15th July '13

We've had a wonderful weekend with the crowd from RBOA. The AGM was packed and as well as the usual business, we had a presentation from one of the founder members, of whom 5 were present. Considering it's the 50th Anniversary this year that's saying something. The presentation was brilliant, full of pictures of their boats and tales of mooring on the Thames in the 60's and 70's. It was fascinating. I wished we'd seen it before we'd travelled on the Thames as we'd have been looking at some of the boats with a different viewpoint.

Yesterday, in blistering heat, we had a 'Chill at the Lock' Day, with music of varying types performed all day and some displays by local groups. I got chatting to a lady who was not only a Morris dancer, but also sang in a choir and volunteered on the Canal boats in the past. I was well impressed. They are going to be dancing at the National next weekend so I'll be looking out for her.

We are moored next to Norfolk Belle, which I failed to mention in the last blog. Dave and Angela are on the jetty abutting ours at Mercia. We have spent a fair bit of time with them and are planning to go on up through the locks with them to Watford. We've all decided to stay over until tomorrow as apparently there's nothing at Cassiobury Park where the show is being held and we are close to shops and nice walks here.

This is a working model of a canal, complete with locks, we can't remember if it's called the Little Union or the Small Union but it's something like that and I'm sure I'll get a comment telling me what it is! Great fun for the children though. You get a feel for how hot it was as this was 11am when it opened!

Here's a shot that isn't likely to be repeated often - I'm terrified of horses, but this one is a very gentle canal horse and I was persuaded that he was very friendly, so here I am - close to a horse!!!!!

That evening we had a lovely BBQ alongside the boats. About a dozen residential boaters sat along the tow-path having a great time. A perfect end to a lovely weekend. Thanks RBOA and look forward to seeing you all at the National! Now to get the washing out and go to Tesco to stock up for the coming week.

12th July '13

Now moored at Rickmansworth - funny little town, but nice enough. Moorings are doubled for the RBOA and there's a line of us, all ready for the weekend!

Yesterday we walked into Uxbridge and this is just about the only old building we saw - it's St. Margaret's Church and said on the notice that it's the oldest building in the town - by several hundred years as far as we could see!

Here's one for daughter-in-law #1 and several friends! Seen in Uxbridge just moored along from us. There was also a Titanic, but at about 20' long it wasn't quite as big as one of the lifeboats. I love someone with a sense of humour!

Yesterday we travelled a mile with one lock, today we've done about 6.5 miles and 6 locks, then we're not moving until Monday when we go on a few more miles to get to Watford, where we'll be for the best part of a week. We're still having electric problems after thinking we'd sorted them on the marina. When we get to the show we're going to find the Victron man and quiz him until we know what's happening with the inverter and then see the solar panel man and get some installed so that we're not in this position again.

We had a barbie the other night (slightly out of sequence here) and here's John (sorry about the nakedness - not necessarily what you need when you want to eat) busy cooking the meat. For those who can't work it out - we have a Cobb which is an Australian BBQ that is insulated so you can pick it up or indeed cook on a plastic table as pictured here. They're very good, but thanks to the last 2 summers it's been woefully underused.

We went through Denham Deep Lock - DEEP??? it's 11'1" for goodness sake! now 19'5" THAT'S deep. My photo of it doesn't want to upload but it's not that impressive. Go and find the one at Bath and imagine something slightly less than 2/3 as deep and there you have it!

We were at one lock and a boat arrived to come down just as we'd gone in to go up. Before the second bottom gate was shut and before I'd got a rope attached,some prat opened the top paddle, not even the ground paddle which would have been bad enough but the gate paddle. John yelled at him to shut it and after getting my rope sorted went over and had a quiet word about which paddle to do when. Apparently they were Dutch and had NO idea what to do, heaven knows how they got on. I was saying some very unladylike things about him while in the lock and still wish I could have got my hands on him - lock rage in action I think!

Most of my pictures won't upload for some reason, but this is the pub where the AGM is being held tomorrow afternoon. It looks nice, shame I've got food enough to feed the 40,000 and all needs to be used in the next few days - please let the weather last as we need BBQ's!

