'To bend with apples the moss'd cottage trees, and fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;'
Having left behind the rubbish filled waters of of the Birmingham canals we are moored this evening, in beautiful countryside, where our 'view from the kitchen' is just an expanse of harvested fields! We are near Curdworth on the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal.
Our journey today has proved fairly uneventful and we have encountered just three boats! The single locks of Camp Hill and The Garrison are such a relief after those big locks and heavy gates on the Grand Union. The first couple of hours from Catherine de Barnes was rather cold but the sun broke through in the late morning and we were soon enjoying a beautuful, sunny, Sunday afternoon.
The canals that pass through big cities seem to attract so much rubbish but we have never seen an armchair floating mid channel before! Quite a hazard! And, much like railway cuttings and bridges the Canals seem to attract so much graffiti, some of it quite artistic and some just a mess. We encountered lots of it today especially through the Garrison Locks. These take us out of the centre of Birmingham to Salford Junction where the Grand Union meets the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal right under Spaghetti Junction. An amazing piece of engineering and as cars and lorries speed overhead on the M6 this sleepy canal weaves it's way, hidden from the motorists beneath tons of concrete road and pillars.
M6 over the Grand Union over the River Tame
Which lane shall get in?
Rather soggy armchair!
No comments:
Post a Comment