Day Seventeen - Birmingham to Merry Hill

We had a leisurely morning strolling around Birmingham before leaving at noon. We were very impressed with the city. There was very little litter and at every turn there were summer flowers. The Birmingham Canal is particularly pleasant. There have been massive projects to rejuvenate the city centre and around the canals. This has included new shops, pubs, restaurants and offices. We walked to the Bull Ring Markets but unfortunately they are closed on Mondays. We visited the Bull Ring Shopping Centre alongside it and Lyn and I couldn’t resist visiting the Pumpkin Patch shop.
After a little grocery shopping we were on our way. Lyn and I had an easy day as there was only one lock. It was a tricky one as it needed to use an Allen Key to release the ratchet. It was the first time we have ever had to use an Allen Key and it had Bill and I perplexed until Henk twigged what was required. Bill steered through our longest tunnel so far, the Netherton Tunnel with a distance of 3027 yards. Lyn and I stayed inside and read our books as we went through. It took thirty minutes to get from one end to the other.
We arrived at Merry Hill at about four o’clock and moored directly opposite the Merry Hill shopping complex. Soon after a storm hit with very strong gusty winds. It has continued to rain. We’re hoping the weather will improve tomorrow.
We moored across from a Wetherspoon pub and we braved the wind and rain and raced to it. Thankfully, all went well and we had a good cheap meal. It was a far cry from last night’s attempt at a Wetherspoon.
Henk is teaching Lyn to do cryptic crosswords and the evening was spent sitting around the table trying to solve the tricky little devils!
Tomorrow is going to be a big day with thirty locks to do. This will be spread across the day rather than having thirty-six in a row when we did the Tardebigge Flight last Saturday. We are now going down in the locks and will be losing the height we gained at the top of the flight.
Photos: Birmingham Canal city centre; Henk and Bill coming out of the Netherton Tunnel; Bill doing the “hoovering”.