Woo-hoo!

We did it!
And a fine time was had by all!You've already got a good idea of how things happened, if you've read Theresa's update posts from the day itself.
This is how I remember it . . .

Up nice and early; a cool shower to wake myself; and already a potential obstacle: I'd got barely any sleep in the night, partly through excitement, partly through fear of oversleeping in the morning. Off out to the city centre . . . Sean phones me to tell me that his train is arriving at Moor Street, not New Street; that means he's stayed Friday night in Stratford on Avon, at his sister's house. I suggest he stays on the train to S
now Hill, which is a great deal more convenient for me (that's where I get off the tram) and it's a shorter walk from there to our starting point for the walk, too.

Just outside the station I buy a couple of cans of Red Bull, which is supposedly energy-giving. With all the sleep problems I'd had, I drink the first straight away. Bleeeurgh, what a horrible drink! For some reason I had expected it to be milk-based. Sean arrives on time, and we head off for the start of our walk.

I send a "good luck" text to Sparky, who should, by now, be over half an hour into his walk. He's overslept somewhat, he tells me by return text.

Martin arrives at our start point, and we set off, 19 minutes early. I have to make a short diversion to walk a few yards on the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal, so that the walk will cover part of four canals, whence the name for the mission. Martin and Sean find this very amusing.
The weather at this stage is pretty well perfect - sunny, with a bit of breeze, but not too warm.

We get to the Galton Valley, and pass the stretch that's usually deep in mud after wet weather - and the weather has been wet this week! Surprisingly, the really muddy bit is only a few yards long. I tell Martin and Sean that we've passed what I had warned them was likely to be the worst stretch of the walk. This seems to cheer them up a bit. It doesn't last.
We come to one of the few stretches of canal where we have a choice of which towpath to walk on. I suggest the right-hand towpath, because there will be fewer fishermen on it. There are a few, but almost none on the other side. The path we choose is poorly-maintained. And it starts to rain. Heavily, and horizontally.

We switch sides and, when we get to Dudley Port, Sean and I leave the canal to provision ourselves. There are loads of police there: apparently there's and EDL rally in Dudley today.

We resume our walk. The weather eases somewhat; we get to Tipton - near enough half way to Wolverhampton - where we take a short break; while we are there, Sparky calls me to tell me that the batteries on his mobile phone are running low, so he won't be contacting me much for the rest of the day.

We get through Coseley Tunnel without any problems, on to the most depressing part of the walk though I am heartened to see that a swan I had seen several times - but not on my last couple of walks - is now accompanied by several cygnets; all are stock-still in the middle of the canal. We take another short break, soon afterwards. Progress seems to be a bit slow: as we approach Dixon Street Bridge, I point out that this is just one mile from Wolverhampton. I'm not wearing my glasses so can't see that the towpath is blocked off here. So we take a diversion, onto street level, and we are immediately overwhelmed by traffic noise. Eventually we make it to Wolverhampton Top Lock, the half way point on our walk.
The weather is much better now: sunny, but not too warm. Martin told me later that he thought I looked "unwell." I drink the other can of Red Bull, and look forward to the rest of the walk: beginning with a long, downhill stretch as the canal passes through a flight of 22 locks in a little under 2 miles, before joining the far more scenic Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal.

I'd done that stretch - Wolverhampton to Penkridge - earlier in the week, wending texts to myself at every significant landmark. I knew that we wouldn't match Tuesday's time for that first stretch - I'd done it in 35 minutes then, but the usual time for it is more like 42. We do it in 39.

For the rest of the walk, we better Tuesday's times for every section. Sean tells us about his adventures, watching the England football team in away games, including one in Ukraine that tickled me. He'd been taken to a bar, full of Ukrainians, one of whom took him under his wing. This chap showed Sean a photograph of a stunningly good-looking young woman, in army uniform, holding a machine gun. "You like to see?" he asked. "Oooh, yes!" said Sean. So the chap took Sean back to his flat - which wasn't far away - and showed him the machine gun.

We make good time to Penkridge, and arrive around 8pm.

When we get to The Boat, we shake hands, and I tell Sean and Martin Susie Hewer's motto: "Pain is temporary - pride is forever." Sean looks like he needs some convincing.

At last, a sit-down and a drink, unpressured by time - we'd earlier stopped for a drink at The Fox And Anchor, a smashing pub at Coven Heath, 3 hours to the south - and for me - and Sean and Martin - a real feeling of exhilaration.

Before long, Sparky arrives. I hand him my mobile phone so that he can call Tommy Toes.

