Hanwell

When we first got to London we got in touch with friends and family with the hope that we’d be able to meet up with everyone. A few extras came along to have a nosy at Oleanna, including some unexpected antipodean visitors. However we still hadn’t managed to link up with Kathy, my best friend from college. Every day she could do we were already booked up. So when two days ago she got in touch we decided to hang around for another day. She is a lecturer at Rose Bruford College and this time of year is filled with degree shows, end of year projects and marking theses. So when she asked us if we wanted to pop along to Trinity Buoy Wharf to a sound installation some of her students had created we jumped at the chance.

It took a bit of doing getting from Hanwell to Docklands and to make the most of what free time Kathy had we were stood waiting for 9.30am to strike at Boston Manor tube station so that our fares would be cheap. Buses, tubes and the DLR today to East India. From here we walked around what was the entrance basin to the dock, the rest now having been filled in. Built a year after West India Docks they rapidly became profitable through it’s trade of tea, spices, indigo, silk and Persian carpets. The tea trade alone was worth £3m a year. The docks could handle up to 250, 1000 ton tea clippers at one time, but with the advent of steam powered ships by the mid 20th century most of the trade had left. During WW2 the docks were used to construct floating docks which were used to support the D Day landings. In 1967 these were the first of London’s docks to close fully. Now the entrance basin is a wildlife refuge and is quite silted up. Certainly the one remaining lock from the Thames would take quite a lot of effort to get through!

Trinity Buoy Wharf is the sight of London’s only light house at the confluence of the Thames and Bow Creek. The site was used as a maintenance depot, and storage for many buoys that aided navigation on the Thames, the wharf was used for docking and repairing lightships. The original lighthouse was built in 1852 and the second one in 1864 (this one still remains). The pair of lighthouses were used to help train keepers. Michael Faraday also carried out experiments here. The wharf now has container cities full of studios and office spaces, the University of East London has it’s fine art studios here, recording and dance studios are also on site. Quite an arty quarter.

When we found the right container Kathy was busy debriefing her students. Listening to the installations was interesting. They had been given a brief to respond to the wharf and create a piece of work from this. One was an audible journey of a fishing ship heading out to sea and encountering a storm, another sounded just like the north end of Crick tunnel (the wet end) and had a bass speaker resonating through a tank of water, another was sounds of water and industry at the wharf with a map and buttons to press. The last one was possibly the best, you walked along printed adverts laid on the floor spanning from the early industrial revolution to today this was accompanied by a sound track from different stages of history.

A cuppa and a couple of hours catching up with Kathy followed. During the week Kathy lives on an old barge Dora May moored just east of Tower Bridge on the Thames. This year Dora needs to have a hull survey done, but her engine isn’t currently up to moving her and may need to be replaced. It all sounds a bit pricy. They were hoping to be able to move from out on the Thames to somewhere like Limehouse, but the waiting lists are really quite long. Shame as it would be nice to be able to get our two boats to meet, maybe one day.

Our time was up at 1pm and Kathy had to help the students with the get out. So we hugged goodbye, hoping that we might see each other again this year maybe in Liverpool.

We then made our way towards the degree show in an old warehouse south of the Thames. We decided to walk across Tower Bridge which I’ve never done before, I’ve driven but not walked. Since the attack on London Bridge there are now barriers along the sides of the pavements and large heavy blocks at the ends to stop anyone from driving along the pavements. These didn’t however stop an ice cream van from trading to pedestrians on the inside lane of the bridge! From here we could see Dora May and my brothers old office in the building nearest the bridge on the south side of the river. The tide was speeding in with the Thames clippers smoothly handling all manoeuvres.

