The Big Smoke

 

Private Island mooring at Cliveden

Oh dear…..it’s been nearly three weeks since I blogged and not only is this going to be a marathon entry, but I know I’ll forget some of the exciting stuff that’s happened!  It’s been a busy and interesting three weeks which started when we left Henley with Mike’s right knee (it’s been the left up til now) going into meltown rendering him immobile. It was chucking it down that day back in Henley and we sat all morning waiting to see if the weather would improve and if Mike’s knee would ease up.  Neither did, so we set off in the afternoon for the short hop to Marlow with me more or less solo boating, but with the luxury of the locks being manned which helped.  At Marlow all the town moorings were full.  People could have shuffled up to let us in, but didn’t, and nobody stuck a head out to offer to come alongside as we went up and down a couple of times.  We ended up going through the lock accepting that if the moorings below were full, we’d need to continue on for a couple of hours.  We tried to get into a kind of space but the wall had collapsed in and we couldn’t get in close enough for me to jump off and put a pin in.  As we mooched about and considered squeezing into a little space on the end which would involve being partly into the trees, a cruiser moved out.  We quickly (well, as quick as you can in a narrowboat!) moved towards the space but soon realised we were a couple of feet to long for it.  Not to worry, there was lots of space behind the next cruiser so I called to the chap reading his paper onboard and asked if he would mind moving back a couple of feet.  His poor, little torn face as he mulled this over, what an inconvenience for him, “But then I’ll be on a bit of a bend.” !!!!!!!  However, he then offered to move forward onto the long straight space we were heading for and we could go on the bend – yes please, fine, we don’t care, we just want moored!!!  Mike’s knee had kept him awake all night so he was shattered, as was I from also being kept awake by his restlessness, so we chilled out and decided to stay a couple of nights here.  After another awful night, Mike’s knee had swelled up to about twice its size, so I headed into Marlow to get some stronger pain killers and a new support for it.  In the evening I went for a run, then came back and made the tea, cleared up, made the bed up and got Mike’s temporary bed on the sofa, along with support chair and cushions all organised.  This was to become practice for the next week or so……..

On Thursday 4^th August we left Marlow, with Mike yet again not seeing Marlow as he couldn’t leave the boat and headed to Cliveden.  It was a nice day, so we got Mike on the front of the boat and when we went into a lock, I jumped off with the centre rope, went to the front to put the front rope round a bollard and pass it back to Mike to hold, then went to the back to get my rear rope on.  The system worked well although it was a bit of extra work for me.  At Cliveden, we went up and down but all the little spaces were taken.  As we came back past a boat on one of the wee islands, they shouted that they were going to leave in a few minutes if we wanted their space – yes please!!!  We got moored up on our own private little island for the night – very Swallows and Amazons, though I had to explore it myself as Mike still couldn’t get off the boat.

Cheeky bird at Cliveden looking for bread!

Friday 5^th saw us head into Windsor, using the same system to get us roped on at the locks we got there with no trouble, and there was tons of space on the Brocas when we got there, so moored up with a lovely view of the Castle across from us.

Windsor Castle as the sun sets

The amphibious vehicle really is quite a curious thing.

I did some shopping in Windsor and had a few wanders around, but again, poor Mike couldn’t get off the boat for the two days we were there.  Needless to say, we were quaffing quite a bit of wine these evenings to try and cheer him up.  Windsor is lovely, but the constant buzz of the little yellow motor boats that people can hire does eventually get on your nerves and we were not too sorry to say goodbye on Sunday 7^th.  We went back upstream a bit to fill with water then headed off, timing it right as we had a short wait on the lock, but nothing like the 3 hour wait some others were having at other locks – it was sooooo busy!!

Part of the queue waiting to go up

We cruised past Runnymeade and moored up shortly after, the evening spent with me cooking tea, clearing up etc etc etc.  I’m not used to doing all the domestics as Mike does most of the cooking and clears up as he goes along.  He’s a good cook and will try lots of different, exciting dishes, whereas I have a few I tend to always do that are quite basic.  However, we did enjoy my roast chicken and chips one evening when we just wanted some junk food!!

