BIRMINGHAM CANAL NAVIGATIONS You've heard it all before...Birmingham has more canals than Venice. Yes, but there's no other comparison. Boaters, like yours truly, who venture onto the BCN do so with, sometimes, considerable difficulty not to mention trepidation. But the BCN cannot be ignored and those whose aim it is to fully explore England's canal system have to come to it sometime.  The BCN is, like the Curate's egg, excellent in parts.  It consists of about 100 miles of waterway, built to serve the industrial needs of a burgeoning and mighty manufacturing centre. At its peak the system was 160 miles long but many of the smaller arms acting as transport feeders to particular Companies or areas have been filled in or abandoned. There remain the access bridges to these lost arms built into the tow path, sometimes offering intriguing and mysterious glimpses through the portals of what lies beyond. As one drifts by the remains of old factory buildings and facilities, seeing the vegetation  growing out of decaying brickwork and rotting timbers, somehow it's not depressing. These are now the archaeological evidence of a human endeavour that was wildly successful and that formed the foundations of continuing progress. Coincidently we found a remnant of another enterprise that’s still on its three wheels but I’m keeping the backwater location secret. The jewel in the BCN crown is of course Birmingham and some excellent moorings in a vibrant, exciting city full of culture and food. As you will have seen from my post of 5th September 2016 we were unable to continue our passage through the Rushall and Thame Valley Canals and so looped back via the Walsall Canal. This led us on to the New Main Line by way of the Ryders Green Locks. Atthe base of these locks is Great Bridge with a branch of Asda adjacent, notable for the number of its trolleys dumped in the canal. A notification of this by yours truly at the Customer Service elicited instant disinterest. In overall conclusion and reflection I find that I am awed by the past glories of a unique and historic industrial infrastructure, but grieved by the actualities of present neglect. But, as a passing boater said as he helped me clear a propeller jammed with discarded rubbish, “don’t give up on the BCN.”