It's worth reminding people that without Tommy the walk never would have happened, and, in his role as Mission Nutritionist, he certainly helped me a great deal.

Sparky can't access Tommy's mobile number - he can't remember it. Not that I'm complaining - I've got loads of numbers saved on my mobile, but can't remember any.

By this time Sean's sister, Nicola, and her boyfriend, John, have arrived; John takes this photograph of us.To the untutored eye, it may appear a little bit out of focus, but I can assure you that Martin (on the left), Sean (Second from left) and Sparky (on the right) looked just like that to me on Saturday evening.

Nicola and John took Sean home; Sparky ordered a taxi to take him back to Stoke - for £36 - and Martin and I left to catch our train.

Which we missed.

So we asked Sparky if he could put us up for the night, and, much to our relief, he did.

Ultimate

Last post from SORE (or is it?) The Birmingham trio have reached The Boat in Penkridge they told our reporter "We've arrived under a mackerel sky" Dominic, Sean and Martin were relaxing outside the Boat, watching the world go by, while they drained their glasses.
We are told that they still have some way to go before they catch up with Mark.
Sparky is now expected at The Boat at around 21.30. Let us hope that their journies home are much easier on their feet.

Lock, Lock

Latest reports from SORE confirm that the Birmingham Trio have just gone passed Gayley Top Lock.

This means that they are just over an hour from The Boat at Penkridge, they told our reporter that walking is thirsty work.

Under the Junction

SORE reports that the intrepid trio passed the Pherton Junction at 18.08. Still going strong....

The March of time and the Birmingham Trio

Latest report from SORE. 16.48 the Birmingham trio were whiling away the time while drinking lemonade in the Fox and Anchor. They estimate that it will take three hours to get to the Boat in Penkridge, from there.

Moving on Sore reports

16.08 Just walked under the M54, a contrast in speeds methinks.

Special Operations Room England update

15.23 The Birmingham trio have now reached the Staffs ansd Worcs canal. Although a little tired they hope to reach Penkridge around 20.00 (ish) The staff at SORE are rooting for you.

Report Number 5 SORE

Sore point reached near Wolverhampton! All was going well till the Birmingham trio came to a sign saying "towpath closed" this meant that they had to leave the canal towpath and walk through the sunny streets of Wolverhampton, till they were able to join the canal again. Dom says that this was longer than walking along the canal.
They are still accompanied by their shadows as the sun is still shining.

Keep watching this space, next report in an hour or so.

Report Number four from SORE

12.50 Just passed The Black Country Route. Rain stopped, sun out - in fact they can see their own shadows.
Will stop for a sit down a bit further on - where there are seats by the canal.

Repotr number three!

11.40 Dudley Port, Dom and Sean went to get some provisions ...lots of police around. Nothing to do with our lads... There is an EDL march in Dudley today.

11.55 Tipton, will probably stop here for P + T Managing to keep to schedule so far (sooo Good)

Report from SORE part two

The Brummie trio are making good time, they have already walked through Galton Valley and passed under the Oldbury Road Bridge. It has rained a little but was dry when I spoke to Muntz. I hope it keeps that way. Keep up the good work lads (or should that be good walk?)

Report from SORE part two

The Brummie Trio have sent off, making good time they have already walked through Galton Valley and have just walked under the Oldbury Road Bridge. It has rained a bit but is dry at the moment, keep up the good work (or should I say good walk?)

Report from SORE

The day is here. it is dry at the moment, but some clouds. Walkers from Birmingham will be starting soon!

Special Operations Room England will update you throughout the day.

The Night Before The Morning After

All the preparation is done. Now I look forward to a good night's sleep, and pleasant weather for tomorrow.

The weather forecast is, a little surprisingly, pretty good for our purposes: temperatures at or a little below normal for the time of year; scattered shower for the middle part of the day. I'd dreaded really hot weather - which would have been very tiring - or prolonged wet weather of the sort that we've had from time to time part of this week.

Three of us will be starting, at around 920am - I'll be accompanied by my brother Martin, and by Sean Spooner, who will be coming all the way over from Leicester. Absolute earliest finsih is around 7pm - probably about half an hour after that.

I did the Wolverhampton-Penkridge bit of the walk earlier this week, and very pleasant it was - plus I took half an hour off my previous time. The towpath is nice and flat - very few of those little bridges over canal junctions (there's only one, for the Shropshire Union Canal) and wharves. Very few fishermen, too, probably because most of the canal is away from public roads. I only saw two this week, one of whom was totally oblivious to my presence.

