Major's Green, Solihull

On Thursday October 9th we returned to Albert at Sherborne Wharf and our friends Anne & Edward Winter joined us for a short trip south. In the afternoon we headed out of central Birmingham along the Worcester & Birmingham Canal.  The weather was autumnal but dry. Edward steered for most of the afternoon and found the journey alongside Birmingham University and Cadbury's particularly interesting. Passing the university the Ross Barlow hydrogen powered boat was on the move. It was travelling very slowly, if that was intentional or because of because of some technical issue we probably won't know, but it took ages to clear a bridge hole. Hopefully it wasn't intending to go far.

Unique slow-down mechanism near Bournville

We turned off the Worcester & Birmingham at Kings Norton and headed down the Stratford Canal. It was getting dark as we approached The Drawbridge at Shirley and the evening "rush-hour" was in full swing. I waited to operate the electrical bridge to try and upset as few car drivers as possible but the road is obviously a rat-run and the queues rapidly built-up. Edward took Albert through the bridge without much delay but driver frustration had obviously built-up and as the road barriers each side of the bridge lifted two cars (an Audi and a Mercedes) "went for it" and faced each other across the bridge. The Audi backed down, but not after some confrontation. It then faced another Mercedes and an even more aggressive stand-off ensued. By this time we had nearly left the scene. As we looked back into the distance they appeared to have sorted themselves out and traffic was flowing freely.

We stopped just around the corner at a nice quite spot between Major's Green and Dickens Heath.