Lyra's Travels

Bratch Locks

Monday 4^th October

A fabulous day! A bit of light mist this morning which soon cleared to give wall to wall sunshine, and by about 11.00 o'clock it was really warm as well.

We continued along this very pretty canal, this stretch has just enough locks to keep the interest but not too many to get a pain. I mentioned before that a lot of this canal is cut through sandstone which leaves one side of the canal as a cliff. At one place someone has put up a door in what looks like sheer cliff, but there must be some sort of cave behind it. The door had a well kept lock on it so it isn't abandoned.

Our day took us through Botherham Staircase Locks and we then stopped at Wombourne Bridge where there is a good sized Sainsburys to stock up. Continuing on we went through Bratch Locks, a flight of three which you treat as a staircase even though there are gates top and bottom of each lock and a very short pounds with side ponds. At this time of year there is a look keeper to assist which make life easy. The last time we were here it was winter and we had to do it alone.

We've moored up for the night at the top of the locks, in really beautiful surroundings.