I'm writing this because when I searched the internet there was very little information I could find about actual experience. I though mine might interest a few people. If you have specific questions please feel free to drop me a line at Thecrow at Hoodedcrow dot net.
Overall we did this fairly comfortably in the week we had and it was great fun. We had both the Pearson's Canal Companion and the red Nicholson's one. The latter, for me, was far superior in helping. The maps for a start are so much better detailed. There were 5 of us. 2 adults and 3 kids, the eldest being my daughter of 14. The others were 12 and 10. Luckily my eldest learnt to handle the tiller pretty well, which left me free to do the manual bit at the locks. My wife struggled with the steering throughout.
Oh and lastly, experience? No, we had none.
After lunch at the Navigation (nice chilli), we picked up the boat at about 2:00 from Black Prince at Stoke Wharf, whom I'd recommend. Very clean boat and well equipped. Also very long. It could have easily slept 8 and that length made life harder. Still we survived, so anyone could. We asked for a hand through the first lock and one of the guys helped us with the first three. After another couple we reached The Queen's pub at bridge 48. That left the whole of the Tardebigge flight ahead of us.
We'd been told by BP to keep going and stop in one of the pounds. This seemed to fly in the face of info we had which said you shouldn't stop in the pounds. However some of them on the Tardebigge flight are actually quite long so we could have easily tied up in them. Looking back we should have done this. However, we were at a pub, nicely tied up already, so we relaxed and decided we'd call it a day.
I should say, the BP guy had said we needed to make Birmingham in day 2 in order to make the ring. I know Birmingham reasonably, as my mother in law lives there, so had no interest in this. We'd already decided to fall short of the Wast Hills Tunnel on day 2, so there was no hurry here.
Also of note, we tied up to the metal motorway like edges that are common up and down the canals. There's a special G shaped implement for doing this and I made the mistake of copying the boat next to me by placing the back of the G outwards. Luckily nothing untoward happened, but always place the back of the G down behind the railing to get it secure.
The Tardebigge flight loomed. Actually, we soon learned a pattern to do them and the kids all helped out. It was hard work, especially as some of the winches on the locks were very hard to shift, but it was fun and we kept going. It certainly wasn't the hardest set of locks we did. Early afternoon we did the last one and went through the Tardebigge Tunnel. A short one that's very straightforward, as was the next, the Shortwood Tunnel.
We stopped at the Weighbridge, by the Marina for lunch and wished we hadn't. In my opinion this was the worst food we had all holiday. We walked down into Alvechurch but decided it wasn't very interested so retreated to the boat and went to Hopwood.
At Hopwood, we moored up after the bridge (after having spotted the water point last minute, this was somewhat a comical manoeuvre) filled up with water (you use loads and this takes ages) and then moved down a bit and tied up for the night. The water places are, usually grey, boxes 1.5 ft by 2 ft that sometimes have H2O scrawled upon the front. They can be hard to spot, this one is just after the bridge, 50 yards on the right hand side. There's a reasonable pub, Hopwood House, by the bridge.
Early start and quickly into the Wast Hills Tunnel. This was by far the worst tunnel on the trip. You can barely see the other end and spend ages underground. Excellent fun, I am so glad we did this!
Early morning still and we emerged into King's Norton, where you're told not to stop at night. Probably good advice but the vandals and trouble makers were obviously either lying in or at church because we had a nice cruise all the way down into the Gas Street Basin. We didn't stop for Cadbury's, we've been there before, enough said.
Birmingham turned out to be simple after the basin as the main line is huge. Got some real speed up (compared to what we'd done) and kept going. They have big islands as you go down with just enough room to get through. Not sure why, but I'm guessing it's to break up the currents, they seemed to get reasonably strong at times.
I've forgotten where exactly but we had a bit of a collision going under one bridge. We had a few overall but this one was notable. Bridge ahead and a left turn. No problem done tons of those (and bumped it at a few) but this was one of those times when the steering decided it didn't want to know. I slowed pushed the tiller hard right, nothing happened. Well nothing but the bank approaching and the fishermen there moving as we hit the bank. We were saved by a guy in an invalid carriage who, jumped out and pushed us off with his foot! Looking back we learnt a useful lesson here, always keep the big pole at the front of the boat for pushing off when you're in trouble. It made me nervous about whether the steering was OK for a long time after.
