Shortlisted!

I had an e-mail yesterday from someone at CRT telling me that a photo I'd entered in their "Lost Wonders of the Waterway World" competition had been shortlisted, and was now in the first (sic) 15. (I hope she means the last 15!) I was astounded; I'd forgotten about it and certainly wasn't expecting to get any further. The shortlisted photos will be displayed at The Bond in Birmingham (we went past there just four days ago) to be voted on by participants at a restoration workshop. The seven photos which get the most votes go forward to stage three where the winner and two runners-up will be selected.

I submitted my five photos from home and I don't have copies here on the boat; I can't even bring to mind the photo that CRT says is the shortlisted one.

On to today's boating. We moved from the mooring by Titford Pump House and tied up at the top of the Crow (aka Oldbury Locks). Here we were met by Phil, who said he was running a bit more water down for us.

We were able to set off down straight away, though, with Phil helping us all the way.

The elevated road is the M5.

Thanks to Phil we made a speedy descent. Every lock was waiting for us to go straight in. At the bottom we were surprised to have to wait for a boat to pass on the Old Main Line. Boats seem to be rare things in these parts, especially moving ones.

Back on the Old Main Line heading for Wolverhampton we passed a couple of houses flying this flag, which neither of us had seen before.

Jan looked it up this evening; it's a Black Country flag, designed in 2012, showing how the area used to be "black by day and red by night". The central white portion is in the shape of a glassworks cone; such buildings were common in the past. The chain exemplifies another thing which was made here.

We turned left at Tipton Junction so we could make a return visit to the Black Country Living Museum. We topped up with water and tied up on the museum mooring, but when we discovered that it would cost £33 for us to go in, with half the day gone, we decided to leave it for another time. After a salad lunch on board we carried on to Wolverhampton. A boat had just come up the locks so we thought it would be a good idea to do the 21 immediately rather than in the morning. I was looking forward to some "proper" locking!

We got down the flight in 2 hours 15 minutes, rather quicker than the boat which had come up the locks. They said it had taken them four hours.

The bottom lock has a tree stump for paddle gear on the offside.

We tied up at Autherley Junction ready to turn onto the Shroppie tomorrow. After tea we walked to Morrison's for supplies, then had another short walk as the sun was setting.