Birmingham bound

 

We pulled the ropes through the rings at 08.10 from our mooring and were soon on our way to Birmingham. The plan was to get in there about mid day and hope there was some decent moorings spare. Passing Dickens Heath and normally there water cascading down over these steps,but unfortunately today it seemed the pumps were off.

After that last heavy lift bridge here is an easier one for Carolyn . Just stick your key in and press a couple of buttons. Being rush hour there were a few impatient drivers waiting on either side.

There are a few indicators we use to judge safe places to moor. The amount of Graffiti is one and when you see boats like the one above with all their windows boarded up it tells you not to stop here.

Passing under the Guillotine stop lock at Kings Norton Junction and it is always left in the up position .We still haven't had the pleasure of operating a Guillotine lock yet ,but hopefully sometime in the future we will come across one.

As we passed Birmingham University this boat caught our eye Its called the Ross Barlow and is a Hydrogen powered boat. The Hydrogen is stored on-board in a large-scale metal hydride storage system, which can handle large amounts of hydrogen at room temperature. The hydrogen is released by decreasing the pressure to feed the barge's fuel cell (an electric battery, in effect). I somehow cant see it catching on in the near future.

With the Sun out we eventually get to Gas street . There were a few moorings here,but we found that when we were here last year it gets very busy and noisey so we prefer somewhere a bit more peaceful if possible.

Then how lucky are we, there was just one mooring spot left at Brindley place and it was on the end where we prefer to be.There is very little foot traffic so it’s an ideal spot. These moorings are only for 48 hours and with that not being long enough for Carolyn to visit every shop in Birmingham we wail have to move in a couple of days. No sooner are we moored and Carolyn is off down to the city centre for some retail therapy.

                                                                                                  Happy Days