It's a bit dark but here's the line of RBOA boats - apart from the front one which has a permanent mooring there - Roger, an old working boat. There's also one you can't really distinguish just in front of us that is ignoring the signs saying RBOA only as well as calls from CRT and the appeals of the people here and is moored right in the middle of us all. Hopefully they will go soon as there are more boats due.

I have no idea when I'll next get on to update this, but will try to do something over the weekend or early next week.

10th July '13

We left Willow Tree today and have travelled about 5 miles and are moored at Cowley Lock next to the Malt Shovel. It was so nice on Saturday that we are meeting Darren and Michelle here again tonight, just for a drink this time as Michelle has to work late.

Moored at Willow Tree, because of the short jetty's, we had to come in and out of the stern and even after a week, Paddy still found it confusing - he's much happier now that we're using the front again. He had a trim yesterday as he'd been suffering with the heat, he's getting used to it now and I was able to use the trimmer over almost all of him rather than just his back, so much easier.

One of the bits I didn't like - the very heavy gates that were padlocked from 5pm through to the morning and the padlock took some opening!

Malcolm is never camera shy - here he's practising for a new role as the Tin Man I think!

A more usual Malcolm mode, and Susan who is my oldest friend (in that we've known each other for 50 years, not that she's ancient). We met them in Greenford last night and ate at the Bombay Chinese restaurant. They hadn't eaten there and we had no idea what to expect, but I have to say it served the largest portion of crispy duck and pancakes we'd ever seen in all of our lives! Otherwise it was sort of Chinese with Indian overtones. Apart from us, everyone eating there was of Indian extraction, so it was obviously filling a need. We'd certainly go there again.

This was the Nestle factory and I was expecting wonderful wafts of chocolate scents as we went past, but there was nothing - it could have been a car factory for all the excitement I got from it. What a let-down.

This is for John's sister - still lots to look for but we're getting there.

Just to show that canals still have a place in our industry - this is a wharf where aggregate is unloaded. It is carried along the canal from the other side of Uxbridge in 90 tonne barges, saving road miles. I love to see the canals being used for what they were intended. I noticed in Tesco yesterday a sign saying that they were using canals where possible to reduce their carbon footprint - good for them I say.

Now I need to go and prepare everything for a BBQ so that John can wield his spatula and announce that he cooked tea tonight!

8th July '13

Sorry about the gap in blogs, but I've been a bit busy and we're also in the middle of a heatwave, which tends to addle my brain!

On Thursday John went off for a day with Malcolm viewing the Lowrie exhibition at the Tate Britain, and Susan came over so we took Paddy out on an explore. Then we had a take away on the boat that evening.

On Friday I went out with Susan and investigated the graves of my great-grandparents, we couldn't find the exact spot but were able to pin down the general area at Morden Cemetery.

Their graves are somewhere this side of the tree line, when they died my great-aunt Rhoda was only in her early 20's and was a trainee teacher, caring for her much younger sister, my grandmother so there was no money for a headstone. This was in 1905.

We discovered one of the houses she'd had an apartment in during WWII, that was still standing - none of the schools she'd taught at still exist and I couldn't find any of the other houses on Google either.

This is Stockwell Park Road, and while she was here, at age 60, she was a fire warden for the Borough, which is how I got the address, as I still have her ID card!

It was interesting to do some exploring of the lesser known areas of outer London, even Susan had never been to either, so both of us were new to it.

While travelling back to the station we spotted this lovely bronze statue. It's the first one erected in Britain portraying a black women and we thought it was rather beautiful.


After an obligatory whizz around John Lewis and a few purchases later we went back to Greenford, where John turned up and we had a lovely meal courtesy of Malcolm. Sitting out in their garden eating the fruit picked only an hour before was bliss.

On Saturday, Darren and Michelle collected us and took us to Gunnersbury Park, which used to belong to the Rothschilds, but is now a local museum, with exhibits of how the area used to be. It was lovely as both John's parents were Londoners and so was my mum, so it was a bit of how they probably knew the place. Rather a nice idea we thought.

 

 

In the grounds, it's not clear whether this ruin is a folly or an actual building that used to stand on the site. Anyway, behind it there's a community garden, and they are turning the old walled garden back into a useful area. They're growing various herbs and vegetables and there's some newly planted fruit trees. It's a huge project but it's nice to see communities getting stuck into something like this.

