Farmers Bridge & Aston locks, Erdington

The journey between central Birmingham and Erdington was one of the toughest we've tackled. There are 13 Farmers Bridge locks and we'd been advised by the CRT and others that it wasn't safe to stay between these and the 11 Aston Locks.

Crossing the four way Old Turn Junction by the Sealife Centre we entered the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal and met the lovely Colin and Mick; CRT volunteers who would help us down the next 13 locks 😊

On the principle of 'you don't ask you don't get', Will had popped into the CRT office at Cambrian Wharf when we'd gone to empty our toilet the other day. The person behind the desk had said that volunteers had stopped for winter but they'd ring around and see if anyone would be willing to help. We were very grateful!

We began later than we'd hoped because some locks were being repaired and only opened at 11am. Colin and Mick were friendly and joked about with us but their help was invaluable. With Will driving, Vicky going ahead to set the locks and them working Rainboat through and closing up afterwards, we completed the 13 in an hour and a half without feeling too knackered.

The flight was really interesting, travelling underneath buildings and roads with rather a lot of grafitti on the walls. We thanked and said goodbye to Colin and Mick who were off for a well earned visit to the pub. We then took turns to eat lunch on the go while making our way towards the Aston flight of 11 locks. While descending these Will spotted several 'drug benches' where dealers were waiting to sell their gear. Vicky worried about a young woman dressed in a full length zebra stripe coat, sitting by herself, but didn't have the confidence to ask her if she was ok. 😪

Will had to work the last two locks by himself as Vicky had run out of energy. The sun was low and we were both pretty cold but we carried on for a while to get further away from the dodgier parts. Mooring up on a tree lined towpath with grass for the dogs was a relief and Will still had the energy to collect a Chinese takeaway for us!

After dark we heard some guys talking loudly outside, saying Rainboat's name. We kept quiet and they moved on after a bit, but when Vicky took the dogs out with the torch later on there were shouts from up the towpath. The next morning we saw two burned out motorbikes that weren't there before and made a hasty exit. Nothing had happened to us but we didn't want to hang around for a second night!もっと詳しく