A long journey to Gailey

Last nights mooring spot at Coseley proved to be very good in an attractive and quiet location with no disturbance during the night.  The only down side was provided by the digger that started work around 6:30am at a site across the canal.  Finding mooring places in a big city is always a problem as in some areas local youths or drunks can make a stay unpleasant.  So it is useful to find new safe moorings.

Our journey today was one of our longest ever.  The reason was that I have a meeting tomorrow which required us to be in Gailey on the Staffs & Worcester Canal this evening so I could be picked up by car first thing in the morning.  And Gailey was some 15 miles and 21 locks from last night's mooring spot.   We looked at the practicalities last night, and from our previous experience the journey seemed reasonable.

Leaving Coseley Tunnel between Dudley and Wolverhamptoin

Wolverhampton Top Lock

Leaving Wolverhampton Bottom Lock

So we set off at 8:30 and in just under 2 hours we were at Wolverhampton top lock.   A surprisingly peaceful and old-world sight close to the busy modern city centre with a row of  terraced cottages and an original bridge.  Just over 3 hours later we were leaving the bottom lock, our passage through the flight being helped considerably by most of the locks being set in our favout (there was no need to fill a lock before we could enter) and our well practised procedure whereby Denise walked ahead to open the next lock's gates whilst I took the boat down and out of the previous lock..  After the bottom lock we turned right to travel north on the Staffs & Worcestershire Canal.

From then on we were back on a canal we have previously travelled many times, so it was simply a matter of taking the boat up to the maximum speed it could maintain on this fairly shallow canal (about 3 mph at most) and keep on going.  We arrived in Gailey and moored up at 16:30 tired but satisfied.