It's Not All Pretty Villages and Green Fields

We had a walk into Brewood  this morning for a few supplies, then we were off, on our own again :-(
Soon passed under the busy M54...


Passed a very pretty cow ...

Our plan was to stop around Autherley Junction, after we had filled the water and emptied the 2 very full cassettes!  We found a water point - no probs - but there was no Elsan to dump the waste.....!!!!
Plan B then came into play .... carry on to Wolverhampton and empty them there, only 22 locks away!

When we approached the locks we noticed that we needed a 'water conservation key' - we thought 'gawd, do we have one of them??' - then we realised it was the 'anti-vandal key' that we did have - so we quickly sussed out how they worked and got on with it ...

We had a good run up the locks, every lock bar one being in our favour. 
We weren't quite sure what kind of people we would meet along the way - but one lad in a hoody was mumbling about the age of chivalry being dead (in a broad Brummy accent) - because he always saw the women doing the lock work on the barges...!
The second lad came up to tell us that there was a group of baby ducklings 'just around the corner' and he was amazed how brave they were ! 

Not the kind of people we were expecting at all !!  Brilliant :)

 

By the way we are heading for Birmingham ...


Lots of impressive railway bridges around these parts...


The scenery was turning a bit more industrial...

Finally, we made it to the top lock!

Very pretty top lock cottages...

After we emptied the cassettes we decided to go just a little bit further and find a nice pub and mooring.

Well  - there weren't any pubs or nice moorings, so we carried on through the industrial wasteland, which to be quite honest we both enjoyed. Such a shame that the industry is not there any more.  The pics below pretty much sum it up -

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a really quiet trip - we met two hire boats - and saw a couple of people along the canal banks - but all they were interested in was making comment on our Aussie flag and the Aussie's lack of Gold Medals in the Olympics !!!

We finally stopped at Tipton Green.  We are moored outside a......we don't know, it is either a citizen's advice bureau, medical centre or a high security mental institution!

Pub of the day is the boat because we are too buggered to go out!  We motored for about 9.5 hours.....a record for us and one that we don't want to repeat in a hurry.

We hope to be a bit more organised about our travels in future but don't hold your breath!