Monday 8^th was much quieter on the waterways, although we found ourselves sharing a lock with a few cruisers, one of which caused a bit of excitement when their rope caught on something and the boat started to hang on the lockside.  We shouted at the lock keeper emptying the lock to stop and then the one at the back started to let water in again.  The boat righted itself, but the rope was still caught and it took a passing cyclist to stop and help the skipper free it.  The skipper was really embarrassed and muttered about having been on boats for 30 years and that had never happened before.  Anything can happen in a lock if you don’t pay attention.

We headed on towards Sunbury with Mike getting quite excited as he would have his first trip on land in 7 days!!  We were meeting an old colleague of his at The Weir just above Sunbury lock and Mike managed to walk the 50 feet to the beer garden and back.  After a couple of pints we continued on through Sunbury locks then turned back up the arm below the lock and into Sunbury where there are lovely visitor moorings and only one boat on them!  I popped into the little supermarket while Mike rested his knee.

Lovely visitor moorings at Sunbury - tons of space!

After another night spent mainly on the sofa but trying to sleep in the bed every now and then we both woke up in poor spirits and, dare I say, a little grumpy, so we left Sunbury in silence and headed for Hampton Court where we were meeting Pete and Jane for lunch.  We’ve moored a few times now at Hampton Court and they’re nice moorings, right next to the palace.  Mike managed to walk to the station to meet Pete and Jane and we then had a nice, long lunch in the Mute Swan.  Back on board Quaintrelle we had a cup of tea while a bottle of wine chilled.  All in all a very nice day and Mike pleased that he’d been able to spend some time on land!!  The next morning, I washed the boat down as she had a thick layer of dust on her and was quite embarrassed to be at the palace in such a state!!  We then went into the palace as we’re members, and I had a wander around the grounds while Mike sat on a bench.  He managed a wee stroll through the kitchen garden and wasn’t sure if his knee was getting a bit better or he was just getting used to the pain, as it was still quite swollen.  We left Hampton Court late afternoon and pootled down to Kingston upon Thames where we squeezed into a really tight space for an hour while I topped up on groceries at Waitrose.  We then continued on to Teddington as we’d go out on the tide on Thursday morning at 8.15am.  We initially moored at the lock with another couple of boats going down in the morning, one of which didn’t realise you had to book to go down with the tide and had just arrived expecting to go there and then…., but they wanted £8.00 for it, so we went back upstream to an empty council mooring and stayed the night there for free.  It was interesting to see that most of the swampy boats moored on the run down to Teddington Lock have been moved since we were here in 2014.

Henry VIII in plants

Kitchen Gardens at Hampton Court

Rose Garden

Hampton Court Palace from the River

Great visitor moorings and very posh neighbours!

In the morning we were up sharp and headed to the lock to go through at 8.15.  As we had done it before, some of the other boats said we could go first and they’d follow us as they hadn’t done it before and were not sure what to expect, but it was a normal tide and there was barely any movement on the water as we headed for Brentford.  By this point we were looking forward to getting away from the flight path as much as we had been looking forward to getting away from the little yellow boats at Windsor.  We agree that we could never live in a flight path no matter how fantastic the house! 

In convoy coming down the Thames

How close??!!??

2000th lock!!!!

At Brentford we continued up the locks with NB Time Goes By going through our 2000^th lock since we started, at the Brentford Gauging lock – woooohoooooo!!!!!!  We made good progress up the Hanwell flight and reached Bull’s Bridge at 12.30 where we stopped for water and some lunch.  We also decided to have another go at getting our broken fuel cap off our front tank, which is our domestic diesel (did I mention it had broken!?!), but we wanted to pump some out into our Gerry cans and then fill up our propulsion diesel in the back tank.  After a lot of brute force we got the cap off – in bits…….did the diesel transfer, then pulled out and turned right onto the Paddington Arm to head into London.  We stopped off at Willow Tree marina for a pump out and managed to buy another cap for the diesel tank – phew!  We then stopped off at a canal-side Sainsbury’s to load up with groceries and finally moored up just after 7pm at Alperton.  Knackered!!  But hoping that being that knackered might mean a good night’s sleep for Mike.

