Yesterday we stayed put and the sun shone once again. We packed a picnic then set off into the
water park and stopped off at a couple of the bird hides to see if the
Kingfisher was around but no luck today.
We did see a couple of Snipe, Teal and lots of Lapwings and we think also a
couple of Gadwell but not 100% sure, also the usual ducks and a couple of
heron, so worthwhile stopping by. We walked on around the park the other way today and around the big
lake and stopped at one of the smaller ponds for our lunch. It was lovely sitting in the sun watching a cormorant
and some ducks. After our break, we
carried on around the park and eventually came back to the hides, popped back
in just in case the Kingfisher wanted to make an appearance, but no not today,
so walked back to the boat. This water
park with a nature reserve with four hides is really good and well worth a walk
around and the best thing it is free and right off the canal as well, what more
could you ask for.
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| Approaching Curdworth Bottom Lock |
We are chugging onto Curdworth today and so have eleven
locks and a small tunnel to do, so we set off fairly early (well for us) to the
first lock.
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| Lock by Dog & Doublet Pub |
No sun this morning, rather
overcast but at least it is dry, so can’t really complain.
Unfortunately the first three locks were
against us, so I had to empty them first but didn’t take too long.
Also on these locks the bottom gate is only
one, on most locks there is two gates, it makes it easier as you don’t
have to go around the other side to shut the other gate, but the down side is
that these gates are usually heavy and these were no exception!
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| Lock by M42 |
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| Lock by M6 |
At the fourth lock, we met a boat coming down and there was
two behind him so that was good as that meant the remaining seven locks were
set for us, so we worked our way up the locks with the M42 running alongside
for a while and then under the M6 toll bridge.
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| Curdworth Tunnel |
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| Welcome to Curdworth Sign |
Before we knew it, we were at the top and leaving the locks
behind us. We chugged on along the canal
and through Curdworth Tunnel all 57yds of it!
We moored between the tunnel and the next bridge at Curdworth.
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| Moored at Curdworth |
We had lunch then went for a walk up into the
Curdworth. There is a post
office/convenience store, a couple of pubs and a nice church which we had a
look around. We then walked back to the
boat and just chilled out.
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| Curdworth Church |
We are off into Birmingham tomorrow and go straight through
from here as the places in between are not the best for mooring so we have lots
of locks and a few bit of mileage to do, so an early start for us!
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