We made the Netherton Tunnel branch mid afternoon. That's one tight corner which we did bump style. We then went down to the tunnel. The journey down seemed really slow and for some reason it was like the current was against us as the boat struggled down.
The tunnel itself was fine. You can see the end and it's easier to navigate than the Wast Hills because of the fact that there's a tow-path. We got passed twice in the tunnel. No problems just pulled over and took our time. The passers by checked we were OK. My daughter was driving and it was raining up top. That made going slow wise!
Out the other end onto the Dudley number 2 canal. The Dudley canals were the worst of the entire holiday. Full of rubbish, shallow, narrow, reedy in places and just not much fun. The rat running along the edge seemed apt. The worst part of the holiday. As we came into the Marina at Merry hill we were happy to be done for what we thought was the longest day of the trip. We were also back onto the timings BP had recommended.
Lots of restaurants here but it was Sunday, so only 1 was open. However it was a good nosh up and the fact that it was quiet actually made it nicer. I'd recommend getting here on a Sunday!
Day started without an engine. It just didn't want to know. We thought we'd drained it too heavily by using showers and things, which probably didn't help, but the guy from BP came out (arrived quickly and with no fuss) and changed the battery.......and it still didn't function. Turned out something else had been misconnected down there, which he fixed and we were on our way again. Service from BP was very good.
Not far down we hit the Delph locks. No problems here, you just need to remember to fill the next lock down before you empty the one you're going into. Quite a run together and they look more daunting than they are. Still we were glad to reach the bottom.
Then onto more of the awful Dudley canal. Further steering issues and gunk didn't lift the spirits. Were we glad when we turned off for the first of the Stourbridge locks. Though there's a whole heap of undergrowth on the left as you turn the corner so we went a way out to come back in again.
16 locks in a row, we'd done Tardebigge, no problem. But they were, this was a tiring flight. One interesting one as you go down, directly connected to the next one, but nothing special as there's a water run off, so don't worry about how it works, just treat it as any other lock and it works fine.
The last one, my wife was driving and struggled to get the boat over to the exit opposite, much to the delight of the lads fishing on the corner. The rest of the Stourbridge canal was simple. Where we were to turn left onto the Staffs and Worcester, we sent runners ahead to find the water point. We were low so needed this badly. Still amazes me how few water points there are around. Looking back, we should have refilled at Park Head. The water point is actually about 50 yards in from of the lock (Stewpony). Further up than you'd guess from the maps. There's also only one box for the taps. Luckily no-one else was there so we started filling up immediately.
We were tired at this point but I wanted to make Kinver, so we pushed on. Eventually we reached Kinver at what was very late. The moorings here were packed! We tied up a way past the bridge, staking the boat, and then walked back in the encroaching dark to find a chip shop for our efforts. It was late enough that the pubs would have stopped doing food. It gave us chance to window shop and by time we were back at the boat we needed torches to find it. Still we'd decided that we didn't care to see any more of Kinver in the daylight. Tiredness wouldn't have helped. 31 locks that day and a lot harder journey than the Tardebigge flight. We were worn out.
Little did we realise we'd done the hard bit. The next bit had warnings in the book about it being very narrow. It wasn't when we went through, they must have just dredged it. It was the easiest bit of canal we did and it was really nice and relaxing, even despite the fact that there was a tree down blocking most of the canal at one point (there was just enough room to go around) and the fact that we ran aground with a thump at one of the bridges. I lined up perfectly to take the bridge and the left hand turn after it, only to find us lurch as we hit the bottom and stopped. The handy big pole helped get us off and on we went.
Kidderminster for lunch was a godsend as you can moor up 50 yards from a Pizza Hut. There was a kids eat free offer so we all noshed out hugely for the princely sum of £25. Fantastic value. Wouldn't have liked to tie up there for the night though!
