Day 22 and 23. BCN Clean-up.

Hiya family, friends and followers.

What an incredible weekend we have had.

Saturday morning, we all had breakfast, gathered our equipment and gloves and set off for a day of clearing the Dudley Canals. We were on a mission to clear the Dudley No2 canal between Gosty Hill and Blowers Green as part of their annual clean-up. It beggars belief what people throw in the canal or should I say dump.

The first of the motorbikes. Where possible details such a licence plate numbers were taken and sent off to the appropriate authorities, which is required by law.

The trailer of a caravan. Goodness only knows how they managed to push this into the canal, because it took at least ten of us to get it out.

The first of many tyres. People who do this to our canals have no idea of the damage they are doing and they probably do not care, which is incredibly sad. As boaters we ride up over these things and get things around our props, which can take hours to get off. I recall last years cruise up the Walsall Canal, where we picked up a Sprung mattress. It took four CRT guys and ourselves nearly four hours to get most of the mattress off, so we could get into Walsall basin, where we got the rest of the mattress off. This left both of us feeling rather poorly and seeking medical advice, because of Weil's Disease. Thankfully we did not have Weil's, but had picked up some sort of a virus from the water, which knocked us out for a few days. Now if the person or people who had not dumped that mattress, we would not have gone through all of that. The pollution that these things cause is dreadful.

After a day of cleaning up, we headed back to base and had a fabulous evening of laughter, chatter and a couple of pints, which were well earnt.

The evening was also a party to say goodbye to Swallow, who is moving on to new owners and pastures new. A lot of cheese and wine was consumed, as well as other drinks.
Sunday dawned and of course the clocks went forward by an hour, so we were all up an hour earlier and ready for the Sunday, Mother's Day clean-up.

A sofa was dragged out and I pulled out a carpet. I wonder if they came from the same place?

Today we had three motorbikes amongst all the other rubbish. It was somewhat satisfying to have taken all the rubbish out, which was picked up by boat by CRT and the BCN Society. The rubbish was then put into huge skips and taken away. I know on day one we collected around 20 tonne. Just think if this had not been dumped, how much cleaner the canals would be for us all to enjoy. It amazes me that the wildfowl still lives on our canals despite the weather. At the moment Coots can be seen nesting along the canals and they are actually including rubbish into their nests. This cannot be right and should not be allowed.

Rubbish is not just in our canals, it also lies on the banks of our canals. This rubbish is from a business property, but a lot of homeowners are also allowing their rubbish to litter the canal banks. More education is needed and if need be perhaps fines should be in place for those who do not clean-up their own rubbish.
Today being Sunday was an early finish, but we all had a lot of fun. I thoroughly enjoyed slinging a grappling hook all weekend and finding things in the canal. it actually becomes a competition, to find things. If your hook rides over things, you become determined to get whatever it is out.
The ITV news cameras came down to film the clean-up and I did a short interview to camera, not that I will see it because we do not have the TV when cruising. Getting involved with a local clean-up group, is such a wonderful thing to do and a great way of meeting wonderful folk. It is a very satisfying cause, to keep our canals and waterways clean. Do a little good and meet like minded people. Not only that it will keep you fit. If you have read my posting, and feel you want to get involved, then why not look up a local clean-up group or contact The Canal and River Trust. If in Birmingham, you can also contact BCNS. Many of the people on this weekend we already knew, but we did meet some new lovely people.
Now it is time to put my feet up and have a quiet evening.

Pop back soon xxx