The degree show had a few stand out students. It reminded me of my Diploma Show although we seemed to have had more work on display. The scenic artists and prop makers work was pretty good, outside on a roof terrace were giant chess pieces and some extremely large angle poise lamps which were from a production. The piece I enjoyed the most was a dark room with hanging plastic bottles that has you touched them lit up and changed colour. At one point I did something that meant they all went out only to come on again as I touched them individually. Clever and more interactive than the other Lighting Students work was. With Tilly back at the boat in the heat we decided to head back to give her some freedom and fresh air rather than stay for a glass of wine at the private view, Kathy would be hob nobbing anyway.

0 locks, 0 miles, 2 buses, 5 tubes, 2 DLR trains, 1 no show tube, 1 tree taxi, 1 dock in need of dredging, 3 huge buoys, 1 lighthouse, 1 lighthouse ship, 12 tide pipes, 4 installations, 1 best friend met on the third attempt, 1/2 a ship, 0 chilled medication, 2 towered bridge, 1 old office, 1 great building, 5m high angle poise, 1 hot cat, 1 boat not for sale! 2 boaters seeking forgiveness for returning to London Town.

A trip down memory lane for the two of us today. A day out which involved a bus ride from Ealing Hospital to Greenford Underground Station, where we got a tube to South Ruislip, where we got a train to Beaconsfield. Here we walked down a couple of streets until we found the place we were looking for. Our approach was down a path with high hedges to both sides, a grin of recognition crossed both our faces. I was here in 1971 (sure I came more than once) and Mick was likely to have visited around that time also as Kath his youngest sister is a similar age to me. The hedges seemed high back then and luckily I suspect they have grown as have we!

Bekonscot Model Village was first built in 1929 by Roland Callingham in his garden and it was the first model village to be built in the world. Mrs Callingham made a short but to the point speech in 1928 which suggested that the indoor model railway should go, or she would. It moved outside and the buildings grew with it. Since then it has grown and evolved into what it is today with 1.5acres of village with a huge model railway. At first it was kept up to date with the times, the latest cars, trains and planes, but in 1992 it went back in time to the thirties.

By the time we got there we had to follow the short cut to the toilets so that once relieved we could walk round the site in comfort. This took us past the Engineering building and most importantly the Model Makers Workshop! I wanted to knock on the door and demand that they employed me straight away. But I held back and we started to walk round the bendy paths, between houses, gardens, farms, zoos. You name it and it will be there in some shape or form.

When I was five I loved the houses and the people, perfect for girls who liked dolls houses, although there were only a few that you could look inside. When Mick was ten he loved the trains, perfect for all boys young or old. One building we both remembered was the church with it’s choristers and stained glass. Today we were aware of the shop and company names around the place, something to keep the parents amused.

About halfway round we were getting hungry, so headed for the café which was very reasonably priced and our jacket potatoes were generous. Then we got back to being absorbed in the detail and humour of the village.

The ponds, or should I say lakes have koi carp in them, or should I say orange whales! One was racing a yacht and others were reducing the amount of weed on the foundations to the castle walls.

The canal section has a pointless lock, worse than Dutton Stop Lock on the T & M, there is no height difference what-so-ever! C&RT need to do some dredging, the boats all need to come out for blacking and even here duck weed seems to be trying to take hold.

Everywhere there are figures going about their daily chores, jobs, lives, but each and everyone of them looks like they have had a tot too much sherry! They lean as though eddy currents are whirling around the big cottages ready to pick them up into the air to deposit them in front of the Punch and Judy show.

Mick could get a job driving the trains or working in the signal box, occasionally doing a bit of gardening, whilst I could sit and make sober but happy figures to populate the village and sort out the Spanish half built resort. We decided that maybe it wouldn’t be such a good idea as I wouldn’t be able to live with the odd scales of things and I’d want the lady cleaning the window to have some success someday.

0 locks, 0 miles, 3 buses (1 died when we got on it), 2 tubes, 2 trains, 46 years ago, 2 grown up kids, 79324 pissed people, 37 giant whales, 1 big spill, 1 job with my name on it, 1:12 maybe! 2 corny, 2 potatoes, 9 trains, 1 sit on train, 88 years old, 27 degrees, 2 much to see, 335 photos, 1 brilliant day out.

