Author: Kev Baldry

As I have done recently, I nipped into work for a few hours on Saturday morning. In the past I have gone in on public transport and them walked home. However, I needed to drop some stuff off and bring some stuff home so used the car and went for a walk from work, returning to pick up the motor afterwards.

In a previous life, I was a very keen geocacher. What? It’s a sort of high tech treasure hunt – There’s a video down below that should explain it.

So why am I telling you this ?

Well, many years ago, I hid a number of caches on the canals around Birmingham. All of these caches made a sort of trail which could be followed finding all the caches. The name of the series was “Brummie Cut” and, even if I say so myself, was quite popular.

The series formed a six mile loop along the Grand Union, Birmingham Fazeley and Digbeth branch canals. Six miles was just about the right distance for today so that’s what I decided to do.

I left work around ten and was soon on the towpath moving around the loop in an anti-clockwise direction.

The first thing that I noticed was that there canal was pretty much frozen. On the Grand Union section there were some great, long, icicles dangling from the bridges. The air temperature was a tad below zero but the ground was dry. Over the entire walk, I only encountered a few icy patches.

I was moving mainly downhill dropping down through the five Saltley locks. After a couple of miles I found myself at Salford Junction underneath Spaghetti Junction having passed a couple of snazzy pieces of art.

A left turn took me onto the Birmingham Fazeley canal head ing back into the city.

This time I was regaining the height lost earlier plus some with a total of eleven ‘up-hill’ locks. After passing through Aston I finally came to Aston Junction where the ways split with the right turn for the city centre and the left back towards Digbeth.

I walked through the edge of Aston university before the next flight of locks – Ashted Locks. For anyone keeping count, I did five locks down, eleven up so I should now be going down. At the foot of the first lock was the entrance to Ashted Tunnel. I could see someone coming the other way so waited for them to emerge before venturing in. This narrow canal required walking with a bit of a list to starboard but as it was only ninety four metres long, I was soon out the other end.

A few more locks and Curzon Street Tunnel before another left hander and I was on the home leg. After nipping below Great Barr Street I was back where I had started. Five minutes later I was back at work, climbing into the car ready to drive home.

On arrival at home, I took the dogs out for a couple of miles each to bring my daily total to just shy of ten miles.

In what is becoming a bit of a trend, I had swapped my Friday afternoon at work for a Saturday morning. The benefit of this is that I can use, even quieter than usual, public transport to go to work then walk home afterwards giving me a change of scenery.

If this were a film, this is where the speeded up clock sequence would go to indicate that I went to work, did some stuff and then …

I got changed into walking trousers, long sleeved base and soft shell top. In the back of my pack I had my empty sandwich box (cheese if you need to know).

From work I was soon on the canal heading towards Birmingham City Centre via a couple of tunnels.

It was still foggy and chilly but with my gloves and wolly hat I was fine.

Approaching the city centre the fog was still hiding the top of the BT tower.

There was a slight diversion from under the tower up to St. Pauls church but I was able to regain the towpath on Newhall Street next to what used to be the Science Museum.

There was noticeably a lot more people about mainly couples or small families. I think that this is one of the few goods that have come out of the recent Coronavirus situation namely that more people are getting out to exercise.

I continued up towards The Sealife Centre then along the Birmingham Main Line through Winson Green towards Smethwick. Just before Smethwick, the canal splits. Originally, the canal rose via three locks before descending a couple of miles later. In 1827, Thomas Telford’s NEW Birmingham main line was opened to allow lock free travel between Smethwick Junction and Bromford Junction. The low-res map on my watch indicated that I had to go left along the new section.

I needed to go along the canal as far as Kenrick Way but the nearer I got to my exit the more I realised that I should have taken the old branch. No problem but I did have a short steep climb to negotiate. Once on Kendrick Way, I passed the staircase that I should have ascended from the Old Main Line. I have been this was before but moving in the opposite direction as part of the Sandwell Six Towns walk.

From the end of Kendrick Way, I dropped down to a footpath running parallel to the Midland Metro for a short distance before having to turn off.

