Linslade to Berkhampstead

Willow from Buckby to Northolt continued

Monday 16th March 2009

We got up at 06:00 to find frost covering the boat. There was mist on the canal as we ticked over past the long-term moorers the other side of The Globe.


At 0730 we stopped at Leighton Buzzard for a bag of coal and a paper from Tesco's petrol station. The ("24 hour") store itself wouldn't be open until 08:00 - something to do with Sunday trading hours restrictions. A work boat which had been tied up at the same moorings left shortly before us and charged up to Grove Lock. We caught up with it there and shared the next two or three locks.


I was horrified to see the breaking wash created by this maintenance boat. In the lock the steerer was talking about the health and safety measures BW insists on. One might have thought BW would also have emphasised the importance of caring for the canal and its banks while getting to the next job. The work boat was kitted out for sheet piling: was it doing more damage than it was about to repair?


Here's my dad being useful once again: swing bridges are a lot easier when there are two of you! This is Bridge 125.


And he made lunch (omelette) while I was steering. This is also the last image of my windlass: I couldn't find it towards the end of the trip, so I must have left it by a lock. Grrr. I actually paid money for this one!


Canalside thatched cottages are rare: this is just north of Marsworth.


Bulbourne Dry Dock brings back memories of lying underneath Savoy Hill in the early 1980s getting covered in bitumen while pointlessly blacking the underneath!


At 18:00 we tied up below Lock 53 in Berkhampstead. Schedule maintained. We ate in the Crystal Palace, which was designed by Joseph Paxton (more famous for having designed London's Crystal Palace for the Great Exhibition of 1851). The pub seemed conventional to me, certainly nothing on the outside (apart from the name) suggestive of glass and iron. The pub food is Chinese and Thai, and it was strange, but good, to sup ale while perusing a standard 100+ choice menu, then eating at the same pub table. Good food. And they do takeaways (of course).