Well we didn't 'alf see some sights today not the usual at all but I'll mentioned those later. First back to this morning. We had all of Aston locks to do and amazingly every lock on the Aston flight (all 11) were empty and all Ian had to do was open the bottom gate. Blooming miracle I might add, as this
does not happen very often. Was I glad though 'cos the quicker one gets through this flight the better. We had youths shouting and hollering, not at us mind, but all were drinking and we decided it was better to acknowledge them by saying hello then to antagonise.
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| Bit grotty and plenty of graffiti everywhere |
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| This was one of the nicer bits. A housing complex complete with lock water feature. |
Very pleased to reach Aston Junction and do the right towards Farmers Bridge. It was on this flight that we met C&RT. They had the unenviable job of not only clearing up any rubbish, but of looking for sharps (used druggie needles) and having to deal and wash down the vomit by the bridges.
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| Aston Flight to the left. |
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| Heading toward Farmers Bridge |
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| Met C&RT and thought they were going to help us up the flight. In fact they were doing this..... |
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| Looked like a syringe but actually turned out to be....... |
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| a lighter |
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| But more often then not it was used needles. |
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| Mop and bucket to clean the sick! |
After chatting for a while one went ahead and opened some of the bottom gates for us. Yep every lock on the Farmers Bridge flight was also with us (all 13) and as I cant remember the last time we actually came up these locks, (always do it the other way round) I thought I would put a few photos of this unique flight.
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| Looking back |
And just to prove I do do my fair share,
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| And finally at the top. |
After doing the loo and rubbish we turned right at Old Turn Junction and moored at Sheepcoats mooring. I went fishing and left Ian to change the slide on the cassette (not the nicest of jobs!) It was as I decided to pack up around 4ish that I noticed the smoke. And boy was it dense. So glad the wind wasn't blowing it toward us but I pity all those in the line of fire, so to speak. We will have to see the news tonight to find out where it's coming from but someone thinks it's the custard factory gone up.
And this amused me. Obviously this pigeon thinks as they are called pigeon spikes it may as well use them
2 comments:
I can remember doing those locks a few years back, we shoved the 4 "kids" into the boat and luckily with 8 adults we could work through one lock whilst others went ahead or closed up behind. Nearly had to fish one "drunk" out of a lock though.
I assume the smoke is from this http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-35920013
We came up these flights last week on our hire boat holiday (brought back exciting childhood memories)...
This trip was borne out of reading blogs such as yours over the last year, so many thanks for inspiring my return to the canals!
(Incidentally, we came across the same C&RT crew last week... The young chap was most helpful when it came to helping a novice [me] wind a 69ft boat in Cambrian wharf!!!)
Martin
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