Heading for the BCN

Friday 16 March

Didn't get a response from BW yesterday to my query about the Armitage stoppage, so we decided to make the trip round by the Birmingham Canal Navigations anyway. Now the thing about the BCN is that some of it is 'bandit country', that is, the local youth cannot be relied on to adopt a socially responsible attitude to narrow boaters bringing welcome trade to their town. In fact, if so minded, they are quite capable of heaving a half brick at you, or of letting go (or worse, cutting) your mooring ropes at night.

Nonetheless, unless areas of the system are to be abandoned to these latter day escapees from A Clockwork Orange, it is important to continue to use these canals, though with caution and common sense. In particular, if touring the country in a camper van, one would not expect to be able to park in a city centre car park overnight and have a quiet night. Similarly, choosing an overnight mooring in the city is a matter of selecting somewhere not on a walking route from one pub to another, and where there are already other boats moored. Boaters' Groups such as the canals list ( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/canals-list/) are excellent sources of advice to the novice in such situations.

In any event, it's time Sanity encountered the heart of the system, so when we got to Great Haywood Junction today, we turned right onto the Staffs and Worcs canal, rather than continuing on our usual direct route towards Alrewas. We stopped for the night on Tixall Wide, a remarkable stretch which widens right out into a lake, and is well stocked with wildlife. There are conflicting accounts for this phenomenon, but the striking thing is that the water is deep right across; many other places have wide bits of canal, such as Poynton indeed, but these are caused by subsidence, and there is usually only a narrow channel down one side for the boats.

Saturday 17 March

We had a fair bit to do today, so set off at eight, in cool, breezy and cloudy conditions, though the forecast was much more positive for today, though not for Sunday or Monday.

The stretch from Tixall to Gailey, at the start of the summit of the Staffs and Worcs, has not been much changed since Brindley built it in 1772. It winds about a lot, and the locks turn up in ones or twos from time to time, of varying heights, and with basic gates and paddle gear. It is altogether a delightful canal, and was reasonably quiet this early in the year - at the height of the season it gets very busy. The weather did indeed improve, and by lunchtime we had reached Penkridge, the only town of note in this length.

Since we were making steady progress, and the facilities moorings were free, and the toilet tank getting pretty full, we took the opportunity to pump out, then had a late lunch on the visitor mooring nearby.

After a quick bit of shopping (there's a good co-op store here), we set off for the final stretch to Gailey for the night, being followed up the locks by a crew being trained in these dark arts. It seems that the Royal Bank of Scotland Boat Club has a couple of boats its members can hire, but they have to do a day's training course first.

We arrived at Gailey at about four without much incident, and proceeded to do a bit of wood cutting (Sheila) and cooking (Bruce) before settling down for the evening's relaxation.

Weather forecast for tomorrow is not very good, with a possibility of snow even, but we don't mind that under the circs. It will keep the youth of Wolverhampton tucked up at home in front of the computer, rather than out chucking things at us.