 

 

This is the front facade of the house, it's really a shame as it's becoming very worn and dilapidated, and if some money is not spent on it soon, it could just crumble away. The grounds are immense and appear to be a very popular place to come as there were families and couples all over the place having picnics and playing. It's free to get into so people can use it to their hearts content.

 

That evening after we'd had a break for walking and feeding dogs as well as much needed showers and change of clothes, we went out for a really nice meal at the Malt Shovel, which is next to the first lock we'll encounter on our journey onwards.

 

Yesterday we sort of wrote off, it was baking hot and I hadn't slept well for 2 nights, then John broke another of our canal mugs I've been collecting, the washing machine packed in and then that evening the electric turned off and the inverter wouldn't work!

 

Today John's sorted the inverter, got a new drive-belt ordered for the machine and I slept better so a much better day altogether.

 

We like the position of the marina here, but am not keen on the short jetty's, getting locked in at 5.00pm until 9.00am and the cost of the electric (£2.50 a night) that then ran out, but on the plus side, it's close to a bus stop, Tesco and B&Q (needed today for tools for machine).

3rd July '13

To start - hopefully the photos from yesterday!

Here we are in Teddington Lock, there were more boats behind us as well! All of us going through to Brentford. This is only half the lock, they are able to open up another set of gates to double the capacity, apparently it's possible to get 50 boats in depending on size. Scary!

Here we're approaching Richmond Bridge, reputed to be the most beautiful one on the Thames. Note the blue boat ahead of us - he came out of the lock at least 2 boats behind us (a hirer) and decided that he didn't like queues (nobody told him about boating etiquette I imagine) and so he came hurtling past us (and the boats behind) then got stuck but still managed to overtake a further boat or two before Brentford. Some slightly rude words were said and his ears should have turned bright red. Not what boating is about at all.

This is the rather beautiful Richmond Lock building. It isn't used most of the time, just when the tide is at a certain point (not sure of the technicalities). Anyway it really is rather lovely I thought.

This is Syon House and Kew is on the other bank of the river at this point. I'm already planning our trip in 2 years when we will return to the Thames (Liverpool next year, we've promised ourselves).

After a restful night in Brentford, and some rain, we set out to once more do double locks, without the luxury of being able to leave the gates open as on the Wey. We didn't see another boat moving until we reached the 10th and last lock of the day, it's very quiet, especially compared to the bustle of the last week or so.

An example of a Horsefield bridge, reminiscent of the ones on the Coventry Canal. Very pretty, this one's just outside Brentford.

Of the 10 locks today, there were 2 then a flight of 6 all close together and then 2 more. This is looking up at the bottom of the flight - not quite Caen but enough when you're out of practise!

This is looking over from the top of that lock at the inlet where the River Brent joins the canal. Apparently at times it can be quite a current here but today it was unnoticeable.

This is the only example we've seen of a horse escape ramp! It is quite a large pound and obviously they must have had horses being pulled in the water enough times for it to be worth building this. There's a plaque explaining it John tells me but I was on the boat and he was on land and guess who had the camera?

For quite a long stretch of the locks there was the foreboding edifice of a former Insane Asylum, now most of it looks derelict and the rest looks like a prison, very strong mesh up and around all the space inside. Not a happy place.

Whilst in the final lock, a group of students from Elthorne Park High School came up to us, out on a field trip. Compliments to the school and pupils, they were well behaved, polite and interested and I found myself back in teacher mode hoping to enthuse them with an understanding of canals in the short time we were there. Here they were making their way onwards, as were we. No faces so hopefully no problems with identity for anyone.

This is one of Brunel's final pieces of work - it's known as Three Bridges because the road goes over the canal...

....and the canal goes over the rail!

We turned at Bulls Bridge onto the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union and.....

....believe it or not this is the scenery! We've looked on Google Maps and the whole area is full of houses and streets and urban life, and yet there's this wonderful green corridor running right through it and I wonder how many people realise it's there? Quite stunning.

