Bleakness and Beauty

You just would not believe that this is Hackney, east London! On our way out towards the Lee and Stort Navigations, but still very much in London.

And here is Shireen, complete with 'bump', demonstrating her skills at the helm of 'Zindagi'. She travelled some of the way up the River Lee with us and then took a train back to Paddington.

Unfortunately, she saw the rather bleaker bit of the Lee and missed the beauty to be found further north . . .

. . . and this is one of the better bits! The 'canalised' river reaches almost due north from East London, with the high embankments of endless reservoirs on one side and the ever-present lines of pylons marching alongside. Even the constant presence of the railway and various roads seemed pleasant by comparison!

And then, round about Enfield and Waltham Abbey, it all began to change, slowly at first, until we found ourselves in much more pleasant surroundings, like here at Carthagena Lock near Broxbourne – they even had hanging baskets on the lock footbridge!

Soon after that, we turned onto the River Stort and the scenery changed instantaneously, as you can see yourself here. Quiet, tree-lined, almost secret in some places, passing through nature reserves and small towns.

Unusual lock cottages, some of them with the coat of arms of George Duckett, who made the river navigable in the late 1700s . . .

. . . and some sections awash with colour from the exotic Himalayan Balsam which has spread along the banks.

London By The 'Tradesman's Entrance'

Having arrived from the Thames at about 7.30 a.m., we mooched slowly up the Grand Union Canal to just below Hanwell locks. Val's nephew Paul lives just a few minutes away and we had arranged to meet him (and Caroline, Billy and Tom) after he finished work in the afternoon. Our daughter Shireen came to join us soon after lunch.

Friday morning – Shireen had to go to work and we started up the 8 locks at Hanwell and Norwood Green, sharing the work with 'Polveithan'. Then a stop on the edge of Southall, where we serviced the diesel-fired hob and got it working well again. Shireen rejoined us after work.

Generally westwards along the Main Line of the Grand Union, before turning north at Bulls Bridge to join the Paddington Arm. This definitely did not feel like London! A very green and semi-rural canal, gradually turning eastwards towards Paddington. Here is an old wharf crane, still visible on the modernised canalside.

And so under the blue bridge into 'Little Venice', where the Regents Canal Joins the Paddington Arm. The Visitor Moorings were full up (probably due to the Tour de France and the Live Earth concert) but we managed to find a space – surprisingly quiet in spite of being practically under Westway and near Paddington station!

We continue to enjoy the way in which we can chug right into the city centre and find a 'free' mooring (included in our annual licence fee) while all around motorists are paying high parking fees and even the Congestion Charge for the privilege of staying in the same area.

Down Deepcut, Dramas at Woodham and the Thames

As we were working our way down the locks in the Deepcut and Brookwood flights, John (the Basingstoke Canal Ranger) was busy on his mobile phone. Then he came and told us that we might not be able to go down the Woodham flight the next day, and in fact might be 'trapped' on the Basingstoke canal for up to 3 weeks!

The reason? One of the lockgates on the Woodham flight was dangerously rotten and might collapse. If it did so while we were in the lock, there could be real danger of damage to the boat and personal injury. On health and safety grounds, they might have to close the canal with us still on it!

The next day, we started down the Goldsworth Locks, waiting for a phone call to tell us what had been decided at a site meeting at the damaged lockgate.

Eventually we had the news. They were going to let us down the locks, but we would have to get out of the boat while going through the lock, and it would be hauled through on ropes. In the event, it was very mundane, no drama, no danger. But we were the last boat down the flight and the canal has been closed since then.

It seems to sum up the negative side of this beautiful canal. The maintenance of locks seems to be on a 'fire-fighting' basis, lurching from crisis to crisis with insufficient finance, making poor use of the Rangers' time and efforts. What a pity – but at least we did see it all – really lovely!

Back down onto the River Wey and down to the Thames at Shepperton again, to be faced with a swirling 'whirlpool' of water where the Wey joins the flow from the weir on the Thames. It looked like our fears might be true and we would have to wait there for the level and current to subside. Meanwhile, 'Zindagi' was surrounded by foam!