Primrose Hill to Horsenden Hill

Time to make a move and get back to boating. We pushed off just before 11am just as the trip boats were starting to go back and forth and the punt was making it’s way to Camden. It was a nice mooring, handy for people to find us, no breasting up allowed, just very busy on a weekend!

We pootled our way back through the zoo to Little Venice where we pulled in to fill with water and do all the necessaries. On our first visit to London on Lillian we’d managed to pull in behind the cafe boat without blocking the canal, but today even though we are a foot shorter we stuck out too much, so had to pull through the bridge and breasted up alongside NB Wandering Swan whilst he finished filling. He hoped that the space we’d just left would still be available, not much traffic had come from this side so he might have been in luck. If he succeeded it would be his third time of mooring there in seven years, I think we were very lucky.

We’d already done a dishwasher load before we’d pulled out this morning and then the washing machine went on. Filling up took sometime. All the rubbish was disposed, one yellow water tanks worth was emptied and then a second one, two buckets emptied too and Tilly’s pooh box had a clean. With everything done we pulled out just as a really short boat pulled up, perfectly timed.

Boats seem quite familiar to us now as we spotted several that had been moored near to us over the last three weeks. Coots and swans were parading their growing offspring , but only the pigeons seemed keen on the Baguette island that had been left by someone. How ridiculous, it will only encourage rats!

At Ladbroke Grove we pulled into the shopping mooring to pick up a few things at Sainsburys, our wine cellar had been looking decidedly empty so a stock up was needed. Mick stayed on board whilst I did the shopping not wanting to leave Oleanna on her own. After a bite to eat we carried on getting further and further away from central London. An elderly couple asked us where we’d been moored, they seemed to have quite a good spot, admittedly on pins but they hadn’t had to breast up. There did seem to be quite a few places where we could have pulled in, but we wanted to get further out today.

Encountering the Electric Barge just by moored boats meant we had to pull in as far as we could on the off side. It took the chap an age to come past with his boat full of red uniformed school kids. Close behind was a boat following at tick over, he was really looking forward to his slow slow journey! Little did we realise but a similar thing was about to happen to us.

Ahead we could see two flashing orange lights, one was on a tug that was at 90 deg to the cut pushing a skip boat to the side. There was enough space for us to get by only to catch up with another tug pushing another skip  with a crane and four passengers. Their progress was extreeeeemely slow. It was handy that Mick kept wanting to clear the prop as this slowed us down so as not to get too close. Slowly they carried on for what felt like miles and miles. They didn’t pull over to let us pass as they were most probably too deep to leave the central channel, so all we could do was slloooowwlly follow.

As the North Circular aqueduct got closer they beckoned for us to pass them, they were taking the starboard channel so we took the port and opened up the throttle. Both boats entered the channels at the same time, but we zoomed compared to them and easily won the race to the other side. We were just clearing the central island as they had just got their stern alongside it on the other side. They were almost certainly heading for the towpath works at Alperton, possibly with a boat full of tarmac to start surfacing it.

There was a boat moored up where we’d topped up with water on our way into London. Large signs declared that the moorings were for Permit Holders only. Signs in the boat informed us that the water point was not a public one. Here there are going to be what looks like four moorings, each with electric and water and at the end is an elsan point. There is nowhere to tie up to to be able to use the elsan, so mooring on the towpath side and then carrying your offerings over the bridge must be the way that it will be used, unless of course it is only for permit holders too!

The golf course at the foot of Horsenden Hill came into view and as we cruised round the bend a space showed itself so we pulled in. The time we’d spent following the tug had meant that we wouldn’t make Bulls Bridge today and anyway here was a much better place for Tilly to make some friends. She made no hesitation in crossing the towpath and disappearing into the sideways trees.

