Date: Mon, 02 Jul 2001 23:14:19 +0100 From: nbrumpus@lineone.net Reply-To: Canals To: Canals Newsgroups: uk.rec.waterways Subject: Trip Report - Rumpus Goes to Brum - Part the Sixth Wednesday June 18th We spent a good deal of today at Walsall Top, whilst we got a new temporary weld-it-on-top-of-the- gearbox gear lever made up, We both visited the Canal Museum at the Top Lock, where it was Schools Week so "ATLAS", one of BW's Heritage Boats, was moored outside the Museum for the children to look at. A good job really, as the alleged "boatman's cabin" replica inside the Museum is nothing like the real thing - the staff would like to see it go but it was built by a Training Scheme........... We eventually set of down the flight in the afternoon, seeing the rush-hour traffic stationary on the roads as we moved steadily on. The run into the Town Basin was simple, the moorings excellent, the Victorian- style pub not half bad and the music in the Wharf Bar was hot salsa, with the local club practising their dancing - quite a pleasant end to a gentle day. Thursday June 19th Kevin Maslin came down to collect Susan and whisk her off to Tamworth, whilst after visiting the local Wilkos to stock up on essentials (a spud peeler and razor blades) I set off single-handed towards Ryder's Green. By this time, we'd already come to the conclusion that Rumpus wasn't mechanically reliable enough to undertake the BCN Challenge Cruise, so we had called it off. Progress was slow, with frequent WHM's being compounded by the wind which on one occasion span me round completely on the offside - only the fortunate arrival of a rubbish clearing boat who turned me round saved me on that occasion, as I was becoming increasingly knackered and frustrated. I was interested to see that the copper works by the M6 is still standing, largely untouched but not used for (I would imagine) a good number of years - anyone know why? Eventually, the gearbox would have no more and we expired totally by Midland Road Bridge - just as the kids were due to come out of school! Once again, Kevin (and his invaluable BCN leaflet) were on hand, and in due course a knight in shining armour (aka a Range Rover) appeared: Ken Field came out and after a trip back to Tipton got me going again an hour or two later. Whilst I was waiting, I attracted the inevitable audience of local kids who were on the whole quite well behaved. Of course, I got "Where's Rosie and Jim?" in a broad Walsall accent, but nobody spit on me off the bridge, nobody stoned me and one lad actually got an apple for retrieving the boathook from the offside when I knocked it in whilst scrubbing the cabin roof to kill time. We got going just after the pubescent pre-teen female tobacco experimenters appeared - any later and it might have got slightly more bothersome. As it was, I eventually crawled into Ocker Hill moorings absolutely knackered, to be whisked off by Kevin for a pub meal, as no way was I up to cooking. Brian L Dominic NB Rumpus Web Sites: NB Rumpus: http://www.nb-rumpus.com Golden Valley Light Railway: http://website.lineone.net/~gvlr/index.htm Coming to GIG2001?? Go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GiG-2001 to subscribe to the mailing list! ---