On the very last day of my project in Birmingham,

my parents agreed to come on a long ride out of the city.

We were to leave Icknield Port Loop,

and see how far we could get in the direction of Wolverhampton.

We left the loop,

and my dad and mom helped paddle.

I was able to sit and just take pictures.

My dad took some pictures too.

I pointed some things out to my parents that I had learned from people in my week out on the canal.

Like the red hatches for fire hoses on every bridge.

We came to parts I had not seen.

And saw things that I hadn’t noticed like this fish. (dead)

I pulled the boat for a while….

A while longer

We stopped for lunch.

By steering at the front and back,

we were able to keep the boat on course while being pulled.

My dad spotted something in the water.

A huge fish swimming just under the surface.

An open door.

My mom waited in the boat,

while I explored.

Nothing for a while.

Then this tunnell.

It was a pretty day.

But pulling the boat started to seem irrelevant.

Why don’t we just walk along,

and see what we can see?

We came up to a series of locks in the canal.

A group of German narrowboaters were working their barge through the locks.

After entering the lock, they cranked open some kind of pipe.

It filled the lock with water.

The boat slowly rose to the level of the next lock. Can you see the sausages that came out on deck?

They opened the lock and moved on.

It only took a few minutes to move the barge up about 8 feet.

The boats weigh 25 tons.

Now the canal is up so high, it can cross over the Old Main Line.

This looks narrow, but one of the narrowboats can still fit through.

We decided to explore the bank.

We were well outside Birmingham now.

And in some ways I felt like we had accomplished our mission.

We headed back.

A painted map of one of the locks.

And then somewhere along the new Main Line,

we saw something in the water.

A small red boat was overtaking us.

I had seen this kid before- back in April when I was making the boat, I saw him paddling along talking to a friend who was walking on the bank.

It stood out in my mind – the only other person I had ever seen in a self-powered boat out on the canal.

His boat is modified from a kayac and he made his oars are from plywood.

His name is Luke Bailey. He lives in a bargeman’s house right on the canal.

He comes out to paddle all the time.

He asked what I planned on doing with my boat when I went back to America. I told him he could have it.

After giving me his address, he took his boat up the hill to the reservoir,

and hopped over the fence.

After dinner we took a walk down the canal in a direction that I hadn’t been before.

There are 16 locks here in just under a mile.

They raise the barges up almost a hundred feet as they enter central Birmingham.

And it was all built 200 years ago.

This is a picture of the lock flight in the early 1800s

And this is how the same area looks now.

Helen lives right over the locks!

We walked home in the dark.

Helen and Melissa came over from Ikon gallery in the middle of the day

It was the first really sunny day that I had seen all week.

Helen said that being out in the boat reminded her of a book she had when she was a kid.

It was about children who made a raft and escaped to an island.

Did the book have pictures? – I asked.

She doesn’t know.

She remembers vivid images but they might be her own.

Then just as we were coming through the tunnel,

a tour boat was rounding the corner – there is my dad on deck!

These are the pictures that he took of us.

It was all carefully planned.

Walking home along the canal, we talked about how the week had gone.

And we saw something that I have never understood.

I see so many coconuts in the water here.

Do they float in from the tropics?

Tom grew up in Birmingham, but I met him in the United States. It was through Tom that I originally became interested in the Birmingham canals. This is an old photograph of the Icknield Port Loop, hanging in the office of the boat yard.

Tom came out for a ride by himself at the end of the day.

I thought maybe he would be sick of the boat -after helping me construct it last month.

But he still wanted to go.

And it had turned into a pretty afternoon.

I never noticed that before.

We came out onto the New Main Line,

and decided to go a way that I had never taken before.

From here you can see how the canal is above the level of the street in some places.

There is a towpath along this section, so I decided to practice pulling the boat along, for when I take the boat out alone for a longer trip this weekend.

I asked Tom to experiment with the position for a fixed rudder- for when I am pulling the boat along by myself.

He didn’t think that I should try and take the boat along by myself. Especially at night, outside the city.

OK, fine.

The rain was just picking up.

There seemed to be a large gas spill on part of the canal.

I took about 20 pictures of it.

The wind pushed us along – it turned the canopy into a sail.

Jayne took some pictures.

She told me a little about the way the canal would eventually look after the development was complete.

Me, Tom, Andy, and Andrew – from left to right.

Things started out innocently enough…

but soon we were scanning the buildings,

looking for a way in.

Dead end.

Stuck shut.

This one too.

What now?

Around the bend, we were moving quickly.So I decided to head out of the Icknield Port.

There is an island in the canal in the direction of Wolverhampton.

Roger, one of my first pasengers, told me that it used to be a kind of toll house – for entering Birmingham by canal.

Now it is a small abandoned island.

We head back into the port.

I wish you could take a picture of the sound – said Andrew.

A tour boat passed by.

And when we stopped and got out – that is when I dropped the camera into the water and lost everything from the trip before.

The worst thing about losing the camera was that I also lost all the pictures of my trip with artist Jacques Nimki. I had heard him over dinner the night before talking about making wine out of plants that he finds in the city. So – I said – your work is, like, about finding weeds and stuff and making things out of it?

Well – he said – I like to take things from the landscape that people overlook. We tend to look at a place and there are things that we choose to see and things that we choose not to see and I work with the elements that we choose not to see. (but he said it better than that)

I sort of thought my project was like that too. Here we were, talking about unsean elements of the landscape and we were inside it. By entering a disused or forgotten space we were becoming invisible to the outside world. And you really feel like it down there.

These images – the drawings, are details from Jacque Nimki’s artwork. But he also does other things, like making that wine that I heard him talking about. He makes it out of things he finds in the city.

And then when we were coming back he found something growing right out of the cement in the boat yard – Wild London Rocket. I had never even heard of it before.

