Locks and free running to meet up with Catherine.

We had a good run through Birmingham and were heading fore the top of the Camp Hill Locks.

Once through Warwick Bar and past the FMC warehouses the next thing of note is the aqueduct over the River Rea. There  doesn't seem to be much water in the said river.

Bordesley Junction is not what anybody could call the most scenic junction on the system but it does have its charm with it cast iron bridge and industrial landscape. We are heading to the right up the six Camp Hill Locks.

The locks are spaced out a little and seem to flow round a hill with plenty of bends in the pounds.

I noticed that all the lock fixed gear were marked for the exact lock and with a date. The dates are not all the same with a  decade or so spread between them. I don't remember other locks that are individually marked like this but I'm sure there must be some somewhere.

Amy made a fine job of wending her way up the flight.

The ornate church by the canal has been made weather tight but it  doesn't look as if it is presently been used for anything at all. There is a sharp bend to turn to head into this lock but Amy makes light of it.

Another large bend takes us  under a rail bridge that reminds me a little of the Gauxhall Bridge on the Rochdale Canal.

There is a service area at the old Sampson Road Wharf and I haven't seen anything like it anywhere else. It is almost like an Art Deco building. It is superbly clean too. We stopped for water and had lunch too. We were going to stop here for the night, but as we had made  such good time we decided to crack on and get some more miles under our belt.

The overhead canopies would make ideal sop over points for boats from Birmingham heading to the Lapworth Junction as people seem loath to stop anywhere between Birmingham and Catherine de Barnes.

As there are no locks for the rest of the day the girls took it easy and even the sun came out so the trip was a pleasant couple of hours.

Intriguingly this basin that is now used by the Ackers Trust is a relatiely new thing as it does not appear on any maps until after WWII and then it was used as a coal wharf. I would expect that it was built so that coal could be strategical stockpiled via the canal. The canals part in the war effort. The Ackers Trust was set up in 1981and Ackers Adventure started  in 2005 to progress the objectives of the trust in bringing aventurous activities to the local people and from farther afield too. Not only do they have waterbourne activities bu also a big climbing wall and zip wire with a ski slope and toboggan run etc etc.

Despite running through the suburbs of Birmingham very little is seen of any housing as most of the canal runs through cuttings or is heavily tree lined, so in effect you could be anywhere. The tow pathn looks relatively clear and there is nothing really to stop you mooring along here overnight, other than the fact that with the trees and cuttings it is so dark and gloomy, even on a sunny day.

We did keep going to Catherine de Barnes and could see the planes landing at  Birmingham Airport, making Amy homesick for her flat beneath the flight path to Heathrow in Battersea!