Day 25: A devil of a job.

Hello Friends and Followers.

Wow well what can I say?
We are both absolutely knackered. After the issues with the mattress yesterday, once we arrived in Walsall and got ourselves organised, it as late when I did us something to eat. Both of us were in bed before 10pm and there I was thinking we would sleep like logs. Ha ha ha, how wrong was I. We both had such a restless night and it had nothing to do with problems with the locals, it was all down to the wind blowing a flippen hooley. Keith was feeling a little unwell, which caused us concern because of Weil's disease, which is something all boaters should be aware of, especially when the water is filthy, which it was yesterday. We were drinking tea at midnight, listening to the wind howling around the boat and waves lapping against the stern.

With us both having a fretful nights sleep, we wee awake early doors for another cuppa. We discussed what we would do with the day and decided that we would take an early walk around Walsall.
My first job was to walk Paddy and then feed him and Marmite. I then made us some Porridge for breakfast. We then closed the boat up and took a walk into the town centre, which is just a short walk from the Waterfront.

Walsall Town Centre is really rather plesant and quite a surprise. It is larger than I thought it would be and really quite clean.

Sister Dora statue. Dorothy Wyndlow Pattison, better known as Sister Dora (16 January 1832 - 24 December 1878), was a 19th-century Anglican nun and a nurse in Walsall, Staffordshire.

Having had a nosey around Walsall, we got back to the boat and prepared to leave in rather brisk winds.

I literally had my fingers crossed that we would not pick up anything major on our prop today. We made it phew to Ryders Green Locks without a hitch which was a godsend. Up through lock 8 and I walked up to lock 7 to set it. Keith and the boat did not follow, so I went to see what was going on, only to see Keith waving his arms. He was stuck fast on the bottom and in a pound littered with Asda shopping trolleys, so I sent him some water down and finally Hadar was underway again and soon in the lock.

A couple of locks on and we stopped to check the prop, only to find rope, bags and numerous other things wound around the prop. The Walsall Canal was proving to be a test in more ways than one. I was actually relieved to get to the top of Ryders Green and onto the main line again.

We went up through Brades Hall Locks and are now moored up for a few days at Neptunes Wharf, Tipton. I think we both need a couple of days to recover from the last couple of days.
The sad thing is I actually like the Walsall Canal, what I cannot be doing with is all the rubbish. In some places it was Rubbish Soup. If they got rid of the rubbish and dredged more boaters may use it. Walsall is so worth a visit, but maybe not by canal if they do not do something about the rubbish.

Pop back soon xxx