Out of the city - on towards the countryside.

Woke up this morning and the rain was lashing down again outside so we decided to have a lazy start to the day in Birmingham. Walked over to the sea life centre just next to the boat. In the queue a kind lady gave us a 2 for 1 voucher so that made it even more worthwhile! Had a very enjoyable couple of hours looking round and when we eventually left not only was the queue right round the building and down the street but the rain had eased off.

The decision was made to push on out and see how far we could get and moor anywhere this evening just to begin the journey home. The Birmingham and Fazeley locks were interesting as we met afew boats coming up including a 70 footer in the shortest pound of them all which caused for a bit of ingenuity and bumping to get us both past each other! If anyone wants to see what a canal is like when managed by British Waterways and with no 'pushy' society or support group to keep on top of them, take a visit down the Birmingham and Fazeley. Not only is it one of the most uninteresting and graffiti covered canals I have ever seen but the maintenance is totally non existant. Anti-vandal locks that don't unlock or lock, paddles falling apart, ratchets that don't allow being kept up due to pawls that don't fit, beams so heavy they needed 2 of us to open........... To be fair, all the people we met were extremely polite and friendly including the dope smoking tramp under the railways arch, the non speaking immigrants who helped lock us through one lock and the 2 drunks 'serenading' us in their own unique way as we left a lock under a bridge!

The whole place is quite an experience as you pass under scaffolding and beneath the shadows of the BT telecom tower.

We made the turn at the meeting of the M6 and the M42 and ran alongside for some time with the overhead gantries showing a restriction of 40MPH!

Further along and an attempt had been made to livenm up the otherwise drab surroundings by a narrowboat mural which was actually made out of different coloured bricks - quite clever and certainly an added interest.

Following the Nicholson guide and we noticed a part of the canal that simply disappeared before re-appearing again. there was no bridge, tunnel or aqueduct marked and so we were intrigued as to what it could be, well it was this.....

.....it can be seen on page 37 of the 'Birmingham and the Heart of England' edition and is, in fact, a building - an office block that one goes under for quite some time - a very different experience indeed!

Finally we broke free of 'Drabland' and began to see green and have managed to moor up opposite a field being harvested! Tomorrow, Fazeley Junction, a right turn and on into more familiar territory.