TRIP REPORTS

SPRING 2007 — SOUTHWARDS FROM BIRMINGHAM

Part 6 - From Berkhamsted to Paddington.

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We continue the story after a couple of days' lay-over at Berkhamsted.

We made a later start than planned (11:30) because we weren't sure whether Tilly was out or hiding in her cave. Wendy did a wash, which drove her out of the cave behind the washing machine. We were joined in the lock by Wyvern hire-boat Maple, crewed by two very pleasant couples. One couple were very experienced boaters (regular hirers since 1968) the other novices but learning fast. We had a very good run in their company as far as King's Langley, where they stopped soon after Nash Mills locks with the idea of eating at the Red Lion. They were planning to turn round sometime next day. We tied up a few yards before Kings Langley lock at 16:30 and dined off a lovely free-range bacon joint from Waitrose in Leighton Buzzard.

At 9:36, just as we were getting ready to start, along came Maple again, so we had a good partner once more for much of the day. They had decided to make their turn-round point Cassio Bridge lock, in order to see Cassiobury Park. The two women on Maple were called Rowan and Margaret, and it appeared that both men were called Brian. Wendy was still stiff from the battery contortions, but found that lock-working helped loosen her up. At Ironbridge lock a BW crew were working on one of the bottom gates. One of them said the lock would be closed for three weeks, but the other said he was joking and it was just a few minutes' work.

Below Cassiobridge lock we had a little confusion, as Maple was winding immediately below the lock and we needed to wind there as well in order to be the right way round for a pump-out at Cassio Marina. Maple came out of the lock and stopped on the towpath side, then waved us past. We hovered mid-stream a bit further down while Maple winded, then I had to back up to the winding hole. I tried winding one way round and didn't manage it, so backed out and tried the other way which worked perfectly well. At Cassio Marina we stopped at the service point for a pump-out and a chat with Frank, whose lunch break we'd interrupted. We went back to below Cassiobridge lock and winded again, with no problems this time. At Batchworth lock were worked through by a BW man who also volunteered to carry our rubbish bag to the bin. We tied up on the Batchworth visitor moorings at 15:06. By luck there was a mooring available very close to Batchworth Bridge.

John & Jane Brice made a rendezvous with me in the car park of the White Bear to take me to give a talk about The Bow Back Rivers and the Olympics to IWA Chiltern Branch at Amersham. A very pleasant meeting, and they made a £100 donation to the LCM. Drinks afterwards in the local hotel, then John & Jane ran me back to the boat.

We decided on a short run today in order to spend the evening at Hillingdon Canal Club (where we used to moor with our previous boat) if the bar was open. We set off at 11:33 and were running solo all day. Wendy was still working the locks to loosen up her stiff back. We stopped opposite the club in Uxbridge at 15:19. There was a boat on the club-house mooring taking on water, so we moored on the other side, next to Terry Streeter's Arun. Terry joined us for a chat. He was waiting to go into Uxbridge dry dock the next day.

After dinner Terry & I went over to the club house and had a few beers and a long chat with Mike McHugh who was on duty behind the bar.

Wendy did an early trip to Sainsbury's. One of the freezers was strobing which gave her a filthy headache, so I had to steer again when we set off at 11:29. As we passed The Malt Shovel, at Cowley we were hailed by Graeme Heap on Elsdale II ( the West London floating classroom) which was moored there to have some work done. He was expecting Libby for a working lunch on Cavalcade business, and invited us to join them. It wasn't easy finding room to moor, so we backed up through the bridge and tied outboard of one of the gravel barges. We had a pleasant lunch and did a lot of Cavalcade business. Graeme showed us over Elsdale II.

It was late afternoon when we set off again and shared Cowley lock with Deep Thought 42. On the Benbow moorings we noticed that George Forrest's old boat had gone. At Bull's Bridge Junction we turned into the Paddington Branch . There was a lot of rubbish in the cut. We saw the rubbish-clearing boat Taranchewer on Willow Tree Marina's moorings, and moored soon after at Willow Tree Park at 18:27.

Tilly went walk-about and didn't come back until it was too late to do any cruising, so we planned on an early start the next day. At least the delay meant that the cats get a whole day to enjoy the park before a long spell on urban moorings. Frustratingly, there was no usable mobile Internet signal (for the third day running), So I couldn't get on with the Cavalcade brochure, because everything that's missing is due in by e-mail.

We had a visit on the front of the boat late in the evening by a handsome red cat. We locked the cat flap about 23:00 when Wendy went to bed - both cats were in and eating supper. When I finished work and decided to go to bed he discovered that we'd also shut in the visiting cat, who panicked when we tried to get hold of him to put him out without letting ours out as well. However all was achieved, at the cost of a few scratches for me. There were loud bangings at the cat-flap at intervals during the night - was it the red cat wanting to come back in?

We set off later than we'd hoped, at 8:17, after all the banging on the cat-flap overnight. We passed many lines of moored boats, including Paul on Angel II near Horsenden Hill. At Sainsbury's, Kensal Rise, we stopped, mainly to stock up the beer cupboard.

We saw our first moving boat of the day as we approached Paddington Stop. As we passed through Browning's Pool we saw that Canalway Cavalcade banners were already up on the pontoon, but it looked as though the goose's nest there was abandoned.

We tied up in Paddington Basin at 13:47. As we've found before here, a cross-wind made it tricky getting onto our preferred mooring on the inboard side of one of the pontoons. At least there's a good mobile Internet connection here, even inside the office on the boat, so I was able to down-load a prodigious back-log of messages and get on with completing the Cavalcade brochure. This was interrupted by a visit from Mike Swain (the Basin Manager) who stopped by for a chat. He is now less worried than he had been about the possibility of more business barges as the latest plans will provide quite a lot of extra visitor moorings in the end bit of the basin beyond the corkscrew bridge.