A Visit to the Curly Wurly.

Monday 31st July 2017 moored back at the Dudley Black Country Museum.
A lovely sunny morning at the Dudley Black Country Museum.

On Wednesday, we have to go home for the weekend as we have booked to visit the Shuttleworth Collection. MM has been booked into Sherborne Wharf Marina in the centre of Birmingham, which we used four years ago, so we had a spare day today and we decided to go and visit one of the less popular canals in the Birmingham Canal Network (BCN). We are going to explore a bit of the Wyrley & Essington Canal, colloquially known as the Curly Wurly because it is very twisty!
As we left the Dudley Museum moorings, the reflections in the water made a pretty picture.

The water on this stretch of canal was still crystal clear, but the downside was that it was full of reeds and lilies, which kept on getting caught on the propellor - just like the leaves in autumn.

The entrance to the Curly Wurly is about six miles west, very close to the top of the Wolverhampton Flight of 21 locks. On the way, we passed through the Coseley tunnel. Once again, it is hard to realise that we are in the middle of a huge industrialised city.

At Horseley Fields Junction, we turned on to the Curly Wurly.

It was not picturesque! It was pleasing to see the proliferation of water lilies, both white and yellow, but sadly the lilies were losing the battle with plastic and tin detritus in the water - bottles and cans by the thousands.

After a couple of miles, we arrived at Rookery Bridge where there is a very large retail complex and the site of one of the few places where we could turn MM round. Halfway through turning around, the engine cut out as we picked up something on the propellor and we drifted helplessly into some sycamore trees on the far bank. R grabbed the long pole and poled MM around and back to the towpath side.

Once MM was tied up, R went down the weed hatch to remove an upholstery cushion and its evicerated stuffing from the propellor - although M said it looked suspiciously like a Womble!

On our way back to the main line, we passed an unusual "bridge" sculpture made of stainless steel that reflected our passing underneath - literally!

Back at the junction there was another reminder of the juxtaposition of the different forms of transport as we watched the train crossing above us with a road bridge in the distance.

The junction is less than half a mile from the top of the Wolverhampton flight of locks, which we haven't yet done but have long wanted to. There is a short canal "arm" marked on the guides - but not a turning point. So, M walked along to the top lock to see if there was room to turn MM, as we would have liked to go down there and turn around. On her way, she passed this example of the old architecture alongside the new - which seemed to work well together, unlike some of the examples in the city centre.

At the top lock, M concluded that it would be very tight to try to turn MM in the space available, but at least she did get to see the Wolverhampton top lock, which looked very pretty. We will save that lock flight for another time as, for now, it would take us in the wrong direction.

We had planned to do this flight in 2013 but it was closed for repairs as one of the lock side walls had collapsed.
There are acres and acres of abandonned industrial sites all around Birmingham. If you wanted to build two hundred thousand homes, you could build them all here without encroaching on any greenbelt or flood plain. Most sites are just flat - this one had the skeletal remains of a mobile crane, stark against the sky.

If it wasn't plastic bottles and tin cans floating in the canal, it was semi-submerged shopping trolleys, this one had one leg sticking up like a periscope.

Two former working boats passed us, a motor and a butty with what seemed to be Scouts and Guides on board. It appeared they were camping in the holds - the boys on the motor and the girls on the butty. It looked like they were having fun!

As good safe moorings are not common around here, we went back to the Black Country Museum and moored up there again for the night.

On board, we toasted the Curly Wurly with one of Cadbury's free gifts!

Today: 16 miles, 0 locks and 7.2 hours (2 days).
Trip: 148 miles, 141 locks and 117.4 hours.