After a comfortable (but rather 'wavey') night, we phoned up Sunbury Lock (the next one downstream) and were pleasantly surprised to hear that there were NO warning boards out and we could go on downstream – so down we went, and found moorings just a few hundred yards above Teddington Lock, ready to start at 6.15 the next morning to catch the high spring tide.

So here we all are in the lock early on Thursday. If you look carefully you can see that lifejackets are in evidence – these and an anchor are essentials for the tidal Thames. Six narrowboats and one big Dutch barge – and still plenty of spare space in this enormous lock. Quite unintentionally, we found ourselves at the front of the lock with the Dutch barge, and so were the first out of it and therefore 'leading the convoy' down this tidal reach of the Thames to Brentford Lock.

After the fairly strong flows on the river above Teddington, the water below was like a millpond with very little movement. It was just about high tide, but the ebb was due to start soon!

Very odd, being the front boat of this small flotilla chugging slowly down a quiet and empty Thames at this early hour!

It took about an hour to travel down to Brentford, and soon the still waters began to flow faster as the ebb tide started. As we had not been this way before and were at the front of the convoy, we had some uncertain moments trying to spot the entrance to the Grand Union Canal at Brentford, as it slants back almost invisibly on the left. When we had seen it, we had to cut across the ever-increasing stream and back against the current to enter the channel. Perhaps a little scary, but no real problem!

So, back on the British Waterways (BW) canals after a long time on the Thames and other waterways. We had left BW territory at Oxford on the 18th of May – seven weeks ago!

Wimbledon and Wildlife

Late June, sunshine (and showers!) – if we were back in Devon, Val would be dividing her time between picking strawberries and watching Wimbledon . . .

No strawberries to pick (and sadly we hear that the rain has damaged the Lapford crop really badly), but Wimbledon is still available! Here she is watching Tim Henman before he lost his match.

. . . and you get your first glimpse of the inside of 'Zindagi'. This is the view in from the front doors to the 'living room', complete with sofa, woodburner, TV and video. The bookcase is out of the picture on the right, and the washing is more often just outside the front doors!

Meanwhile, Dave was out looking for the 'other' end of Greywell Tunnel but found some other treasures first, while getting not-quite-lost in the woods. A Fritillary butterfly in the woodland sunshine and a young roebuck in a clearing.

You Can't Go In There !

Oh Yes, we CAN! But only just, as there were only one or two inches to spare – this is why we had to strip 'Zindagi' right down as low as possible. This bridge (at Fleet in Hampshire) is allegedly only 5'9" high (minimum), but we got through OK – the lowest bridge we have been under yet, though there were two earlier ones at 5'10". We even took out the tiller pin in case it snagged and snapped.

What about this, then? This is way too low to get under, but it is an electrically-operated lift bridge, so Dave just hopped off with our trusty British Waterways key and operated the controls. Such a quiet country road that we were not expecting to stop any traffic, but there was one car waiting by the time we were through.

But there is a limit! Not far from the lift bridge, we reached the present limit of navigation of the Basingstoke Canal, near the ruins of Odiham (King John's) Castle and marked by a line of floats – and ducks! A few hundred yards along the increasingly overgrown canal is the eastern portal of Greywell Tunnel, which collapsed in the 1930s and now has an important population of bats.

After much searching, Dave found the other end of the tunnel, almost invisible in the undergrowth but protected by a barrier. Although the canal is still visible there, it is many years since any boats went along it and no restoration seems likely.

Somewhere else we may not be able to go is the Thames! We phoned the Lower Thames Office on Wednesday and they told us that the recent heavy rain (which has not affected us too much) means that the yellow boards are out again, with every prospect of moving to 'red boards' very soon. Maybe we shall find ourselves waiting at Shepperton when we leave the Basingstoke and the River Wey next week. A minor setback – nothing compared to the floods elsewhere!