Back on canal again - phew!

Three Bridges where we go over a railway whilst going under a road!

Finally managing a diesel transfer.

Once a gas engineer, always a gas engineer - Mike spots this rare holder.

Swans forming guard of honour for the Bread Man's boat.....

It didn’t.  He was up and about again going from sofa to bed and we were both shattered when it was finally time to get up.  We were keen to get going thinking that the earlier we get into London, the more likely we were to get a mooring.  One boat had passed us heading in at 10am, so we quickly cast off and followed them on.  Yet again, we surprised ourselves with how much of this stretch of canal we didn’t recognise despite having done it only two years ago…….  What we DID notice though, was that the long stretches of moored boats had started much further out than before, but also, more of the boats were nice and clearly being looked after compared to some of the sad heaps we saw last time.  As we made our way towards Paddington, we were getting nervous but noticed that there were a couple of spaces alongside boats at Ha’penny Bridge, so we had a fall-back if the basin at Paddington was full.

You can imagine our surprise when reaching the basin at 12.15 ish we saw three spaces on the pontoons and two alongside boats on the hospital side.  I was so shocked I didn’t know what to do, which one to pick, which side to go on, should we wind and then back in…????  I decided not to fanny about and just pulled into the first space on the pontoons – fantastic!!  That was our mooring sorted for the next 7 days.  The next excitement was the arrival of my brother John and nephew Alex that Friday evening.  They were coming to stay for  the weekend and although John has stayed and cruised with us, Alex hasn’t seen the boat yet so we were looking forward to showing him around.  Unfortunately we wouldn’t be able to take him on a cruise as we’d lose our mooring, so it’s a shame we hadn’t managed to get one of the booked ones at Rembrandt Gardens as we could have come and gone as we pleased knowing the space would be there for us when we got back.  But hey ho……  They arrived at teatime on the Friday and we we had an earlyish night as we were all tired and Mike and I hoping that he would sleep in the bed and his knee not play up as he wouldn’t be able to go through to the sofa as John and Alex were sleeping there.

About to turn into Paddington - will there be space??!!

Yesssssss!!

The Fan Bridge opened up

Paddle boarders making use of the basin

Mike had the best night’s sleep he’d had in weeks!!!  But with his knee still swollen and painful he decided not to overdo things and come out with us for the day.  John, Alex and I headed off for the Transport Museum, but not before waiting for my dear old (not in age, length of friendship!) friend Kathryn, who lives in London with her husband William.  William’s back was playing up, so he had stayed home but Kathryn arrived bearing delicious home-made jam, which was most welcome as Fran the jam man has come empty-handed the last couple of times we’ve seen him!!

Transport Museum

In the evening, John’s friend Hugh came round for some dinner and came bearing gin, tonic, ice, bread and cheese – nice one!  We had a lovely evening, nice to catch up with our childhood friends.

The next day, John, Alex and I took the waterbus from Little Venice to Camden as Alex wanted to go to Camden market and it meant he got a boat ride as well.  Unfortunately we couldn’t hear all the commentary being given, but the bits we did hear were most amusing.  Having pointed out the 7 Day Visitors Moorings at Camden, the skipper then says, “But if you want to stay longer, all you have to do is stick a sign on your boat saying you’ve broken down” and lo….

Camden Lock getting a bit of work done

Alex modelling his new trendy shades purchased at Camden Market

London Skyline

On Monday we all headed off for the train, John and Alex back to Kendal and me and Queenie up to York where he had an appointment at a clinic for his knee.  It was quite a long day, but the knee man was really thorough and we were quite impressed.  His opinion is that it is medical rather than orthopaedic so has referred Mike on to a rheumatologist.  So we’ll have to wait and see what they say once we have that appointment but we came away feeling quite positive that at least we’re on the conveyorbelt now hopefully with some treatment of some sort at the end.

