Stratford to Gas Street Basin ……..
After our short stay in Stratford, we set off for Birmingham and the Gas Street Basin via the Stratford upon Avon Canal with it’s 54 locks in 25.5 miles. Most of the old bridges that cross the canal are “V” bridges i.e There is a large V in the railings, and the two halves of the bridge do not quite meet, this meant that when the horse drawn barges came to the bridge, the tow rope was slotted in to the V and the rope passed through the gap without having to disconnect or interrupt the tow.
For most of our journey along this canal on the Saturday, we were chased by a group of fierce looking Pirates, who turned out to be RAF PT Instructors on a Stag Weekend, their plan was to get as near to Birmingham on the Saturday evening, and then grab taxi’s to go into Birmingham Centre, then return to the boat, turn it around on the Sunday morning and go back towards Stratford from where the boat was hired. They were noisy and cheerful as they passed us at about 5 pm on the Saturday, saying that they would continue until about 8 pm, and then taxi the rest of the way in to Birmingham for the real party night. The following day, we set off at about 10 am, and from the opposite direction, met the “Hung-over pirates, going slowly and trying not to make any sudden movements.
Around midday on the Sunday, we came across a great bit of parking, as you can see from the photo below, I hope the driver managed to get out without any major injuries.
About an hour after we passed the Parked Car, we heard a loud cracking and snapping sound which seemed to come from the bank of the canal, when we looked back towards the noise, we were totally surprised to see a great big tree fall across the canal, about 25 yards behind us. When we stopped shaking, we phoned British Waterway’s who said they would send a man to check it out, they also said that the most probable cause was that the bank had been eroded by holiday makers going so fast that they caused a “Breaking Wave” which washed away the banks and exposed the tree root’s, then just a puff of wind from the wrong direction and down comes the tree. We finally arrived at Gas Street and were lucky to get a great mooring just below the Sealife Centre (a definite Must See if you get the chance), right in the middle of the action, the sunshine had bought out a large number of people who seemed intent on enjoying themselves. With so many things to see and do in and around the Basin, we decided to stay a couple of days before pushing on northwards towards the Llangollen Canal.
Malcolm and Annie
One of the old "V" bridges on the Stratford Canal
Pirates on the way to a Party
A neat bit of parking ?
Captain Annie in Control ....
What a shock that tree must have been. Don’t use up your nine lives too quickly!
You may find that it pays you to spend a bit of time in Brimingham as the stoppage on the Shroppie looks like being closed until the middle of October at least. The only other way to the Llangollen is up the Trent and Mersey which is very busy at the moment, especially through Harecastle Tunnel, due to the fact that the only way to get past the stoppage is to go the long way round!