What could I leave you with, but this?

Less than a week to go!

Today is the final Sunday before the big day . . .

Currently it looks as though there should be three of us doing the walk from my end - me, my brother Martin, and Sean Spooner. Sean lives in Leicester but he'll be joining us in Birmingham on Saturday morning and then getting the train back to Leicester from Penkridge after the walk finishes. He works at Walkers Crisps, and he's been doing some fundraising there - with considerable success, too!

With just six days to go, the weather forecast for the 17th is pretty good - temperatures in this part of the country expected to be near normal for the time of year, but it should feel fresher than it has of late. I very much hope that the nights before the walk are cooler than they have been of late - I have great difficulty sleeping in this weather. I could open all my windows, of course, but that would mean my being disturbed by noise, and invaded by moths - which is what happened last night.

I hope to fit in a couple more hard walks at the start of the week, then to keep those muscles in shape with some light work the rest of the week.

I'll leave you with this - Kate Rusby, The Barnsley Nightingale, on Jools' Holland's show.

Just Testing

I hope to be able to bring you all the news on the day of the walk.
From the Special Operations Room England (SORE).

Fourcanal joins the digital revolution!

We hope to bring you live updates of the progress of the walk on July 17th.

That's "we;" recently a highly-trained and highly-motivated team of individuals has joined the Fourcanal team.

On the big day, they will be operating from this cutting-edge facility, Somewhere In The Midlands.

*Those of you receiving broadcasts through ITV HD may experience occasional interruptions to signal.

I'm Back!

After a long break, and happy to be here again. I haven't actually been away, I've just had difficulty finding the time to update this blog. So, what has happened since I made my last entry?

Well, Tommy - our Mission Nutritionist - wasn't in the best of health for a while, but seems far better now.

Though his spirits have suffered - as have mine, and Sparky's - because the people who organise the internet forum through which the walk was conceived and arranged have decided to update it. That's 'update' in the sense of 'ruin.'

Previously it was a no-frills forum, with quick refresh and response times - now they've 'improved' it by slowing down the response times, altering the appearance of it, and . . . .and doing heaps of other things to it, almost all of them making the experience of using it worse.
Ah well.


As for the appeal - that's going very well indeed. We've progressed rapidly since the last blog entry - we reached the original target of £1000. Sparky raised the target to £2000 and, as I type this, we've raised £1195. A cause for celebration, indeed. And an opportunity for us to thank all the people who have made donations so far.


I've managed some fairly long walks over the past few weeks - a couple of times walking from Birmingham to Wolverhampton, and once walking from Wolverhampton to Penkridge.
Penkridge seems to be a bit further away than I thought it was and that walk took me far longer than I had hoped it would - I'll try it again in the next week or so and I hope that I can do it a bit quicker then. It's very different from the first part of the walk.

The Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal was built to link the Severn and the Mersey - the northern end of it forms a junction with the Trent and Mersey Canal. The idea, when all these canals were built - which was at the end of the 18th century - was that the manufacturing industries of the Midlands would have quick links to England's four main river estuaries - the Humber, the Mersey, the Severn and the Thames. The canal network has Birmingham as its hub.Hence the Birmingham Canal runs largely through an industrial - or, now, post-industrial - landscape. The Staffs & Worcs runs largley through a rural landscape, and it's very different.
It's really strange for someone like me, spending nearly all my time in a big city, to be able to hear birdsong. I didn't, sadly, take many photographs on that walk; that's something I hope to put right next time.

All in all, then, things are going quite well. I continue to be inspired by Susie Hewer, to whose blog there is a link on the left side of this page. Click on it, and take a look at her entry for May 3rd.

And here is another link: a restful piece of music for you, a cover version of Kate Rusby's "Who Will Sing Me Lullabies."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VprYG072wrk&playnext_from=TL&videos=cNCN5yl01-o

D Day!

Today the amount raised through our justgiving page passed £500.

It's been, at the same time, an inspiring and a humbling experience. Thanks, again, to all who have contributed so far.

We are now getting to the stage where contributors are coming from various places - not just the internet forum that Mark & I - and Tommy - post on, but from further afield, too, to the extent that none of us is quite sure who some of the people pledging money are.

I haven't been in the best of health in the last couple of weeks. That's slowed down my training programme somewhat - but I'm much better now and things should be back on track shortly. I can always take inspiration from Susie Hewer, who I have mentioned on here before.

