Locks Everywhere

I took myself off to Worcester first thing, with a plan formulating to start walking back towards Birmingham along the Birmingham and Worcester and Canal, seeing how far I could get before either my body or light gave out.

I was a little concerned with the recent floods and while I did start from where the canal joined the River Severn, it certainly wasn't where it normally was!  The Diglis locks that allow access from the canal to the river were almost completely submerged, with just the pedestrian rails on top of the lock gates visible above the swollen river.  

The walk started through Worcester, before heading in a generally north direction, past the Worcester Warriors ground and the M5.  I chose the harder direction to walk, the canal rises over 200 feet on to the Birmingham plateau, by way of 58 locks, including the Tardebigge flight of 30 locks, the longest in the UK.  For someone used to the flatlands of the West Midlands, where canal walking can go for mile after mile without a single lock, this was a little different.  I met a couple climbing through the Tardebigge flight on their canal boat, to find they had been travelling for almost two days since leaving Worcester.

I had hoped to reach King's Norton, which would have completed the walking of the canal (I'd walked part of it earlier this year when I started a walk along the Stratford Upon Avon canal, to its intersection with the Birmingham Worcester and then into Birmingham.  I realised that was a step too far, so I caught the train back from Alvechurch, still completing about 20 miles of the canal.  Along with a bit of walking between trains and to the start of the canal, I clocked up my longest walk of the year.

I don't think I'll be doing too much tomorrow!

Day Miles: 21.8 miles       Total Miles: 292.2 miles