Wednesday 20 March

There were some pork and black pudding sausages in the fridge which had been purchased on Sunday at Aston Marina. They needed eating today so whilst they were cooking I set off on the Brompton to reccy the moorings at the Black Country Museum. After eating the sausage sandwiches we set off the half a mile to the Museum. I knew that we were not allowed through Dudley tunnel and there is no winding hole shown in Nicholsons after the junction of the BCN Old Main Line and the Dudley branch. We turned left onto the main line and moored up there on the corner. There were mooring rings but we couldn't quite get into the side. But we were near enough. We found out later in the day that it would have been fine to go on towards the Dudley Tunnel and moor up actually inside the museum. There is a suitable winding opportunity there too. This would have saved a bit of a walk but we'll know next time.
The museum was great. Well worth the £15.50 each to get in. There's all sorts to see:

We decided not to go down the mine, it would have been full of screaming school children!
But we wondered around the rest of the 26 acre site and even had a half of mild in a 1920's pub. There was even sawdust shavings on the floor.

The Workers Institute

Inside a radio repair shop. 

A 1930's street

We got chatting to one of the museum workers in one of the sheds. He was into narrowboats in a big way. Not namby pamby narrowboats like Winding Down but proper old ones that could carry cargo. By mistake I mentioned that we have a bow thruster. He told us off!.
By this time we were about ready to leave and this chap let us out onto the towpath via the back gate which meant a 50 yard walk back to WD instead of about a mile round via the main entrance. The back gate only needs a British Waterways key but ours was on board the boat!

We had a quick cuppa then set off in the direction of Birmingham with the intention of getting about halfway before mooring for the night. There are lots of choices of routes and we chose to go along the Old Main Line, then left down the Gower Branch and onto the New Main Line. The Old Main Line was surrounded by industrial decay. We crossed over above the Netherton Tunnel Branch.

Then soon turned onto the Gower Branch. This involved a staircase of two locks at the top.  The top lock of this staircase was completely empty of water but we soon had it filled from the pound above. A chap appeared from nowhere (like they do) and commented that these locks are used very infrequently. Well, they seemed in reasonable working order even though there was quite a lot of rubbish in them. A few more coconuts were spotted, I wonder where they come from.
We then turned right onto the New Main Line. By this time we were looking for somewhere to moor but there was nowhere very appealing. There was lots of industrial wasteland on both sides so we kept on going. The New Main Line is very straight, wide and deep. So I opened up the throttle to about 1300 revs and we soon had a turn of speed going. Occasionally there were little islands in the middle which made me slow up a bit.

New Main Line

We still couldn't find anywhere to moor so we pressed on towards Birmingham. Some of the signposts said Birmingham 6 miles, some of them said 4 miles. They couldn't really make up their minds. We reckoned it was about 5 miles and we should just about have enough daylight to get there. Pip had more serious navigating to do. At Bromford Junction we kept right on the New Main Line thereby staying on the same level.

If we had turned left we would have still got to Birmingham but would have had to go up three locks then down another three to get back to the same level. 

We passed under the busy M5.

It was still wasteland around. Under a couple of the bridges there were people having little meetings, we didn't stop to say hello! There were some more coconuts in the canal. Then just as the street lights were coming on we arrived in Birmingham city centre and easily found somewhere to tie up. By then we were COLD.
I had a quick shower then we decided that it would be wrong to eat on board in the centre of Birmingham so we went out for a wander about. We ended up at Pizza Express. The couple at the table next to us talked about Orange Wednesday when they were paying their bill. It turns out that you get two pizzas for the price of one if you have an Orange phone and it is a Wednesday. I have a Orange Phone and it was a Wednesday. Bargain! 
We then went and had a look at the top of Farmers Bridge Locks which we plan to go down on Friday. There are also moorings there at Cambrian Wharf which we might move to tomorrow when we have filled with water nearby.

8.5 miles, 1 staircase of 2 locks, 1 lock.