Susie will be running her first marathon of the year this weekend. Then another one - the London Marathon - the weekend after. Then another the weekend after that. Then she'll take a rest, and much-deserved it will be.

I tried looking in google, to see whether this blog appears on it. And it does!

Bizarrely, one of the sites that links to it is based in India. It appears to be because of the appearance of the words "canal" and "rural;" "Canal Rural" is a TV station in Brazil which has links to the website in India. I'm not sure I can explain why!

We're off!

The justgiving site has only been up for a couple of days - and well over £300 has already been donated to it.

A most impressive start. Thanks to all who have made contributions.

Thanks, also, to the game, who has mentioned the walk on his blog, to which I have added a link.

Vive la révolution technologique Muntzienne

A mighty couple of days in my life, and in the life of 'four canal'.

The walk has its own justgiving site

Sparky - Mark Holtz - is the person who set it up, and it's already taken a fair amount of money from generous supporters.

But it's been a big couple of days for me, too.

I realsied some time ago that I would require - or at the very least, considerably benefit from - having a mobile phone with me on July 17th. And so, yesterday, I took the plunge, and bought one. I had only had one once before - that was in the 1990s, or, if you prefer, 'in the last century.' It was about the size of a TV remote control. And I only ever received two calls on it. One of which was a wrong number.

I've already received several on this new one. And several texts, too. Though most of the texts have come from the network provider. Usually along the lines of "Don't you think we are just brilliant?" Followed, as often as not, by one asking "On a scale of 1-10, just how brilliant do you think we are?"

Now I can join the ranks of those people who announce to everyone on a bus "I'm on the bus!!!!"

And I may, just, get the hang of texting.

I hope to do a longish walk on Thursday or Friday. On Saturdays the towpaths are inhabited by fishermen and cyclists, making them more difficult to negotiate. Weight loss seems to have slowed down somewhat, though my bathroom scales seem a bit erratic - latest weighing puts me at 14st 9lb, a couple of pounds more than I hoped to weigh by now, but 11 pounds less than I weighed at the start of the year and 17 pounds lower than my peak weight last autumn.

Summertime, and the rain is pouring

Which meant that towpaths would have been very soggy today- so I stayed at street level for a visit to Birmingham City Centre.

Not much to report, really - I had gone out with the intention of photographing a couple of headstones in Key Hill cemetery, but it was that wet that I couldn't identify where they were. It was part of a project to add to my flickr page - adding some pictures of public art, statues and memorials around here.

In the event the only one I was able to take a picture of was this one - the bull sculpture in the Bull Ring shopping centre, which now illiterately calls itself bullring. The Bull Ring name doesn't come from bull fights - but the area was the site of bull baiting; the bull would be tethered to an iron ring set in the ground. We are quite strong on bloodsports here - not far from me was the scene of the last legal cock fight in England; it was on one side or the other of Hockley Brook, which, until 1910, formed the boundary between Warwickshire and Staffordshire. Handsworth was moved into Birmingham - and hence Warwickshire - at that time. Handsworth Grammar School still has the Staffordshire Knot as part of its badge.

You can see a link to my flickr page on the left side of this blog. There you will also see a link to Chris's blog - which is well worth looking at. It's got plenty of photographs of canals around Birmingham, and some very interesting links, too; there's also a link to a map of the canals around here, done in the style of the London Underground map.


Tommy, our Mission Nutritionist, tells me after looking at a previous posting on this blog - the one that referred to West Brom's striker Jeff Astle, who died of a degenerative brain disease caused by heading heavy old footballs, that the same sad fate befell Stoke City's John Ritchie. Ritchie and Astle were both centre-forwards; they would have played against one another many times. John Ritchie's widow does fundraising for the fight against Alzheimer's Disease.

Cold Spaghetti

Just one long walk - and a few shorter, quicker ones - since my last blog entry.

The long walk - late last week - took me along most of the Tame Valley Canal, to Spaghetti Junction, and then down into Birmingham City Centre along the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal. I'd done that Birmingham - Spagehtti Junction and back walk a couple of weeks ago.

The journey started with a trip on the Metro to Wednesbury, then a short walk back to the Tame Valley Canal. I'd walked the other way on it a number of times, but this was the first time that I had walked eastwards on it.Going in the other direction - down towards the Birmingham Canal - the short stretch of the Tame Valley Canal passes through a grim, post-industrial landscape. Eastwards, though, it's noticeably different: a large part of the route was through suburban, even semi-rural, scenery. The canal was one of the last to be built in this part of the country, and it shows. It's wide, and straight; it's probably misleadingly named: while the Tame is near both ends of the canal, the river takes a far more roundabout route.

