BCN Marathon 2012 - A pause in Tipton

BCN Marathon 2012 
Black Country Living Museum and the Dudley Tunnel
4 June 2012


Our early arrival at the Tipton meant that not only did we get the best mooring spot, we also had time to be tourists for a couple of hours.

Sunken day boats

 Old paddle gear and an ice breaker

 Day boats or Joeys

First I ha a quick look round the canal section of the museum which contains all sots of curios, even in the star of the show was away in London doing her Presidential stuff for the Queen.


Then there was time to do the 40 min tour of the Dudley Tunnels, something I had never done before. Its a good show and well worth the £5 charge. Mind you, Jeff was a bit huffy about the white plastic hard hat!

Trip boat in Dudley Tunnel

 The open roof of a cavern

Calcite

Start of "the rest of the tunnel"

All in all a good end to a much drier day.

BCN Challenge 2012 - the extraction

BCN Challenge 2012

Getting Out

4th June 2012

Getting to Walsall is only half the story. Having worked ourselves into the centre of the northern BCN we have to get out again.

Walsall Basin

The plan was to exit via the Walsall locks and then return to Wolverhampton via the Wyrley Essington - home in a day. But all does not necessarily go according to plan.

We started well enough and I was even getting quite enthusiastic about the locks, finding some interesting photos here and there. But then something odd at lock 4 - I was waiting for the boat to rise and provide a foreground but it didn't rise! A closer inspection revealed a bottom paddle jammed open with no prospect of a quick fix. We had no option but to reverse back down again, belatedly noticing a sign on the back of the paddle informing us that the flight was closed!

Walsall Locks

With our way north blocked our only way out is to the south down the Walsall Canal, again. Word was spread around the boaters and schedules were altered.

Walsall Canal at its most flattering

I guess it would be possible to get out via Ryders Green and bank to Wolverhampton in a day but with the extra days bank holiday why rush? So having turned at the end of Town Arm we slogged back down the Walsall, accompanied by the beauty of the Black Country Spine Road. Ryders Green was busy, with about four boats in the pounds working their way up to the Birmingham Level. 

An unusually busy Ryders Green (or The 8)

The mainline offers some options and we chose Brades, a quick route to the Old Main Line. It's here we first met the triathlete out on cycle training. He was going up Brades heading for Dudley but as we exited the straircase pair he emerged behind us. He had gone left and ended up in Smethwick! He tried again and turned right only to stop again as he had a puncture.

Ascending Brades Locks

Its amazing how the lilies have grown in a week, last Monday the were just a few on the surface and now they carpet the water margins leaving just a narrow navigation channel  in the middle.

Surprisingly the BCLM contained only two boats and we managed to take the trip boat mooring at the back, a first for us. As we had arrived at 3.00pm we had a bit of time to kill so after a quick look round the canal section of the museum we took the 40 min trip into the Dudley tunnels. This is something I have wanted to do for years and on reflection it is well worth the £5 cost - packed with interest and history.

Keith Sykes / Autumn Mist

Autumn Mist showed up a bit later and we whiled away a happy hour or two and sank some beers in the setting sun, swapping canal stories. 

BCN Challenge 2012 - Day Two

BCN Marathon Challenge 2012

Day Two - Birmingham to Walsall

Sunday 3rd June 2012

And so we begin again, the alarm ringing ninsistently at 7.30 demanding on a return to the fray.

The trouble was the rain which has been falling relentlessly all night. We donned full wet weather gear and re-evaluated out options. We were an hour behind schedule so Titford pools were out (we discovered later that the canal had been closed due to a pollution incident) and quite frankly we couldn't be bothered to climb up the three at Smethwick to do the Engine Arm with its clue. Instead we decided to do the loops and then head to Walsall as fast as possible, ensuring we picked the the 25 bonus points for a pre 2.00pm finish.

Rain lashed Atlas and Malus

The rain never let up, not even for a moment, and we were grateful that our locking was limited to the eight at Ryders Green. All the locks were set for us so it was just left to me to cycle ahead and open the top gates, splashing along a flooded towpath as I went.

