Brummie Weekend

On Saturday afternoon, we went to Birmingham to meet up with our friends from what has previously been known as the Young Working Boaters Society, to think about the future of the club. It was a really good meeting and although there is a lot of detail still to work out, we are feeling really positive about it.  Basically YWBS has always just been a social group, but we want it to be something more. To find a way to make it a club which actively tries to get more young people involved in boating and the canals, not just in historic boats. And so the Young Waterways and Boating Society was born, and we have some exciting plans for 2013. More will follow, but watch this space!

After the meeting, we went out for a curry and a drink. The centre of Birmingham on a Saturday night is an experience not to be forgotten, but we had fun, and rolled into the back cabins of Lamprey and Victoria at about 1am. James and I shared the cross bed in Lamprey - it is titchy! We aren't tall, but only I actually fit. James was a tad too long for it. I thought it was delightfully cosy and had a lovely night's sleep! 

In the morning we set off to help Victoria down Farmer's Bridge and Aston locks. With four of us, we whizzed down the locks and were at Aston lock 8 in under two hours.

Victoria, now a coal boat, was fully loaded, resulting in some interesting effects as it came into some of the locks (hope this video works!)

Then we walked back up the locks (remarkably quicker than we came down!) to meet the others on Lamprey and head to the Black Country Living Museum along the Old Main Line. It was a lovely day and a nice cruise through the BCN. We made it to the BCLM in a record two and a half hours. just in time to wangle entry into the museum (the canal gates were locked) and dash up to the top of the village for some delicious fish and chips, cooked the traditional way in beef dripping. Yum!

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