Following the long, hot and very dry summer, we expected our September 2026 Watermark trip to be very restricted: as we left home, almost all the locks in the area had very limited opening hours. So the first few days we just pootled around on the flat – exploring down to the top of the Tardebigge flight, going down the N Stratford far enough to visit the amazing Wedges bakery, and heading into the centre of Birmingham to meet (from the train station) 3 friends of our 20 year old daughter who were joining us for the rest of the week.
We spent 2 nights moored near Gas Street Basin and were surprised at how quiet and calm it was overnight, despite being close to city centre pubs and clubs. Not so keen on the bright street lights all night though!
Fortunately, it had rained a bit (in Birmingham, at least!) the previous week, and we had overnight rain a couple of times, so lock restrictions were lifted in the second part of the week. This meant we were able to give the 3 novice 18-20 year olds experience of both urban (Farmer’s Bridge Flight) and rural (Lapworth Flight) locks: they certainly earned their keep! They were also impressed by the length (nearly 2 miles) of the tunnel just north of the Alvechurch base.
Safe to say the 3 newbies are now all canal converts: and 67 foot of narrowboat is long enough to share with 4 ‘youth’ without them (or us) feeling that their space was too invaded!
