Monday 15th July - Limehouse Basin to Paddington Basin
Last night we moored up against the wall of Limehouse Marina and shared the space with some very large sea going vessels. This is all over looked by a vast number of apartment buildings and the DLR - Docklands Light Railway.
The DLR is an automated light metro system opened in 1987 to serve the redeveloped Docklands area of East London.
A floating bookshop, what a great idea. There appeared to be a lot of people milling around and browsing inside the boat.
At this lock we were joined by the boat behind us and we were able to share the locks with them. Always a good thing as it makes full use of the water in the lock. Here we also saw Andrew Marr, who cheerfully responded to our greeting.
I was impressed with this street graffiti advertising a bar and nightclub, a few years back I went on a graffiti tour in London with a friend and I am always on the lookout for eye catching graffiti.
Camden Lock, once again a huge crowd of onlookers, and we were lucky to have volunteer lock keepers to help us through. The crowd was very supportive and wished us well on our journey.
This bridge beside Regents Park is known as Blow Up Bridge, the Macclesfield Bridge was blown up by a barge full of gunpowder killing all on board in October 1874, this second bridge uses the iron columns from the original bridge which survived the explosion.
We arrived back in Paddington Basin and moored up at on of the pre-bookable pontoons. Unfortunately we had unwittingly moored at a widebeam mooring and had to move when the wide beam arrived to claim its mooring. We just moved to the other side of the pontoon!
We also spent a lovely couple of hours catching up with our niece Jasmin, who is studying in London, and took time out to pay us a visit.
8.5 miles, 12 locks, 6 hrs 30 mins cruising time.
Tuesday 16th July - Paddington Basin to Engineer's Wharf
This morning we left Paddington after doing a quick shop on our final few days heading towards the Thames at Brentford. We had seen this duck over the days we were in the Basin and today she was proudly leading her brood of ducklings around the basin. There are a lot of ducklings!
We pulled in to fill up with water, empty rubbish and use the Elsan, this is a bubble machine which, we were told, keeps the rubbish and duckweed out of Little Venice and Paddington Basin.
Further on you can see what happens when the duckweed grows at its alarming rate. This craft is collecting the weed and sending it for recycling, but it seems to be making very little difference!
Wembley Stadium is over there beneath the arch, but that is the best we can do.
We have moored up for the evening just before Engineer's Wharf and tomorrow we head for Brentford and if the timings are right get onto the River Thames by the middle of the afternoon. Very exciting!
10.75 miles, 0 locks, 4 hrs 30 mins cruising time.
Wednesday 17th July - Engineers' Wharf to Teddington Lock
We set off nice and early this morning in order to catch the afternoon opening of Brentford Lock onto the River Thames. This lovely picture of a green tree is hiding a dozen parakeets which were flying noisily around as we cruised beneath these branches. I'm afraid I can't see them so you will have to take my word for it! The ring-necked, or rose-ringed, parakeet is the UK's most abundant naturalised parrot. It became established in the wild in the 1970s after captive birds escaped or were released.
These are the first swans we have seen since being in London, the cygnets look well and growing happily.
We have now reached the end of the Paddington Arm and will turn left here to rejoin the Grand Union Canal.
Very quickly we came past these houseboats, but this time they were two story buildings, and some had really pretty gardens.
As we came down Hanwell Locks into Brentford we passed Hanwell Hospital, a Victorian mental asylum which is all bricked up. Hanwell was the first pauper lunatic asylum for the county of Middlesex. It opened in June 1831, originally to take 500 patients, but the building was enlarged in 1831, 1837, 1857 and 1879 to cope with the increasing demand for beds. In 1888 the Asylum had 1891 patients. The bricked up arch was a delivery arch for the hospital.
This iron roving bridge is made by the same foundry as the bridges at Braunston. The boat behind us has been sharing the locks with us.
Brentford looked very attractive with moored boats and modern canal side flats and apartments. We went down through the gauging lock here and moored up in front of the Thames Lock to wait for the opening time of 2.15.
We have locked down onto the River Thames and are now beginning to leave the lock along side nbOleanna. We followed them out of the lock and then turned right to go upstream with the incoming tide...
...and here we are on the River Thames. This is the first time we have travelled on a tidal river and I have to say I was incredibly nervous, Dave said he had never known me to be so quiet!!!
We passed beneath the flight path of planes coming in to land at Heathrow.
Passed beneath Twickenham Bridge, been over that bridge a few times on our way to rugby at Twickenham Stadium.