For the first stretch, you can see the river down to the left of the canal: it then passes through a cutting in which I took this picture. The picture was taken to show the derelict bridge, which you can see in the foreground. At a guess the bridge carried a railway, possibly built to serve the coal mines that used to exist in this area. I don't know how the strange lighting effect came about: it had been raining (look at the puddles!) and there was what you might call a watery sun shining at the time.


Before long the M6 comes into view, and the canal follows the route of the motorway for the rest of its length.
Here you can see the junction of the M6 and M5; if you've ever driven south on the M6 and turned onto the M5, the first bridge the motorway passes under carries the Tame Valley Canal, and it was from that bridge - acqueduct - that I took this photo. Slow moving traffic near the M5/M6 junction will be familiar to many of you.

From here the canal follows the M6 - perhaps that should be the other way round. It's a long, straight stretch: the photo here is taken from the junction with the Rushall Canal, looking back towards Wednesbury; a few yards behing me was the bridge which takes the other arm of the M5 - the arm that takes cars off the northbound M6 or on to the southbound - over the canal. The route of the canal remains very straight, going through two deep cuttings and over a long acqueduct, before reaching the top of a long flight of locks. Just thirteen of them, but they do go a long way down - the drop on each lock seems higher than it is for locks on the Birmingham Canal.

The flight ends close to Spaghetti Junction - and close, again, to the Tame, which passes under this elegant bridge - Salford Bridge, which is almost hidden my the vastness of Spaghetti Junction. This is the end of the Tame Valley Canal; here it meets the Birmingham and Fazeley
which I followed into the centre of Birmingham. And here, the Tame is joined by Hockley Brook. Hockley Brook rises close to the WBA football ground, but it's mostly underground now; it's of interest because James Watt built his first, water-powered factory using the brook to power it; later he moved his factory a few hundred yards up stream, and powered the new site - Soho Foundry - with steam. A large part of the brook was lowered and put into a culvert in the 1930s; the house I was raised in was built on land thus reclaimed. Here you can see Hockley Brook on the left, the River Tame in the foreground, and the Birmingham and Fazeley canal, on the right. It was that canal I followed all the way into Birmingham City Centre.

"Pain is temporary, pride is forever"

That's a mantra that was quoted to me by Susie Hewer, who was kind enough to add a comment to this blog a few days ago.

It's been particularly apposite this week. I've been going through a slight depression - for no particular reason; it just happens from time to time - I've had a general feeling of yeughness and, earlier in the week, I discovered a boil in a very inconvenient place.

The depression would have been worse had I not had this walk to prepare for - giving me the feeling that I am doing something worthwhile. And it would have got worse had I allowed it to. The yeughness was probably a result of the depression. And I've managed, thank goodness, to shuffle off my mortal boil. So, today, the longest walk for a while, though not the longest walk I've done. Bus to Dudley Port; up the canal to Coseley Tunnel; then back again, home, in time to watch the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

This is Dudley Port, where a viaduct carrying the West Coast Main Line - and on which Dudley Port Railway Station is situated -crosses the main road; you can see it here, in the foreground.

In the background is the Ryland Acqueduct - I'm not sure why it is named thus, but it carried the Birmingham Canal. Canal and railway line are never far apart. This is where I joined the canal today; my main task, though, was to take another look at one of the most difficult stretches of the canal, which is Coseley Tunnel.

It's strange that once I have made a journey, a repeat of it seems far shorter. Certainly the distance from Dudley to Coseley seemed to be far shorter than it was when I made the same trip, in the opposite direction,
the Saturday before last. That may, of course, have been a result of my being fresher today than I was then.

Much of the Birmingham Canal is designated as part of the National Cycle Network, but on the approach to the tunnel there's a sign diverting cyclists elsewhere - up and over, rather than through the tunnel. Some of them might not like the idea too much, and you can see why when you look at the steepness of the slope they would have to cycle up in order to avoid the tunnel. But once they, or anyone on foot, get into the tunnel, you can see why cyclists are recommended not to use it. It's over 300 yards long, and unlit.
It has, thank goodness, a handrail, but it's an unnerving experience walking through it, even when there's nobody coming in the opposite direction.
And that is what was happening today; you can just about see him in this picture. Not only was he coming in the opposite direction - he was riding a bicycle. It would have been completely impossible for us to pass one another in the tunnel. I'll give careful consideration to going "up and over" rather than through the tunnel when it comes to July 17th.



