CHERTSEY

BOATS, BRIDGES, BOILERS ... IF IT'S GOT RIVETS, I'M RIVETTED
... feminist, atheist, autistic academic and historic narrowboater ...
Likes snooker, beer, tea, rivets and solitude, and is strangely fascinated by the cinema organ.
And there might be something about railways.
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Thursday 13 April 2017

Surprise wildlife in Brownhills

Day 6, Longwood Boat Club to Brownhills, 4 hours

What looked like a couple of hours on the map turned out to be a four hour slog through a mainly very shallow canal occasionally augmented with rocks. But the end was in sight so we soldiered cheerfully on.

Before we left I caught up with Captain Ahab loading the Jam Butty, and finally got to see that delightful craft in the flesh (having played a small part in introducing the Captain to its rear end and thence to its creator).

We were pretty much the first boats to arrive at the site of the gathering, and following a brief encounter with another rock, managed to get in reasonably close to the bank. There are moorings on both sides and at first the offside looked more attractive, but we couldn't get in there and we just might be better off where we are, as there are a lot of dog walkers the other side. Also we have Tesco's.

We wended our way over the footbridge to take Ricky for his evening constitutional and found a path weaving through extensive woodlands. It was lovely and to be honest not what I had expected of Brownhills. Even more surprising, on the way back, just as it was getting dusky, we saw a group of deer - I think they were female red deer - feet from the path. They seemed not at all nervous end even when Ricky barked they only retreated a few yards.

Jim is now happily reading the Walsall Express and Star, which is apparently big on domestic murders.





Location:Brownhills, outside Tesco's

5 comments:

  1. When we were there in August last year we saw loads of fish in the clear water.

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  2. Ah! The Express & Star! (The "Walsall" is a local edition of the main Wolverhampton paper.
    Still locally-owned and the biggest selling regional evening paper in the country. I love it!

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    Replies
    1. Yes, we were regulars readers of the main version when we lived on the butty at Stratton and shopped in Cannock. We love it too!

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  3. There is an old boatmans ditty to help remember the number of locks between Brownhills and Camp Hill "Moshes two, Ganzies seven, the New Thirteen and the Lousy Leven"
    My apologies to the later David Blagrove if I have got the local spelling wrong!

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