We are approaching Teddington Lock, heading to Launch Lock on the right of the photo. We had to breast up with nbOleanna and a widebeam as an enormous boat was coming down the lock.
Once we were in the lock and were locking up, we were then challenged by the EA as they didn't accept our email copy of our Gold Licence. It was most unpleasant as there were two other boats and gongoozlers witnessing us being called liars and we would have to buy a licence. We moored up out of the lock and Dave called CRT and returned to the lockkeepers to let them sort it out with CRT. We now have a new copy of the licence on our phones and ipads, should we be challenged again, and apologies were made and accepted all round. Not a pleasant welcome to our Thames experience! However, we did a little exploring of Teddington and found a very pleasant pub with a garden to have a calming drink in.
13.75 miles, 14 locks, 6 hrs 54 mins cruising time.
Thursday 18th July - Teddington to Hampton Court
This Dutch Barge had been moored behind us over night, it had been for a new paint job and was heading back to its moorings in Staines. Very smart it was too.
We left Teddington behind and made our way up river as far as Hampton Court and managed to get a mooring beside Hampton Court Palace.
We spent a lovely afternoon exploring the grounds around Hampton Court as far as we could go with Toby and in the evening we left Toby on the boat and enjoyed a delicious French meal in a lovely French restaurant Le Petit Nantais across the river in East Molesey.
4.25 miles, 0 locks, 1 hr 24 mins cruising time.
Friday 19th July - Hampton Court to Pyrford Lock
Our second lock of the day was very pretty with a delightful lock keepers cottage dating back to 1959. Unfortunately what promised to be a dry morning changed to heavy rain and we approached the River Wey Navigation in full wet weather gear and everything was soaked.
We took the straight Desborough Cut and headed south down the River Wey.
Having found the right channel for the River Wey, we headed for the Stop Lock, put on water and then went through theThames Lock. Here we met the lock keeper, bought our licence for the River Wey, which is owned by the National Trust, and pulled over onto the lock landing to wait for the heavy rain to pass over.
Once it began to look a little brighter we continued on a short distance to Pyrford Visitor Moorings and moored up for the night. The locks on the River Wey are different from anything we have experienced before, and it took a while to get used to them, the windlass is different, we were able to loan one free of charge and hand it back when we leave the Navigation.
10.5 miles, 6 locks, 6 hrs cruising time.
Saturday 20th July - Pyrford to Cartbridge
We woke this morning to clear skies and a much improved feel to the day. Our second lock was Walsham Flood Gates which are left open unless the river is in flood, it is the last remaining turf-sided lock on the navigation.
Moored above the flood gates we found nbElla, had to take a picture of her!
Newark Priory is a 12 Century Augustinian Priory standing in a meadow alongside the River, it was dissolved during the reign of King Henry VIII, and is on private land.
Two species of geese we don't see very often from where we come from, the Greylag Goose and the Egyptian Goose, both very attractive to look at.
Papercourt Lock is arguably the prettiest on the river with a stepped weir and charming garden.
We moored at Cart Bridge for the night and had a lovely visit from Annie and Alba, Alba is 2 months old today and is taking a well earned nap!
3.75 miles, 4 locks 2 hrs 18 mins cruising time.
Sunday 21st July - Cartbridge to Dapdune Wharf
Woke to sunny skies and a gentle breeze and set off through the second set of flood gates, the river then resumes its rural navigation, very pleasant and gentle cruising.
There are some very sharp bends on the river some with weirs and others before going into a lock, meant for very careful manoeuvring of the boat.
Just north of Guildford is Dapdune Wharf, where we called in to use the services only to discover you could moor overnight for free. So we moored up and took a stroll into Guildford for some essentials and Sunday Lunch! Dapdune Wharf is the historic home of the Wey barges that worked the waterways from Guildford to the Port of London in the first half of the nineteenth century.
5.75 miles, 4 locks, 2 hrs 54 mins cruising time.
I have to correct you re the barge Parglena, it is not a Dutch barge but a British one. Parglena is a 5/7 copy of a class of barge that was built for the Bridgewater Canal in 1950. Parglena was built in 1996 and lengthened in 2005. We owned Parglena until 2012 when we sold her. Parglena is a good Barge for the Thames and while we owned her went up as far as just below Hannington bridge and down to the East coast rivers.
ReplyDeleteJ
Thank you for your response and apologies for not responding earlier. It is great to have the history of some of the boats we pass on our travels, we were struck by this boat as it looked so stunning, so please accept my apologies for my inaccuracies.
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