So from here, it was an about turn and back, first, to Tipton.
This is pretty much the half way point on the Birmingham Canal - though not on the whole walk. And there's a pub there! The only canalside pub on the Birmingham Canal, outside the centre of Birmingham.
Imagine my distress when I saw that I had got there a day too late to enjoy a 'glam rock evening!'

Here, the old main line and the new main line split. I followed the New Main Line, which is far shorter and, barring a flight of three locks immediately after this pub, has no locks at all, all the way to Birmingham.



The course of the canal from here is very straight - as you can see from this picture - and, frankly, a bit dull. The local council has designated this as an 'urban greenway' and it's certainly less depressing than the scenes of industrial decay nearer to Wolverhampton; there's also the benefit that a straight journey seems to get you to where you want to be far more quickly than a twisty one does.
The canal here has towpaths on both sides. The National Cycle Network signs recommend that cyclists use the towpath on the south side -that towpath is prperly built, while the one on the north side, which I used today, is covered with short grass and is very uneven, but it's perfectly passable in dry weather.




I was amused by this bit of graffiti one one of the bridges the canal passes over.

"Astle" is, as those of you from this part of the country - and many of you from elsewhere - will now, Jeff Astle. He was a forward for West Bromwich Albion and, occasionally, England in the 1960s and 1970s. Goodness knows how old the graffiti is - it may be fairly recent, dating from around the time of his death: Jeff Astle died in 2002, and believed his death was at the very least accelerated by brain injuries sustained by heading the ball so much. Footballs where then far more likely to absorb water than they are now.



From there on it was through increasingly familiar territory - the Galton Valley begins just after this straight stretch. I certainly felt a great deal better for doing the walk.

Bostin' Links

You've probably found that some of this blog has piqued your interest. If so, here are some links for you . . .


The Alzheimer's Research Trust is the charity we are raising money for. It funds research into the causes and treatment of Alzheimer's Disease.

Our Mission IT Expert, Sparkmaster, has set up this website for the walk itself. It's in early stages of development at the moment.

Plenty of people have walking as a hobby - few more so than Dave Cotton, whose website carries accounts of his walks in various places all over Britain, including one along the canal from Birmingham to Wolverhampton: there are plenty of others, all over the country.

And if you have ever walked along canal towpaths, you will have noticed that they are used by cyclists, too. Large parts of the National Cycle Network use towpaths; this is a video - the first in a series of nine - showing the Birmingham to Wolverhampton stretch of the walk, from a bicycle.

An Army Marches On Its Stomach

And the 4th Canal Infantry Regiment (Birmingham Battalion) - 4-Canal for short - wouldn’t be anywhere near battle-ready by July 17th were it not for the support from our one-man Catering Corps, and Mission Nutritionist, Tommy.

It was the death earlier this year of Tommy’s brother, who had contracted early onset Alzheimer’s, that inspired Sparky and me to do this walk in aid of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust.

I mentioned in an earlier blog entry that one of the reasons for my doing this walk – and the training for it – was to lose weight. I had, late last year, seen my weight rise to 15st 12lbs and, while that didn’t last long, I was still 15st 6lbs by the start of this campaign. Tommy told me that if I followed his dietary plan, the weight would soon start dropping off.

He was right. I’m a touch under 15 stone now; I can see my toes without bending at the hips; and my navel now points forwards, rather than downwards as it had previously done. Not long ago I put some mild symptoms I was suffering into one of those online diagnosis website. And how helpful that was. Apparently I was suffering from insomnia, all sorts of mental illnesses, every heart disease imaginable, cancer of almost everything, problems associated with the menopause, erectile dysfunction, whiplash, post-concussive syndrome, Asperger’s syndrome, anorexia, dyslexia, smoker’s face, alcohol withdrawal, berberi, shock – not surprising after discovering all the other ailments – and plague. The last probably explains why I haven’t found anyone willing to accompany me on the walk yet.

Tommy’s advice has been to eat more green vegetables; cook them in a steamer; eat less red meat; eat more chicken or fish; avoid potatoes as much as possible and, should I really need to eat them, do so at a different meal from when I’d have green vegetables. This, apparently, is because carbohydrates stimulate different digestive juices from proteins, and a mixture of both would reduce the benefits from either. It’s an idea from The Hay Diet – one of those ambiguously-named diets, almost as much so as The Diet of Worms, which Tommy certainly hasn’t recommended.

