We had planned today as a long day as we wanted to get right through the outskirts of Birmingham and moor in Gas Street Basin. Having never been through Birmingham before and hearing many horror stories we did not want to end up moored somewhere where we couldn't sleep for fear of what be happening outside! So, a long day, but as we cast off we didn't realise quite how long!

We set off just after 7.30am on a rather grey morning and had an uneventful trip back along the Town Arm to Wordsley Junction. I dropped the crew off just before the junction so that they could walk round to the first lock of the Stourbridge 16 and, hopefully, I could go straight in. As I turned the corner and headed toward the lock there was frantic arm waving from Sandy and Sean indicating that I should moor up. They had spotted a car upside down in the lock! Of course it had also started raining! I phoned British Waterways just before 8.00am and they promised to send someone out to sort it, however this was a Bank Holiday Monday so I had thoughts of being here most of the day and not reaching Gas Street at all that night.

I wandered up the canal to warn any oncoming boats and to chat to the local dog-walkers who informed me that this was a notorious trouble spot and that this sort of thing was a regular occurrence here. General consensus was that there was not enough flogging, whipping or worse nowadays! BW chaps arrived after about an hour and stood about while we all waited for the recovery truck which turned up around 11.00am. The recovery man set to work as if he had done this sort of thing before, which indeed he had. It took him about twenty minutes to get the car out (see pictures) and for the way to be clear for us, and the five boats now behind us, to set off. The lock was empty but was full of petrol so I didn't fancy going in until it been flushed out so I filled it intending to flush it a couple of times but the boat waiting to come down was willing to take the chance so we let them down and then went on our way. It was now 11.20am, we were over three hours late and had vague hopes of reaching Gas Street.

The trip up the Stourbridge 16 could have been enjoyable but the rain had not relented since 8 o'clock and it was a miserable trudge up relived only by spotting the narrowboat President at Wordsley Dock between locks 12 and 11. Locks 9 and 10 were enjoyable being telescoped together almost like a staircase but with a pound of about 15 feet in between. Presumably there is a side pound here but the only place it seems it could go is underneath the house adjacent to the lock! By this time the boat behind us had caught up as they were locking ahead and as we filled the top lock they were already emptying the bottom lock. As we came out of the top lock another boat was approaching but as we knew the boat behind would already be in the bottom lock, Sean set to closing the gates at which point the skipper of the approaching boat went berserk with lots of shouting and arm-waving as he felt we had shut the gate on him. I explained the situation as we pulled alongside but he was having none of it. Maybe we should have opened the gate again because it would have been fun watching him as he opened the bottom gates only to find another boat in front of him with no way out!

Once the Stourbridge 16 was polished off we had an uneventful, but still wet, journey through some fairly bleak urban landscape until we turned onto the Dudley No. 1 at Leys Junction and eventually came to the Delph 9 (actually 8) which were interesting and would have been quite enjoyable in better weather. Half way up we came across another boat coming down who just sat in the lock above us with the gates open hoping we would pull out of his way to give him straight access to the next lock. Since our lock wasn't even full I was having none of that and signalled him to move out. With only a 40 odd foot (hire) boat he could have simply pulled over to his left alongside the mooring bollards and hardly off line but he obviously had it fixed in his head that he must pass on the right and so pulled out into the side pound making a real hash of a simple manoeuvre. Never mind we just went on our way.

More bland and uninteresting surroundings bought us to Merry Hill where the regeneration changed the character of the canal completely. This was a very pleasant area, sort of like Brindley Place with a bit more space and less nearby shops and pubs apart from the Brewers Wharf which looked quite pleasant. We had intended to stop for lunch here but although we had caught up a lot of time through the locks we were still behind so we skipped lunch, having sandwiches and tea on the go. By doing this we were amazingly only 20 minutes behind our planned time although we weren't sure how easy the rest of the journey would be. A very sharp right hand turn at Parkhead Junction took us on to the Dudley No. 2 and by this time it had stopped raining. Fifty minutes later as we approached Windmill End and the Netherton Branch the sun came out and blue skies greeted us at this superbly picturesque spot. By the time we had gone through the Netherton Tunnel and emerged onto the BCN Mainline it was a glorious day!

We were now very close to Birmingham and had the delights of travelling through Oldbury, Smethwick and Winson Green which, as those who know Birmingham will realise, are not exactly tourist destinations, however having expected the worst we simply couldn't believe how superb this stretch of canal was. It was almost impossible to believe that we were travelling through the outskirts of Birmingham as much of the surroundings were shielded by the banks where the canal ran through cuttings and there was little sign of dereliction in the few factories that we passed. As to the canal itself it was beautifully clean with no floating rubbish at all and it was one of the highlights of the trip. I would thoroughly recommend this approach to Birmingham.

It took us just about an hour to get from Dudley Port Junction into Birmingham where we were greeted by a buzzing and humming Brindley Place. We had given up hope of finding a mooring but there was just the one in Brindley Place albeit outside a nightclub with booming music but we didn't want to turn it down. Surprisingly we had made up much of the morning's delay and arrived in Birmingham at 7.45pm just an hour after our planned time but the evening was now short so we went off to explore without delay. Strolling through Broad Street Tunnel and into Gas Street Basin we were surprised to find plenty of mooring just beyond Worcester Bar so we rushed back to the boat to move it to a quieter spot and finally moored up for the night on the Worcs & Birmingham canal. We had thought that finding somewhere to eat in Birmingham would be a doddle but this was the Jubilee weekend and the place was bulging with revellers and everywhere was jam-packed. We spent a couple of hours walking round soaking up the atmosphere but failing to find anywhere to eat so we settled for a (very expensive!) Chinese takeaway from the posh Chinese restaurant in Brindley Place.

It had been a long, long day but not as disastrous at we thought it was going to be when we drew up to that first lock. Coming into Birmingham was an eye-opener and a trip that we will not hesitate to do again if the chance arises.