On Tuesday 16^th I had my birthday present from Mike – a break making course at the Waitrose Cookery School in Finchley Road.  It meant an early start for me, but it was a fantastic day and I’d highly recommend it.  There were only 7 of us on the course, compared to the full number of 24, so we got plenty of time to do our own breads and I came home with ciabatta, rye bread and six bagels!!  I was quite pleased with them, not so much with my wet ferment that should have been a starter for sourdough, and seemed to have died on the underground on the way home……..

Wednesday we had a rest day really and I probably should have written this blog, but bizarrely, the internet in Paddington Basin was dreadful.  We couldn’t understand why.  Our phones are both on Three and had great internet signal, but our mobil wifi dongle, which is also on Three, had nothing!  It would sometimes work, but so slowly that the sites were timing out, so I decided not to do the blog because I’d have ended up very angry and frustrated.  We spent some time planning our upcoming trip for France for a holiday for a few weeks - holiday from what???!!!!  Yeah, yeah..........

On Thursday we decided Mike had to do at least one thing while in London, so we headed to the museums.  Mike did the science museum and I scratched the surface of the V&A – what a fantastic place. 

Not far from our mooring at Paddington

Hook up for cars?

The Wonderful V & A

Paddington Basin by night

On Friday our time at Paddington basin was up and we had to move.  Kathryn had a day off work so decided to come and cruise with us as we made our way to the Canal Museum where we had booked the mooring for the night for £10.  It was a wet, coolish day, so all was quiet around the Camden Locks and we had a relatively easy cruise.

Meeting a trip boat as we leave Maida Vale Tunnel

What better place for a gas engineer to live than in a restored holder!!

On Saturday morning we were joined by our friend Elaine and although it was raining when she arrived the gusting winds soon blew the clouds away and there were sunny intervals.  Elaine lived at Shoreditch until she was 7 years old and her grandparents lived there until they died some years ago.  So she’s a Londoner but had never seen it from the canal, and just loved it.  It was nice to see her excitement as she suddenly recognised places and road names as we went under bridges.  We went all the way down to Limehouse and moored on the pontoon mooring there then headed to the pub, The Grapes, owned by Ian McKellan.  On our way to the pub we popped into the lock keeper and booked our passage for a month’s time to go out of Limehouse and up the tidal Thames to Brentford.  Things then got very messy.  We were fine having had our meal and bottle of wine, and the next bottle of wine, and the first ‘one for the road’.  The next two were probably not really necessary and we should have baled out when Francesca arrived!  At some point in the pub, I realised I had a message from my sister-in-law saying she was in London today, were we around later.  She’d sent the message that morning and it was not around 5pm.  I somehow managed to get back to her, tell her where we were and bless her, she made her way to see us.  It was great to see her, tho’ I had to apologize for my drunkenness, and I hope it’s not so long til the next time.  As our session in the pub had started at lunchtime, it felt really late by the time we got back to the boat, but I think we were in bed by 9pm!!!!  I can’t remember………. 

Quaintrelle looks like she's in a grassy lock!

Lots of pond weed and....erm..... another gas holder??

Last lock on the Regents Canal takes us into Limehouse

Real boats in Limehouse basin

This morning we were none to crisp.  In fact, I still feel like shit.  Fran suggested hair of the dog, but that made my throat tighten.  I never want to drink again.  Or til Friday maybe……… We left Limehouse cruising up Limehouse Cut and stopped off near the Olympic Park where we went for a walk around.  Although an organised trip of boats has cruised the waterways through the park, they are not yet open for general navigation, which is a shame as it would have been nice to do it while we were here.

After an ice cream we moved on again and headed onto new territory for us, the River Lee navigation.  We had been told not to expect to get moored at the bottom end of it and there did seem to be a couple of miles of boats so far, but we found a wee space at Tottenham for the night.  I am looking forward to getting this published and having some tea, some telly (Robot Wars!!) and an early night.  Oh, but just before I go, here's the Rolling Bridge at Paddington Basin in action...

Absolutely beautiful piece of engineering