Maida Hill Tuesday 23 August 2016

Its amazing how busy the towpath is, both at night and also early in the morning, you can hear people jogging along the towpath around 6AM and people heading home obviously a bit merry at midnight. There was no sign of the owner of the boat we were moored against although there was a light on all night, I think they visited this morning briefly as the curtains were arranged differently, or maybe they work nights.

We pushed of at quarter to ten as quietly as possible in case they were in bed and made our way up to the locks. CRT are replacing a lot of lock gates, they are working on Hampstead Road lock at the moment, I hope this one is on the list.

We passed a set of offside long term pontoon moorings with a novel mooring arrangement that I had not seen used on a large scale for Narrowboats, they are normally used on much lighter vessels.

We were soon passing the Gasometers again again, as we entered St Pancras lock an inflatable canoe asked to join us, I asked if he was sure and he said he was quite happy. I felt this was the safest way to protect them. 

There was a Volocky at Hawley Lock as well as a gentleman who I suspect was selling illegal substances. At Hampstead Road Locks there were another 2 volockies, the left hand lock going up is having new bottom gates fitted, at the moment they are making and fitting the stop planks to go in below the lock, these are meaningful bits of timber. At the moment there is just a dame across the mouth of the lock but this doesn’t give a safe place for the public and CRT are planning to opening the chamber to the public next weekend. That was the last of our locks for today.

At Cumberland Basin I met a trip boat coming the other way. I gave a good blast on the horn as I approached the bend and she responded. My horn is very similar sounding to their horns, not just a car hooter so people tend to take notice and she was well over her side as she approached the bend, as was I so it all went well. 
Lisson Grove Bridge obviously has some problems as the first section has had the roof lined with polythene. I see the towpath through it has been closed for some while by National Power?

We didn’t have to wait at ether of the tunnels today and there were far fewer boats about than at the weekend when we were going the other way.
We turned into Paddington Basin hoping to get a mooring but unless we doubled up again there was nothing, as we entered the basin a boater called out “I read your blog”  so I included this just for you.

At the entrance to the basin there is a row of bubbles, I am not sure if its to aerate the water or try to keep the duckweed out. We carried on along the Paddington Arm of the GU, I don’t imagine this boat goes very far only between bridges. We found a gap to moor in and then found why there was a gap, it was far to shallow so we carried on to just by the A40 where we found a 60 foot gap so the fenders didn’t quite touch the boat ahead and behind, but this was right by the bus workshop so Diana went for a walk and reported a space a little further along, no rings but no A40 and no Bus workshop. I would imagine they would work on buses through the night, so we moved on. It wasn’t far but we passed these gardens on the off side.

I am not sure if its the work of one mane or a collective of all the houses but the gateway leads to one persons garden. There are some very interesting inscriptions on some of the statues. We are now moored just ahead of this boat, its like a floating Charity Dock.

  

 

Today’s Journey      

9 Miles, 6 Locks,  1 basin, 2 canals in 4¼ hours