You can feel the difference as you leave the New Mainline at Pudding Green Junction, suddenly it is shallow and slow. Even today we are losing bits of the BCN, the most recent secton being the Swan Arm (Wednesbury Old Canal) which is now blocked, reeded up and silted - an arm we navigated only four years ago.

2012 Plaque - black in respect for Graham Wharton our late Chair.

Then it's the Walall Canal and what can I say? It's an unprepossessing waterway at the best of times, but in the pouring rain in 8C it is a miserable place to be. 

Walsall Canal at Darlaston Road Bridge (the next day)

We joined a convoy of working boats, Saltaire in front and the Atlas / Malus combo behind. I have to give it to them - I struggled to maintain my station at times and then the inevitable - a keep net round the prop. I fell by the wayside on the sump commonly known Darlaston. Atlas and Malus came past and we then spent the last four miles trying hard to catch up.

Standing there in the rain gave me time to think. The Walsall canal has to me the dirtiest, shallowest, and most toxic canal on the system - but why? OK, its not loved by the locals who use it as the private tip, but what about the black sediment?

I guess it really is a sump, with numerous canals discharging into it in years gone by:

Ryders Green, Danks, Haines, Ocker Hill, Gospel Oak, Monway, Bradley Locks, Anson / Bentley, Walsall Locks and Bilston - all gritty industrial canals with sediment looking for somewhere to go.

We crept into the Walsall Town Arm at 1.20pm, joining a gaggle of boaters under a gazebo to sip a celebratory glass of champagne and hand in our log sheets - not quite the celebration that was planned. Having said hello to old friends we retired the the warmth of our craft and tried to get some feeling back into our extremities. Why exactly are we doing this?

Walsall Basin

An couple of hours later as we were dozing in front of a DVD there was a knock on the roof. Surprise surprise - it was Ian and Karen from Tacet and Jim from Starcross who had caught a train over from Birmingham. Their arrival was closely followed by Richard from Tawny Own and a group was assembled for a trip to the Blackcountryman Pub, a source of better beer than that offered by The Wharf Bar. 

Walsall town centre was a windswept wasteland, broken brollies cavorting along the high street like modern day tumbleweeds. 

The pub offered a warm haven with good well priced beer, so we stayed for an hour, or two, or three! We finally retired to the boat and settled down to watch that DVD before crashing out at 10.00pm - the end of a very wet and weary day.

Muskrat - last years winner and favourites for 2012

Prometheus - film review

Prometheus

Film Review

June 2012

This film came as something of a surprise, with my pre knowledge limited to the fact that it is a Sci Fi movie which is the staple fare for cinema trips with Jeff.

It wasn't long before I saw its links with Alien, Ridley Scott's 1979 classic which had us all on the edge of our seats watching on horror as Sigourney Weaver's stomach was rent asunder by the alien within.

This is Ridley Scott's latest offering and effectively represents a prequel to Alien, offering an explanation to where the Aliens came from. The film works well as a stand alone item, and a huge sprawling effort it is too. Whereas Alien was shot on the tight confines of a spacecraft, Prometheus is set on a far distant moon set in a constellation which was depicted in several places on earth, all drawn thousands of years apart.

After  years of suspended animation the crew of Prometheus wake to find a huge structure which is explored and is found to contain some unexpected inhabitants who share the same desire to incubate and inhabit host bodies. Whilst this is a straight lift from Alien, the gore is amplified and repeated, scenes which has my toes curling and my bum on the edge of the seat.

I wont spoil the plot, its well worth a look but perhaps the laurels have to go to Michael Fassbender and his depiction of the android David - who has a worrying tendency to have a mind of his own. The film is scary, very scary for a 15 and plays out in front of a stunning CGT backdrop. We saw it in 2D but on reflection I think it would have justified the the 3D premium.

