I had a hospital appointment this morning, which meant riding over to Sandwell General. [Insert small rant about state of the NHS here.]
I've been trying to keep mojo up and weight down over the winter months by extending my commutes; usually via the canals and various other cycle ways, as the constant close passes on the roads have been eroding my confidence and enthusiasm.
Thus it was that alarms went off at silly o'clock this morning and I set out on the long way around.
It was lighter than I was expecting, but quite cold. I join a river route by a ford and was thinking I'd better be on the lookout for ice in case the approach was frozefwip
SLAM! owI didn't appear to be broken, so I picked myself off the tarmac, put the chain back where it was supposed to be, indulged in a bit of pavement cycling to get down to the river and then followed the river route at a slightly sedate pace.
The Cole Valley route goes through a number of little urban nature reserve bits, so every few minutes there are annoying barriers that are too narrow to fit handlebars through. These require a dismount and a wheelie to get passed and are a bit of a PITA.
How the heck did this get there then?!
It was just about possible to get bike and panniers past, but by this stage I'm thinking a re-route is probably in order if I'm to get to my appointment in time. I rethought my plan to go via Spaghetti Junction and Sandwell Valley Park, and instead took the slightly more direct route along the Birmingham Canal Main Line and then the tramside path to West Brom.
Success! I got to the hospital reasonably early, got changed, found a human to deal with my check-in query and then got changed back into my cycling gear. I was a month early.
Deep breath, ate second breakfast and got back on the bike. Not sure what was going on with temperatures - maybe I'd been acclimatised to Birmingham's tropical microclimate or something - but I had shivers and chattering teeth riding through Sandwell Valley Park. Still, it was nice to be able to enjoy the scenery and not have to rush it as I would have had to do if I'd gone that way for my outward journey.
Oh. Hello.
The sign gave a map with an alternative road route to circumnavigate the closures.
You just had to get to the road first...
I opted for taking bike and pannier down separately and managed to avoid any mishaps. Which was nice. Especially given the broken glass at the bottom. :-/
The diversion did afford a good view of the first instalment of the Perry Bar locks from up on the road bridge:
However things were looking a bit full by lock number 8.
I wasn't up for more re-routing, so I engaged Plucky Cyclist mode and chanced the flood not being too deep or extensive.
Bit disconcerting not quite being able to make out where the edge was. Basil, I thought of you, Sweetie
This was the next lock gate down. I don't think they're supposed to do that. Or the water spurting out of the stonework at the side of the ramp down.
Spaghetti Junction navigated without incident; the geeses were all talk but no trousers; canal infrastructure technical features all successfully cleared.
I found some off-road to do on an inappropriate bike, just to round things off!
Did the last bit of my return back along the Cole route, where the area around the ford was looking very much more defrosted than it had done four hours previously. Feeling I didn't want to push my luck, I got off and pushed my bike for the last couple of miles, so as to avoid the usual close passes on the narrow lanes of South West Birmingham.
Looking forward to seeing what bruises appear tomorrow, and I also have to repair the mount for my rear light. On the whole I think I'm glad I didn't stick with my original plan for the outward route - can you imagine how stressful that would have been against the clock. Hoping my next attempt in a month's time goes a bit more smoothly...