Day 3: Birmingham to Phepson Farm, 26.7 miles
The Redditch Road was busy, but I stuck to the sidewalk and I was never threatened by hooligans. I felt pretty silly about my baseless fears and was making good time on the road. I should have followed the Redditch/Birmingham Road all the way to the canal, but when I was planning the route, I saw that Lea End Lane rejoined the canal close enough to the south tunnel portal for a photograph.
This was one of the few instances where Google Maps failed me, or more correctly, I failed to correctly interpret the Google Maps terrain view. Lea End Lane does cross the canal, but I should have appreciated how deep the cut is. It was 25 feet from the road down to the canal and although there was a gate that indicated a path, it would be stupid to attempt it. Naturally I went for it, both because I was loathe to backtrack to the Birmingham Road and because I thought it would make a good story.
First I took the two panniers and my camera bag down the slope on separate trips. Then I took the bike down, which was more difficult because I didn’t have my hands free to hold on to tree roots or the side of the bridge. I ended up sliding down the last part with the bike on top of me.
I reattached the equipment to the bike and took pictures of the portal and congratulated myself on surviving my foolish descent. As I prepared to leave, however, I realized I was missing a glove, which meant another ascent and descent to find it (actually two up/downs because I missed the glove the first time).
Eventually I was ready to resume my ride but it was immediately obvious the towpath to the south of the tunnel was very different from what I’d experienced so far. Until Kings Norton the towpath had been paved in some fashion, but here it was a single, dirt track.2 It returned to paved south of the Birmingham Road/A441, then became a wider dirt track near Lower Bittell Reservoir and then back to a single, dirt track. It remains a dirt track until the dead arm3 near Alvechurch, when it goes back to being paved.4