Stripped for Action

Here is 'Zindagi' looking rather different – the wind generator has gone from the roof, the 'cratch' frame and cover have come down from the front and even one of the brass mushroom vents has been removed! Why? Because the Basingstoke Canal has three VERY low bridges and we needed to be sure that we can get under all of them. We shall still be going very slowly when we approach them, just to be sure!

Having arranged to go up the Woodham and St. Johns locks on Wednesday morning, we arrived just below the bottom Woodham lock on Tuesday afternoon and met John, the Ranger who would be accompanying us up the locks the next morning. Just nicely timed, he told us, as they had not long removed a large log which had been blocking the canal. The rest of the day was needed to get all the 'superstructure' reduced.

Just before 7.30 on Wednesday morning, John rang to say that we would not be able to go up the locks, as there had been a massive breach in the canal further up and all the Rangers were needed to try and sort it out. Would that mean we would not be able to go further up ourselves? He was not sure, we would have to wait and see. After the heavy rain of the previous night, we enjoyed a quiet day in the sunny woodland surroundings – amazingly peaceful and secluded, though very near the M25, on the edge of West Byfleet and near a railway line!

Later that afternoon, we got the good news that we would be able to start up the locks the next day. First call: what the guide book describes as "the peaceful, almost secret, houseboat world which still exists between Locks 1 and 3." Then up the locks through what the map shows to be surrounded by houses, but again the canal seems hidden in its own tree-lined world and insulated from the urban bustle except on a few occasions. One of these was very useful as we were able to moor up and pop into Woking's shopping centre more easily than by car!

This is a really lovely canal, but so few boats seem to visit it. We have heard that only about 20 have visited from 'outside' so far this year – that's less than one a week! Water supply seems to be the main problem, but the canal authorities are working on that and so far this year has been OK, despite vandalism a few weeks ago and the breach the other day.

John (ably 'assisted' by his young Bedlington terrier, Rum) saw us up the first two flights (11 locks) on Thursday, and his colleague Paul took over on Friday morning for the longer haul up the 3 Brookwood and 14 Deepcut locks, in woody valley settings.

No sooner had we emerged from the top Deepcut lock than we saw two cyclists coming along the towpath towards us. Not unusual, except that this was Brian and Diane! We had arranged to meet them for lunch on Saturday but they knew roughly where we were and so thought they would come and find us! Bikes soon on the roof and away we went again.

We enjoyed lunch together on Saturday and then went to B&Q to get some flowers for Val's 'roof garden' (just in time to take them down for the low bridges!) Travelling by car is quite odd after three months of boating at walking pace!

Sunday has been very wet, so we have just 'sat' and done a few things in the boat, though it did stop raining long enough for us to go to a nearby Indian restaurant for lunch.

We'll soon be tackling those low bridges . . !

Visitors!

More than a week has passed since we last updated our news – our apologies! Since then, we have had a little flurry of visitors.

Adam had already planned to visit us on Saturday 16th, and we needed to be on our way northwards anyway, so we chugged back to Guildford, passing more lovely River Wey scenery as we went. Here is one of the locks in a typically leafy setting.

Mike and Kerstin brought an old friend from India with them when they made a brief visit on Saturday. It was good to see them after about 5 years, and to see Divakaran after about 35! Despite delays on all sides, we managed to meet up with the three of them and arrived at our rendezvous with Adam only minutes before he did. In the drizzly rain, we went for a little 'chug' past Mike's old family house and he enjoyed seeing some of his old haunts, then stopped for lunch with six of us somehow squeezing into our little dinette!

As the weather brightened, Mike, Kerstin and Divakaran decided to walk back to their car, leaving us to enjoy a little trip towards Godalming with Adam – more glimpses of secluded backwaters!

We have got to know this stretch between Guildford and Godalming quite well, as we then turned round again to meet Terry and Di in Guildford on Sunday! Lunch in a pub and then coffee on board . . . no time for a ride, but we think they may soon be back for more!

Somehow, we managed to have all these visitors without getting any digital photos of them, but there may be some belated ones coming, so they will probably not escape!