all look forward to welcoming you home and we will be able to give you a return/Christmas present….. a Merc!!! All good here. Not many hot days yet. Think Derek & Mim have moved in to their new home over the last couple of days. As I write this we are sitting outside at Churchill Island finishing our Sun breaky routine. Keep warm. Hugs from us.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Europe Trip 2025November 23, 2025 at 9:31 PM

      We're looking forward to seeing you when we get home too. We've spent today at a recreated mining town where all buildings are from the local area, either moved brick by brick, or exact replicas. It was a very hard life, and average life expectancy was 17 years! So many stories, and not all that long ago.

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