We're now moored nicely in Willow Tree Marina, with electric once again. I've got the second lot of washing in and can't wait to actually use my iron! Paddy seems more serene - he was badly frightened by the boat banging against the moorings at Hampton (we had to move the fenders in the end) and he's been really off ever since. I actually had to take him out for a walk at 3.30 AM!!!!! at Hampton. Me in nightie and fleece - luckily there was no-one around! Anyway he seems more settled again and has eaten his food so hopefully he's over that.

Joy of joys there's a HUGE Tesco in a few minutes walk. I've been and just wandered around the shelves, buying very little but just enjoying the choices. Sad I know. I'm staying here tomorrow while John goes off with Malcolm to visit the Lowrie exhibition at the Tate Modern, then on Friday Susan and I are off to find my great, grandparents graves. It's my choice! Probably some alcohol involved in the evenings so I've got myself some Pimms and strawberries, just in case.

2nd July '13

A day of coincidences. First I got chatting to the couple on nb No Problem and discovered that Sue reads my blog and has actually posted a comment, but until today I didn't know her from Eve (thought Adam wasn't the right word). Another blog I shall have to find and read! Then after mooring and discovering that nb Maid of the Mist was here, got chatting to Graham and found that they used to moor at the same marina as Jez and Jane on nb Belle! The boating world is getting smaller the longer we live in it. I love this life!

For some reason my photos don't seem to want to upload again today. No worries, I shall hopefully do it tomorrow when we're safely ensconced in the marina!

We have come off the Thames and are now at Brentford at the bottom of the Grand Union. Looking forward to catching up with Susan and Malcolm as well as Darren and Michelle!

Chatting to Graham has re-inspired me to continue with my family tree - maybe now right now but certainly in the not too distant future. We are only a bus ride from the National Archives Office here and so another trip I could plan to spend some time there. Thanks Graham!

1st July '13

Can't believe that that's the first half of the year gone, there's still so much to do!

We stayed in Kingston for a second night after going around the town in the morning and then, don't ask me why I agreed, walking to Hampton and back in the blistering heat of the afternoon. Paddy and I were not happy bunnies by the time we got back to the boat, but we had established the fact that it wasn't worth cruising back to Hampton that night.

We liked Kingston. From the river it looks all brash and new, but once you get behind the riverfront there are some really interesting buildings. naturally I forgot to take my camera, but there is a Church here that saw the crowning of the first English monarch. Impressive.

When we got back from our marathon (it was 5 miles there and back and then I realised that if we'd gone around the main road way, it would have been half that) the boat that had gone into our vacant space at Hampton the previous day was obviously looking for somewhere to moor. So we returned the favour shown to us and called them in to moor alongside us. Jez and Jane on nb Belle, sub-titled the Daschund Carrying Co. They have 3 of them on board as well as a parrot! Love the dogs, can live without the parrot! We'd actually met them before at some point on the system, possibly a couple of years ago, as they are obviously quite distinctive, but this time we had a much longer chat. You do meet some nice people on the water.

Today we were away by 9am, yes, unusual isn't it? As we arrived at Hampton, all the small plastic boats that we thought would have moved, were still there, but a narrow boat was just leaving so we got a good spot, right next to the ramp which is better for Paddy. By the time I'd given him a walk and we'd had a coffee, most of the boats had disappeared, as expected.

We went around the bits of Hampton that we'd missed last time, thanks once again to Barbara.

A rather attractive selection of chimneys, spotted from one of the many courtyards and passageways. The place is like a small town!

Just one of the lovely small gardens, amongst the huge formal gardens. So many places to hide away, no wonder it was such a place for intrigue.

This is the great vine - it holds the Guiness record for being the largest vine in the world and it's probably the oldest, having been planted by 'Capability' Brown, who was apparently head gardener here, back in the day. Not something I'd known before.

I don't seem to be able to upload any more pictures - computers gone on strike. Anyway we got to the maze and did it in an amazingly short time - minutes literally, we only went wrong once. A bit disappointing I have to admit, but then it was the only part of the whole place that was less than amazing (pun intended).

Tomorrow we end one more section of this adventure as we are going down through Teddington and getting off the Thames at Brentford, to start up the Grand Union. We are definitely going to be back. I can see many summers ahead of us, exploring the Thames more thoroughly. Who'd have believed I'd say that at the start of this trip, even at Oxford I was dreading it, now I'm in love with the whole experience.