LEJOG Day 24 – Birmingham to Drayton Manor 15.43 miles . Cumulative 445.54

Another dry day with a cool wind, but pleasant in the sun.

From our city centre hotel, we immediately access the Grand Union Canal. Initially we are surrounded by high rise buildings and some of them are built directly over the canal. In places there is scaffolding, overhanging the canal, with no road access, so presumably delivered and erected from a barge.

After passing below spaghetti junction, we switch to the Birmingham and Fazely Canal, which was built to link Birmingham to Coventry. The surroundings change to a mix of industrial and housing, before we enter the ‘proper’ countryside and we leave Warwickshire for Staffordshire, our seventh county.

We pass by the picturesque Kingsbury Water Park, teeming with birds, where we have a stop in the sunshine before heading to our campsite at Drayton Manor Park, adjacent to the Theme Park and Thomas Land (as in Thomas the Tank Engine).

On arrival at the campsite we were greeted by Sandra, who wasn’t expecting us. We had booked for tomorrow! Fortunately, there is plenty of space, but this does prompt us to double check our other bookings.

Steve is in the dog house for getting the booking wrong so has not been allowed to visit the theme park . He is now sulking. It’s going to be a long evening.