After lunch we went on down to Stourport, intending to stop around bridge 5 where it says you can. We got there at about 4 to find every available mooring spot taken. If you want to do this, get there very early! No problem we decided and headed up to the lock figuring we'd fill up with water and park up in the basin. The water place is on the left as you enter the basins. Whilst we filled up, we looked for the mooring points to find there were only a couple and they were taken (by what looked like long term mooring boats!) The wife went around and noticed a mooring spot on the Severn, so we figured we'd head on through.
Travelling from the basin into the first lock we discovered a huge current drags you left. Looking back, what we should have done was use the front rope to control the front of the boat and help steer it in. As it was, my daughter found herself drifting left. She pushed the boat forward until I could get the front rope and then we dragged the boats front in. I mentioned the current to the lock keeper who looked on. He seemed quite aware of the issue and had merely looked on as we struggled. Thanks for the words of advice! If we'd known the drag we could easily have negotiated it. There's also a bunch of onlookers who don't help. I mean that really, I think you could be drowning and they'd not help.
We dropped down onto the Severn to find that the large mooring space had been taken by a small boat that had tied up right in the middle of it, stopping us from getting in. I checked in the pub overlooking (we were tied up on the moorings for boats to use the locks) but no-one knew who's it was. Unfortunate as the pub looked really nice.
When we were doing the locks from the basin, a woman from a boat coming up had said that there were no moorings on the Severn side but there were good moorings after the locks on the Severn. We decided to head off for them. The manned locks on the Severn close at 7 and it was half past six. Hightailing down the Severn to the first lock we made it easily. I asked the lock keeper about moorings. He said there weren't any, but we could use the moorings after the lock if we left early. We took him up on this offer and had a really peaceful evening. It was really nice tied up on the pontoon watching buzzards circle high above.
One word of advice. Tying up on the Severn would be a real pain, don't plan on it! We were lucky the lock keepers were nice chaps.
A morning nip down to Worcester on the Severn. Advice is to travel past the Diglis lock entrance to beyond the weir and turn around to come back up. Don't try to turn left we were told. Well as we approached, my daughter and I were discussing the approach route when a man called over to ask if we were planning to come in the lock. It's a double lock and their boat was in already. Well it was so calm on the Severn we thought, stuff it, let's go. Left turn into the lock, no problem!
Actually the double locks would have been hard work alone but we were helped out and got through no problem. We filled up with water in the Diglis basin. The water taps, of which there are about 3 sets, are after the basin itself on the right hand side. We then went a past bridge 2 and tied up. We were early so went out to lunch & for a look around Worcester. After that, back at the boat, we decided to stay put. The moorings were filling up and we had a good one, so we stayed put. That was a good decision and gave us a chance to have a lazy day. I was glad we'd decided to do the extra leg the previous day. It had turned out well.
As we went north through Worcester we realised we'd stopped at just the right point the night before. Nowhere further up in the city was very nice, certainly not as nice as the place we'd stopped.
We did a long old trip up the locks out of the city. One lock we opened had swans go in, a mother and 2 cygnets. Now the swans use the locks to save energy, but they hadn't counted on how long our boat was and panicked. The cygnets came along the side of the boat followed by the mother who got stuck. I used my legs to give her as much width as possible. Eventually the lock filled, we opened the gates and they went out, ruffled but unhurt.
We stopped for lunch opposite the boatyard at bridge 35. The Eagle and Sun. Excellent carvery, we were stuffed. Recommend this place. Probably the best food we'd had all week.
We travelled up during the afternoon in a leisurely fashion, filling with water at Stoke Works. The taps are just before the bridge and there's a couple of sets. We then went past the bridge and moored up. The Boat and Railway pub had reasonable food, including a carvery, but the previous pub had it well beaten on taste.
Last day and we needed to get the boat back for 9:00 am. That was no problem as a mile or so and the last lock took us there. We'd done it. It was hard work but proved to be a fun and very different holiday. A week, well 6 days really, was fine to complete it too.