The famous “21” and beyond

Douglas Diary Summer Holidays 2018

The famous “21” and beyond

It was just one degree centigrade outside my long kennel when I woke my bearded one for his walk. We did not take Max this morning but we walked quite a way up the notorious flight of locks to see what was ahead of us and it was another beautiful day, mist was rising from the still water, it was very pretty.

My bearded one had us all organised as soon as breakfast was over for an early ascent of the “21” this proved a prudent move as while we were in the first lock, a second kennel arrived. This gave us a significant advantage as the locks, being closed up overnight, were all in our favour. Furthermore our following kennel with a large crew were able to assists us by closing the gates after us nearly 21 times! I enjoyed this journey very much. It took just over two hours, it was nearly 2 miles long with a rise of about 170 feet.

When we were about half way I saw a large plastic bag sitting on a lock side. I had to investigate in case it was food. My nose went into the bag of course which aroused a couple of men humans who were sleeping under a blanket nearby. They did not seem very friendly. To make conversation, Max, seeing the word Iceland emblazoned on the bag called across to the two individuals – “Reykjavik?” They looked bemused and grunted as they lit up their joints and gathered up their bedding and what remained of my opportune picnic.

The next excitement was a team of workers who it turned out were “A community pay back contingent” busy maintaining the grass areas – Max, unaware of their offender status enquired “You live locally?”

At the summit we stopped for a refreshment break before proceeding through some pretty Dirty rubbish canal for a couple of hours through Wolverhampton. My bearded one had to clear plastic bags, clothing and other detritus from my propeller more than once.

We stopped to visit the Living Black Country Museum on the outskirts of Birmingham which they found extremely interesting. It is a preserved village of bygone days operating crafts and activities. (See my photo today). It deserved a whole day visit, more that the hour and a half we had. I was much admired on our walk around the village as they don’t see many of my kind as we discovered on our exit! “Is it a guide dog.?” I’ve heard that before.

We stopped for the evening at Oldbury (a suburb of Birmingham) and they found a Fish and chip shop and they took this back to my long kennel I got one chip!

Love Douglas x