KNIGHTS ON WHITE CHARGERS

SUNDAY 25TH APRIL 2010

Time to move on, Wolverhampton and the flight of twenty one locks lay between us and the rural delights of the Shroppie. Surprisingly the water is very clear and clean and shoals of little fish could clearly be seen, but apart from that on the approach to Wolverhampton there was not much to delight the senses. Surrounding the canal on both sides are old factories and warehouses, but great swathes of it is now nothing but rubble as much has been demolished. Right in the centre, by the railway station, just at the top lock there is a lovely BW cottage and on the other side a garden and a small boat yard makes quite an attractive scene

The locks are all single, but with double bottom gates, neither Jacquie or I like crossing over from one open gate to the other side. Jacquie is happy to walk around the lock to open the other one, but I prefer to use the boat hook to either push open or pull shut the gate. When I cycle down to the next lock with the boat hook under my arm, Jacquie says I looked like her knight on a charger about to go jousting, should have gone to Spec-Savers I say.

A few spots of rain and soon we were at the bottom of the locks at the very attractive Aldersley Junction with the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal. Less than a mile later and we turned left through what was once a white painted bridge, where a stop lock lead us onto the Shropshire Union Canal. We moored for the night before the M54 intruded onto the tranquillity of the canal.