And it was delicious.

I was happy to see that Liz signed up for a boat ride. I met her the last time I was here building the boat.

She is an artist who lives in Birmingham – they both are.

These are the last few pictures I took with before the camera fell into the canal.

It happens all the time. You would think I would tie these things to myself somehow.

As we paddled around the loop, we seemed to be hearding a group of geese along in front of us.

We wound up cornering them before the bridge and they started to fight with eachother, biting and honking and flapping viciously.

Because I didn’t have any pictures of the geese, I downloaded these images from the web. (google image search for ‘bird fight’)

It seemed as though the birds were fighting with eachother because of the stress that our presence was causing them.

It is just like people – I said.

I don’t remember exactly what he said, but Andy knew just was that was called when people do it. Something displacement or aggravated something. Email me, Andy – and tell me what it is called.

Bob and Cesare met me early Wednesday morning.

Bob wanted to tape our trip for a radio program.

We set out around the loop in the rain.

Bob had good questions. He seemed interested in the project as it related to psychogeography the study of the effects of geographical settings on our behavior and mood.

I was a little self concious about talking to much in front of Cesare – I wanted him to have his own experience of the place. I was so happy that they had come out even in the rain.

But he seemed to be enjoying himself.

And then just as we were coming quietly around a bend in the canal – we saw one of the most wonderful things that I have seen yet.

A nest of Moorhens. The small heads of the chicks were poking through the feathers of the hen – so it looked like a bird with five tiny heads. Look – said Bob – her nest is made from packets of crisps, things she found in that canal, just like your boat.

From left to right – that is Diana, me, Lisa, and Sheila.

Sheila seemed a little nervous about the boat.

But after a few minutes we were all absorbed in our observations.

I pulled the boat along the towpath for a little.

And inadvertently chased along a crowd of geese. Canadians, like us – said Sheila.

We passed the little Moorhens,

and reflected on our experiences,

I took some pictures of the water,

and just as we passed through the tunnel under Icknield Port Road,

Sheila spotted something on the bank.

A duck sitting on her nest.

Quiet, still, and perfectly camouflaged.

Midge and John were waitning at the boatyard when I got back.

I must be the oldest person to ride in your boat! said Midge – she is in her 80’s

And she was a great paddler as well.

John pointed out some things along the way.

The way these pipes bend up along a curve – it is so they can expand and contract without breaking.

They must have contained something hot.

Midge used to live along a canal.

A passing barge that must have been a real work boat.

The sight could almost be from another time.

Ged Hughes met me on Tuesday morning with her friend Ben Waddington.

The weather looked better.

You can’t really see it here, but on the bank of the island we saw a Moorhen with four tiny Moorhen chicks. They were so small and special, running along away from us.

We climbed the tallest mound of bricks on the island.

And stood up there taking in the sight.

Ged pointed out some of the flowers growing.

Some right out of the cement.

She knew all the names.

But now I can only remember the poppy.

A tour boat passed by and we could hear him telling his passengers about the buildings along the Icknield Port Loop.

Most of my passengers know more than me about the area.

So in a way it is like the oposite of a tour.

Roger Anthony Cobley was my first passneger on the morning of May 28th.

He found out about the boat from the Birmingham Post.

They listed it as something to do if it ever stopped raining this weekend.

It was raining just a little.

But nothing we couldn’t handle.

Roger pointed out a small floating bird along the way. A Moorhen – he said.

Roger said his bowling club was named after the Moorhen.

Roger told me about another bird named the Coot. It looks like a Moorhen but with a white beek instead of orange.

Stay away from these – he said. Coots can be vicious.

Paul Franklin came out in the afternoon.

The rain had stopped and everything looked green and lush.

Paul has been reading ‘The Book of Dave’ – a science fiction book by Will Self.

Part of it takes place 500 years in the future.

The world has become abandoned and overgrown. The water levels have risen.

Its easy to imagine.

What would you do with these abandoned places – Paul askes – would you leave them just like this?

I would like to leave them just the way they are.

As a safety measure, Helen borrowed a boat from her father to use in case we need to be rescued. She showed Richard and Lex how to start the motor.

They wanted to take it around the loop to try it out.

And then it really started to rain.

They were out there for almost an hour.

And they came back quite wet.

They had some trouble with the motor.

But fixed it with bandaids.

Back inside the office there is not much to do while we wait for the rain to let up.

Emma had the idea to play ‘I spy’

One person thinks of an object in the room and gives its initial letter, and we guess the object.

Emma begins – what object in the room has the initials of F____ P_____?

Could it be a Furry Pig?

Or perhaps the Fire Place?

It must be a Fiber Pipe…

Or a Football Picture!

NO NO it was a Foot Print!

When Helen Legg and I got down to the boat, it was filled with water.

We bailed it out,

and tipped it over.

I built a canopy to keep out some of the rain.

Jonathan Witkins came down with his daughter Emily and friend Sarah. They said they wanted to go out in the boat – even if it was raining. (And it really was)

Actually, Jonathan has been out in my boat before.

When I was back home in the United States, he and his daughter helped test out the boat to make sure that it was seaworthy, and they took it all the way around Icknield Port Loop.

But this was my first time paddling through the loop.

The old warehouses look great in the rain.

And we passed by a nest of goose eggs on the bank.

We decided to stop off to explore the interior of the island that is formed by the loop in the canal.

There is a large empty lot.

And heaps of brick and stone.

It doesn’t look like it here, but the wind was up along the canal.

And for a while, Jonathan got out and pulled us along with a rope.

It was much easier when we made a turn,

and headed in the direction of the wind.

There are many things to see along the way.

And sometimes it feels like a ride at an amusement park.

We tucked the boat away for the night.