We set off as agreed with our fellow boater at 9.00am this morning. The weather was not wet, just! Today we have done 15 locks, but only 6 and a third miles - the locks have come either singly with about half a mile between them or occasionally in pairs. We have spent a lot of the journey today travelling around Watford, but not seeing Watford as you might imagine it at all. It's been largely parks, golf courses, big houses with conference centres, and the River Gade of which I have never heard (apart from travelling it last year of course!) A lot of the journey has been like this, with big trees - they must be more than 100 years old, I should think.
This lock was the second we did which was called the Iron Bridge Lock where there was supposed to be a plaque unveiled by the Duke of Marlborough in 1987 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Grand Union Canal. I had a look around and couldn't find it!
There are extensive parklands to the left that lead up to Whippendell Wood - sounds very Tolkein. On the right there is Cassiobury Park which looked as though it had good manicured paths with bins, but lots of woodland that was less tidied. A little further on we came to this bridge which was demanded by the Duke of Essex in recompense for the canal passing through his land.
I wonder what the Duke of Essex would have made of the graffiti!! It was extremely calm today which was rather nice, and so the waters in front of the boat were unruffled leading to very nice reflections.
I do love a good reflection!! A number of the locks we came to had houses and gardens next to the canal which were all painted white and rather pretty. At one lock, there was the owner up a ladder fitting guttering with considerable precision. He walked backwards away from the house and closer to the lock edge to check his work a couple of times whilst I was doing the lock. I jokingly commented that he had better be careful how far back he walked. He confessed that he'd lost various things in the canal doing just that, though hadn't fallen in himself he was glad to say!
There were one or two occasions today when we met other people on boats; one fairly frustrating man who didn't follow the instructions on the lock to leave the lock empty, and also left one of the lock gates open - to come back and close later, or so he said. He was single handing the lock, but even so. We also met a couple who had also been moored in Paddington Basin. They are American and really lovely!. We stopped outside lock 68 to get water, and it was a really inconvenient location - just by the exit from the lock. In fact if we pulled our boat forward from the lock, the hose was not long enough to reach and for a little while Chris was holding the hose and aiming the shoot of water at the hole for the water tank. I moved the boat back so it was blocking the exit from the lock, and it then just reached. The American's were very accommodating as they went past us!
Sometimes the driver of the boat is provided with very helpful advice. This bridge elicited the comment from him up front that I should aim for the right hand arch! Sometimes.....!
Eventually we passed through Hemel Hempstead where there are quite a lot of shops and pubs along the canal. This marina is pretty central.
We had to keep going a bit until we found a mooring, but above Lock 65 we found a space for us and one for our travelling companion, Matt too. That was very helpful. I put a meal in the oven and then walked back to Sainsbury's which was a lock away to get some milk and vegetables which worked well as I was back before the meal was cooked. We then went out for a couple of pints with our lock companion, Matt which was really enjoyable. He and his wife and daughter are Polish and have lived in the UK for 5 years. His English is excellent, and we talked about all sorts of things which was really enjoyable. Which is why this blog is being written after 11.00pm!!!
Lots of locks tomorrow, so I must go to bed!
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