So, over the past couple of weeks, I’ve discovered the joys of steamed broccoli, steamed green beans, even steamed okra – though that is a bit of an acquired taste. I may even try steamed cabbage – not something I ever expected to consider after the awful way cabbage was cooked when I was a child. It’ll take a while before I work out just how long various things should go into the steamer: things can come out either beautifully crisp or hopelessly soggy.

Mentioning The Diet Of Worms leads me to this most palatable music, by the 16th century English composer Thomas Tallis. It's a setting, in English, of a passage from the Gospel of St John, written during the reign of the fervently Protestant Edward VI.

I heard what my body's sayin' to me . . .

. . . and it's sayin', "Is this really a good idea, Muntz?"

Or it was, this evening, after the longest walk yet in my preparation programme.

Wolverhampton, down to the Staffs & Worcs Canal, and then back, along the Birmingham Canal
and home. A walk of a little over fifteen miles, I think; by my estimation that's about 60% of the length of the July walk.

By the end of it I was more tired than I can remember being for years, and if I had had to walk the extra couple of miles into the centre of
O Birmingham, I really don't know would have been able to manage it. I suppose that if going all the way into Brum was the only way of completing the walk - as going to Penkridge will be in July - I'd have managed it. As it is I had to rely on what I'd posted about Susie Hewer a couple of days ago for inspiration: Susie is rapidly attaining mythic status for me!

This was the second walk I had done this week. The first was from Wednesbury, home. A total of about nine miles along very quiet towpaths: I met just a handful of people that day, one of whom, bizarrely, was riding a mobility scooter.

I had decided some time ago that I would need to walk the whole length of the walk - not necessarily on the same day - before July 17th just to identify where I might encounter problems. So that was what made me choose today's route. If you take a look at the Mappa Sparki, it started at the black spot that indicates Wolverhampton; west a couple of miles to the corner (which is where the Birmingham Canal meets the Staffs and Worcs) and then back east again, through Wolverhampton and almost all the way into Birmingham.

The trouble with that bit from Wolverhampton to the Staffs & Worcs is that it is a flight of locks. Twenty-one of them, in a little under two miles. All going up from the Staffs & Worcs. And it's not a gradual slope - the upslopes are alongside the locks themselves, or else the horses that used to tow barges on the canal wouldn't have been able to do what they needed to do.

At the canal junction, there was a couple who had clearly decided to hire a barge for 'leisure' and they were trying to manoeuvre their barge into the first lock. The trouble is that the space they had to do it in was barely longer than their barge. Goodness knows how long it took them to get up the first flight.


That stretch of canal is surprisingly rural: a country park on the north side, and Wolverhampton Racecourse (pictured) on the right.

It seemed strange to hear birdsong in a place so near home. We don't hear much of it in Birmingham.

I noticed that buds were appearing on the trees:
they will look noticeably greener when I do the walk again, which will be some time in the next couple of weeks.

The next few miles were through a depressing, post-industrial landscape and along a stretch of the canal that is pretty twisty - this was the original route, built by James Brindley.
Signs alongside the canal are confusing and contradictory, with one at Wolverhampton saying it's 14 miles to Birmingham, another three miles or so further on saying it's still 14 miles; and then yet another, half a mile later, giving the distance as 11 miles. There's a tunnel, too: 300 yards long - or a bit more - and unlit, though at least the towpaths have handrails and, today at least, there was nobody coming in the opposite direction.

At Tipton there's a canal junction - and you can take either branch to Birmingham, though the quicker one is the 'new main line'. There's a nice canalside pub, there, too. From there the route becomes straight, and dull: that's until arrival just south of West Bromwich and the Galton Valley. This is the new main line, and the newest part of the canal; hewed out of a ridge, by hand; and containing two elegant bridges, designed by Thomas Telford.

Before that, though, the old main line (which we last saw at Tipton) crosses the new line on an aqueduct, under the M5 motorway.
















The one on the left is the beautiful Galton Bridge, which carries a road - now closed to traffic - over the canal cutting. Note the resemblance to Telford's bridge at Ironbridge. The one on the right carries water from a reservoir a couple of miles away; this is used to fill the old main line - else the water would all drain out when the locks were used.

Not far from there, it's home.

The walk took me far longer than I had expected, but I'll certainly benefit from the exercise. I'd gone with a small amount of food - steamed chicken in pitta bread and a couple of sandwiches on
brown bread - plus a bottle of lucozade.