The film's promoters have done much to distance this from the slightly overdone Alien franchise, seeking to attract a new audience. The reality is that this has enough of Alien to satisfy the 50 somethings like me who saw Alien in their teens, but enough fresh and new to get a whole new following.

The plotline is strong and unfinished, with the film's  heroine, Dr Elizabeth Shaw and a decapitated David set up for a continuation - and a film I will certainly go and see. 

Something old, something new, a little borrowed, out of the blue.

BCN Challenge 2012 - Day One

BCN Marathon Challenge 2012

Day 1 - Saturday

2nd June 2012


Other posts in this BCN Challenge series:
1. Day one - The long day (this post)
2. Day two - to Walsall
3. The extraction - getting out again
4. Pause at Tipton
5. Groundhog Day

So, for the second year we find ourselves preparing for the BCN Marathon Challenge, but things were not going according to plan.

Team Wand'ring Bark is a well established trio comprising myself (of course), Jeff and Mr Truth with each member bringing his particular skills to the party. The snag is that Mr Truth has not been well lately and the duties had been altered to leave him on the lighter steering duties. But then disaster struck, Mr Truth deteriorated and on the Friday found himself in hospital waiting for major heart surgery. So we had a dilemma - cancel our entry of press on with a crew of two.

After some discussion we decided to carry on so Friday night found us surging along the Staffs and Worcester to Aldersley Junction ready for an 8.00am start up the Wolverhampton 21.

 Ready for a Santa Pod start at Aldersley Junction

7.00am saw Autumn Mist arrive and take up a starting position in front of us but after a bit of gentlemanly discussion it was agreed that as we had been camped out at the junction all night we would  go first and draw a bottom paddle to ensure they kept up with us. 8.00 am sharp we we were off, completing the flight in a creditable  2 hrs 2 mins and turning every lock as we went. 

 Competitors on the Curly Wyrley

Our route took in the winding length of the Wyrley and Essington Canal, a waterway reborn in recent years. The bridge holes have been dredged, the bed in the Walsall area grappled clear and the rubbish removed. To be honest, the canal is now up to cruiseway standards and passing through some lovely countryside is well worth a visit. 

 Pelsall Common

 Cannock Extension Canal

Rushall Locks

The sections around Pelsall Common are particularly attractive, as is the Cannock Extension Canal.

BCNS Chair navigating

This section to Brownhills did have one dark shadow - we gave a couple of lads a lift and after sharing tea, sandwiches and about 5 hours of our lives we were rewarded by T stealing my i-pod! As ever my camera was handy so they were caught on film which has been given to the local Police. Hey ho - one tries to be nice...

After the light fingered due left us at Tesco's Brownhills we went up the Anglesey Arm meeting Tawny Owl before pressing on through the deep waters of Walsall Wood and the shallows of Aldridge where we nearly crashed into Collingwood coming through a bridge. Here we saw James and Amy (Lucky Duck), Jim (Starcross) and Ian and Karen (Tacet) who were experiencing the Challenge together.

 James and Amy

Jim

It all got a bit lonely for a while in the Longmoor area but we met a flurry of other boats rising through Rushall Locks and battling low water in one pound. There were the last competitors we would see for the next eight hours. Darkness was falling as we set off down the Perry Barr Locks, with the tunnel light needed from College Road - the nearest canal to my home. We pressed on into the dark, arriving at Salford junction just after 10.30pm and a BIG decision. 

Longwood

To progress or to stop?

The plan was to stop at Cuckoo Wharf and restart at about 5.00am on Sunday, but then there was the weather to consider. Light rain tonight or terrible rain tomorrow - a tough call. After much hand wringing we decided to carry on and make for the Birmingham Level in the city centre. All was OK till about 11.30pm when then it started to really rain, and rain, and rain. It was a Biblical deluge as we pressed on up the Aston and Farmers Bridge flights, squelching into a mooring behind Symphony Hall at 2.00am, falling into our beds in the latter stages of hypothermia and exhaustion.

Phew the end of 40 miles, 67 locks and 18 hours of continuous boating lulled to sleep to the sound of rain drumming on the roof.