I was soon on the busy Birmingham Road just a stone’s throw from the West Bromwich Albion ground. I played safe and crossed the rood via the footbridge before following the public footpath signs along a drive towards the golf and cricket clubs. There was a guy stood next to his car on the drive and after the briefest of chats he assured me that I was on the right path.

I followed the drive and signs, walking past the club house, before turning right (I had to turn the M5 was in front of me).

Heeding the warning signs, I continued around the golf course, across a slightly muddy field and into a rather muddier copse.

I continued keeping the motorway on my right until I popped out of the trees next to Swan Pool, part of Sandwell Valley Park.

This part of my trek was probably the busiest, there were people everywhere. I made my way around the pool weaving in and out of family groups eventually crossing Park Lane (not the one on the Monopoly board) and into a slightly quiet part of the park, at least until I got to the next pool.

There was a slipway here leading down into Forge Mill Pool which was covered in geese. Obviously they had taken the hint the Swan Pool was not for them and had all congregated here.

I continued alongside the River Tame passing fewer people but two horses before arriving at Newton Road. Beyond this it was a lot quieter as I climbed gradually uphill to join the aptly named Tame Valley Canal. Another right turn and I was now heading towards Salford Junction better known as Spaghetti Junction some five miles distant.

Yet again there were a lot more people along here than I usually encounter but not too many that I couldn’t get into a good rhythm.

The canal is level as far as Perry Bar Locks where it drops through seven locks. From this vantage point I got a good view of the new stadium being build for the Commonwealth Games at what was The Alexander Stadium. It’s going to be massive.

I continued along the canal dropping down four more locks near Witton then another couple before swapping sides just before disappearing under the M6 / A38 / A38M.

Underneath Spaghetti, I left the Tame Valley Canal swapping it for the Birmingham Fazeley.

Three miles later, I waved farewell to the excellent canal system (technically I didn’t actually wave) to walk along a busy stretch of the Chester Road before ascending up the hill to the quiet roads of Castle Bromwich.

I soon left these quiet streets to skirt around the houses on a footpath between Parkfields and the M6 down below.

I arrived home shortly afterward having covered 22.7 miles in a gnat’s under five and a half hours averaging 14:30 per mile.

Luckily, even though they had been left alone all day, the dogs had behaved with no messes on my return. Bonus !

The walk went well, I stayed dry and even saw some sunshine. The vest / pack performed well and my legs only hurt a tiny bit (they were a bit achey and sore later).

Feeding the figures into the Route 66 tracker, I see that I am about to cross over the Mississippi River, leaving Illinois and entering my second state – Missouri with less that two thousand mile to do.

I’ll lump this last week’s items together in this one post as not a great deal has happened.

Monday, we had a rest day. Very rare especially as the dogs need walked daily. However, they did a few miles extra at the weekend and were rather tired so we took it easy.

Tuesday, we held out until after work then we did the ‘usual’ two mile loop with each dog then I walked to meet the other half from work. Nothing special but six miles in the bank.

On to Wednesday, I took the puppies for a two and a half miler each before work.

After checking the plan, I noticed that I still had nearly five miles to do so after work, I dragged out the treadmill for a virtual walk around that there London courtesy of Zwift.

Thursday followed the same pattern with a couple miles in New York’s Central Park.

To top off the week, I just did a couple of the local loop with one dog each time – a nice easy four miles.

I was up nice (?) and early but looking out of the window all I saw was rain – and plenty of it. I checked the forecast and it was due to dry up by the afternoon. Now if I took the dogs out in the rain, I would have to stop and dry the first one off before going out with pooch number two and then the hassle of drying number two dog off. I decided to take myself out in the wet stuff and leave the puppies until later.

For a bit of a change, and that’s getting harder with the Covid restrictions limiting exercise to one’s locale, I headed towards Chelmsley Wood.

The rain didn’t stop but after nearly three miles, I turned around and started back. It was still dark as I passed the shopping centre but grabbed a quickie photo showing the ASDA sign reflecting off the puddles.

Early afternoon, with the rain easing slightly, I had to run an errand which resulted in me walking home from nearby Kingshurst. Only a mile and a half but as it had stopped raining on my return, I saddled up the dogs (one at a time) for another mile and a half each.