If you do this walk, make sure you use the new main line and not the old one: the old line is longer and, just after it crosses the new one at Galton Valley, there is a stretch on the summit where the towpath hasn't been maintained, though the canal bank has; the result is that the towpath is knee deep in mud, especially after cold or wet weather.

I'll leave with this. Nothing to do with the walk, I just like it.

The Pointer Sisters.

Though you're tired and weary, still journey on . . .

There will no doubt come times between now and July 17th - and in all probability on the day itself - when I will ask myself whether all this is worth the effort. The answer, of course, will be yes; my inspiration - and Sparky's - will come largely from our friend, referred to in the opening post in this blog; and from all our other cheerers-from-the-sidelines; and from people like the remarkable
Susie Hewer.

Susie is pictured on some of the ART's publicity material, running a marathon while knitting a scarf. She is a blogger, too; this is her inspirational blog. I'll read the passage she wrote after doing that marathon and remember parts of it when things get tough for me. On the day, of course, I'll be walking and not running; the walk will be - for me, at least - a little shorter than the length of a marathon; and I won't be knitting a scarf.

The Long March

The start of a new month, and a milestone, of sorts, in preparations for July's event.

I've been taking advice from our Mission Nutritionist who has suggested eating more green vegetables and, where possible, cooking my food in a steamer. It certainly seems to be better for me - I'm eating a little less, and I've made a noticeable weight loss, too. Overweight was one of the reasons I wanted to do this walk, and the training for it. Nonetheless I would most probably have given myself an excuse to fail, were it not for its being a joint effort, and a sponsored one, too.


Sponsorship, of course, is in aid of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, whose patron is the author, Terry Pratchett. He is pictured here outside No 10 Downing Street wearing a scarf - not just any old scarf, but one knitted by one of the Trust's more inventive supporters, Susie Hewer from East Sussex. Susie
knitted the scarf while running the London Marathon.

She is pictured on the front cover of the ART's fundraising booklet, which arrived in the post today - there are two other runners in the background, dressed as licquorice allsorts. I don't think that either Sparky or I will be quite as sartorially imaginative when we come to do our walk.

So this month's targets: I'll aim to do the Wolverhampton to Birmingham portion of the walk; and I'll aim to get my weight down below 15 stone - it's currently 15st 3lb which, while it's lower than it has been for some time, is still far too high for my height. The next longish walk I'll do will be Wednesbury to Birmingham; that will partly (though not wholly) coincide with our July route, and will - by my estimate - be about 30% the length of it.

Stay tuned.

Mappa Sparki

Here is a map of our proposed route.
It was drawn by my colleague Sparkmaster, who doubles as Mission Cartographer.

I'll be starting in the centre of Birmingham, just to the east of the National Indoor Arena, on the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal. Then I'll walk along the whole length of the Birmingham Canal Navigation - all fifteen and five-eighths miles of it - which will take me just past Wolverhampton.

Where the route turns north, I'll be on the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal, which I'll take as far as Penkridge.

Sparkmaster will start on the Trent & Mersey Canal, somewhere in Stoke-on-Trent - we aren't sure exactly where yet. He'll follow that canal to Great Haywood, then turn onto the Staffs & Worcs.

So, with the Birmingham & Fazeley,
Birmingham Canal Navigation, Staffs & Worcs and Trent & Mersey, the number of canals we will walk along comes to four.

Which is where we got the title, "Fourcanal."

If you think that's a witty and memorable, if slightly risqué, title, then the idea was mine. If, on the other hand, you think it's needlessly vulgar, then you should hold Sparky responsible.

One small step for a Muntz

A blog can be about just about anything.

Most of this one - until the summer, anyway - will be about a charity event I'll be involved in this summer. I'll start from Birmingham; Sparkmaster - the other main protagonist - will start from Stoke-on-Trent - and we'll meet at Penkridge, which is near enough half way between the two - though Sparky's portion of the walk is a bit longer than mine.

We both spend some of our leisure time walking along canal towpaths an when we discovered that this was a shared interest this was what we decided to do. I'm not sure which one of us had the idea first.

While doing the walk will be useful for both of us, it seemed sensible to get some sponsorship for it, and raise money for a worthwhile cause.

Earlier this year the brother of a mutual friend of ours died in his early 60s having contracted Alzheimer's Disease a few years ago. It's a horrible, horrible disease. So we'll be doing the walk in aid of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, which funds research into the causes of the disease, and treatment for it.

Over the coming days and weeks I'll add to this blog - but there will be other stuff on it, too. Possibly about English Non-league football. Possibly about - well, about anything. Stay tuned.