On the leaving of Birmingham we had a lot of locks to negotiate so we were pleased to welcome aboard No.1 daughter as crew.
All seemed quiet as we approached Cambrian Wharf at the top of the Farmers Bridge locks. We didn't stop for water but we did get rid of the rubbish whilst waiting for the top lock.
The Framers Bridge Locks are always a pleasure to travel through. It was a bit quiet today, but with three of us we soon caught up with a boat a head of us by the bottom lock.
This flight has a bit of everything in it, just to keep the interest up. This can be a real wind tunnel, and heading up, with a boat coming down can make this very interesting.
As you near the bottom, one lock to go, you pass under Snow Hill Station. The dank dark area used to be full of cans and bottles, and worse, but even the smell ios better these days. When we got to Aston Junction we turned to st'bd and headed down the Digbeth Branch.
The Ashted Tunnel is very tight and we don't normally come out of here without the off side rail being scrapped.
There is an awful lot of building work going on at the bottom of these locks. It is student accommodation for Birmingham University I think. It shouldn't be too long before the HS2 stuff starts too.
Just after you pass under the railway into New Street and the future Curzon Street HS2 station you come to the junction where Typhoo Basin is straight ahead. No time for a look see today. We turned right to Bordesley Junction and the Grand Union Canal.
Bordesley Junction is not the most scenic on the system, or the most visited, but it must have been fantastic to be here at the prime of the canals.
The canal was realigned in the past to allow for a road widening scheme and there are a couple of large turns which Amy made short work of. I quite like these Camp Hill locks despite their being a bit too much of a walk between them for comfort.
We were in a bit of a hurry so sped on through and past Sampson Road Wharf services where we could have stayed. We stopped at Catherine de Barnes and so paid a call to the Boat Inn. It is a Chef and Brewer food house where that is the main commodity. They have won accolades for their roast dinners it seems. Originally the pub was down by the canal with it own wharf and stables, down behind the pub. There is a cricket pavilion in roughly the same position as the old building that looks as though it was lost in the 1960's. Chef and Brewer always have real ale on, but nothing too exciting.
I had a beer from the Sharp's Brewery, found in Rock, Cornwall. I had never thought about it much but it seems it isn't an old established brewery that was bought out by a conglomerate, but was only founded in 1994 by Bill Sharp.. They don't own pubs, just brew beer. They were bought out by the massive Molson Coors Brewing Co in 2011, for £20 million!
I had a pint of the ubiquitous Doom Bar, 4%. It is named after the infamous sand bank at the mouth of the River Camel, near the brewery. This beer made up 90% of all the beer brewed and was apparently the reason that Molson Coors wanted to by the brewery as it was the fastest growing beer for three years in a row at the time. 24 million pints were brewed in 2010!! It is not my favourite beer but is perfectly acceptable. The head is a little weak and the taste doesn't seem to have any defining taste at any stage. Maybe that means it is all things to all men.
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