To be honest, I have not started the year as I had hoped. My main aim of 2026 is to walk one thousand miles (1,610km) and as of this morning, I had walked zero miles.
A minor aim for the forthcoming year is to finish the A Coventry Way forty mile challenge walk in April. with this in mind, I have a training plan and said plan calls for a walk of eighteen km today.
After consulting the charts (and having watched a You Tube video about cycling along the Birmingham Canal Navigation) decided to walk from somewhere near Wolverhampton into Brum. I would use a bus to get to and from Birmingham.
Best laid plans and all that meant that instead of leaving the house just before seven, I was just waking up.
I fed the dogs and myself. Luckily, I had prepared. everything last night so I didn’t waste time looking for things that I would need.
We had had a dusting of snow overnight, so it was into a white world that I stepped only twenty minutes later than planned. The moon that I commented on a couple of days ago was now full and is apparently a wolf moon.
I only had to wait less than five minutes before the 94 bus arrived to whisk me into Birmingham from where, after a similar wait, I took the tram (Midland Metro) to ward Wolverhampton.
One thing that I noticed was that this tram was terminating at St. Georges (the original Wolverhampton stop) instead of the later and more usual Bus Station. That didn’t bother me as I would be alighting a couple of stops before either (technically it would be three stops if terminating at the bus station).
An hour after leaving home, I was leaving the tram (not bad going) and heading towards the canal.
I was going to follow what is known as the Old main line rather than my usual route along the, you guessed it, New Main Line. I say usual as though I’m out here quite often, which I am not but I have been enough times to use that word.
TYPES OF MOON
As there is usually only one full moon a month (save for the Blue moon which is the name given to the second in a month) so each month’s full moon has been given a name.
JANUARY Wolf
FEBRUARY Snow
MARCH Worm
APRIL Pink
MAY Flower
JUNE Strawberry
JULY Buck
AUGUST Sturgeon
SEPTEMBER Full Corn
OCTOBER Hunter’s Moon
NOVEMBER Beaver
DECEMBER. ColdSeptember’s moon is also known as the Harvest moon which is the nearest full moon to the summer equinox.
Whichever Main Line I am using, I have to pass through the three hundred and twenty nine metre long Coseley Tunnel before branching off at Factory Junction.
A short way along here, the Dudley Tunnel Branch goes off to the Black Country Museum but I kept left and continued along the Old Main Line.
At roughly the half way point, on the Tividale Aqueduct, which crosses over the northern portal of the Netherton Tunnel, I stopped for a snack and some drink before continuing on. Another kilometre brought me to a flight of locks on my left which would join up with the New Main Line – not today.
This next section, still under the road, was probably the muddiest section (luckily, a lot of the goo was still frozen) of todays walk but after passing through the, short, Summit Tunnel conditions underfoot improved.
After another couple of clicks I met the motorway system for the first time by going under the M5.
For the next two and a half kilometres, I weaved in and out under the motorway, crossing over the New Main Line on the Stewart Aqueduct. Looking to my left, I was impressed by the concrete supports holding up the motorway.
I was starting to flag around this point, feeling tired and with my knees hurting. Looking at my watch, I saw that I only had to walk another four kilometres (less than a parkrun) to reach my goal. Continuing on, all the way into Brum, was ‘only’ another six. I pressed on.
I soon joined the New Main Line and approaching Winson Green was relieved to pass the Soho Loop on my left followed but Cape Loop on my right before crossing the other end of the Soho Loop. I was nearly there.
As I approached the city centre, the number of other users increased and I was spurned on by a desire to overtake these slower walkers.
At the rear entrance to the International Convention Centre (ICC) I called it a day having clocked up 20.7 kilometres or just shy of a half marathon.
I slowly made my way through the ICC and Centenary Square and across to my bus stop, pausing at Sainsbury’s for some chocolate and a drink as well as some Ibuprofen and Paracetamol. My bus was waiting so I boarded, selected a seat and collapsed into it. Drugged up, the pain started to ease aided by a sugar rush as the bus trundled on its way.
All in, I took twenty eight thousand steps (give or take) to cover the distance in under four hours. Nowhere near as fast as I used to be but hopefully, with training, some of that will return.
Back home, I had a proper meal then had to have a little lie down. Four hours after finishing, as I write this blog, I have returned to what I would describe as normal even though the knees are still rather achey.
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