0 locks, 8.82 miles, 1 tunnel, 0 mysterons, 1 full water tank, 1 handy tree, 2 empty pooh buckets, 40L+ yellow water, 1 clean pooh box, 0 rubbish on the boat, 4 boxes wine no 25% deal, 1 piled high boat with extra limbs, 1 fat barge, 25 waving school kids, 27 baguettes, 4 men doing nothing, 1 tug, 1 mph if we were lucky, 1 happy cat, 1 boat with all it’s curtains open again.

Primrose Hill

Oleanna seemed to be hitting the side this morning for no apparent reason, no passing boats, no strong winds. She also had developed a bit of a list as we were also sitting on a bit of a ledge. Normally we would think that maybe the pound was down a bit, but this pound stretches all the way to the top of the Hanwell flight, Cowley Peachy and Paddington, so a few lock fills wouldn’t make that much of a difference here. Mick pushed us off the ledge only for the trip boats to wash us back onto it. Another factor might be that we are lighter, less water and less diesel so it’s easier to push us up onto the ledge.

A big shop was needed for supplies for Sunday dinner so we walked up to Morrisons and filled several bags that then needed the whole of the fridge rearranging. There were a couple of things that they didn’t have so I ventured back out to Sainsburys which is near the bottom of the three locks.

My god I knew it would be busy, but not this busy!! Trip boats, punts and the seafood widebeam were all jammed by the next bridge. The chap at the back of the punt didn’t seem quite so cool as the chap who’s been at it all week and he was having difficulty avoiding the canal side and other boats, yet the fella singing and playing at the front just carried on as if sat in a chair on terra ferma. People lined the edge of the towpath to eat their street food from Camden Market and the bars by the lock were almost over spilling into the canal. Both lock chambers were in operation today and there were four volunteers waiting  for boats. I maybe made a mistake by walking towards the tube station, here it was just as busy. I’m used to walking at a slow pace, rarely do I race along a towpath, but the pace of these meandering tourists was deathly! Once on the other side of the tube station I could walk quicker at my leisure. I decided to return to Oleanna via the canal hoping it would be less crowded. This worked until I got nearer the locks, luckily there was another line of people dangling their feet over the edge to stop me from falling in as I passed crowds.

Two girls sat down just above one of the locks as I walked by, they dangled their feet as a narrowboat was trying to manoeuvre right next to them. The sound of the engine and the chaps quiet voice meant they didn’t hear his warning, so I leaned over and suggested they should move their legs pretty sharpish, which they did. I’m so glad we weren’t going through the locks today. At the top lock I can imagine gongoozlers congregating on two levels on all sides, no wonder there are railings all the way round.

With us both back at the boat Tilly was allowed out to explore. With a wave of braveness she ventured onto land to inspect the trees and wall. This wall is rubbish, how are you meant to be able to climb it! It is far too smooth. She showed her distain by shouting at it time and time again. Rubbish!!! The rest of the afternoon she has spent her time trying to be photographed as much as possible, except there was competition from next doors cat. He or she is far more gregarious and quite happily walks up to tourists and curls itself around their legs, whereas Tilly stays on the boat well out of arms reach. Once the competition had gone back inside Tilly lost all her inhibitions and was on the towpath making sure that she claimed it all for herself. I’ve never seen such acrobatic scent marking and no-one was going to stop her!

0 locks, 0 miles, 2 supermarkets, 1 bag tarragon, 1 bag thyme, 2 chickens, 2 tubs naughty chilled medication, 73457920754638 people in Camden, 256883 gongoozlers, 2 ladies still with feet, 2 passings of NB Grace, 10 shouts of distain, 2 punts, 2 floozies, 5 near crashes, 1 bakewell made, 1 speeding cruiser, 0 fenders left to deploy, 1 towpath well and truly mine!

Primrose Hill

We woke early to check the election results, Micks shorts still drying by the bedroom window confirmed that we hang a hung parliament. To our surprise a group of Corbynite revellers walked past Oleanna at about 8am, chanting and knocking on our bedroom window, soon followed by someone playing Vienna very loudly as they walked along the towpath.

Christine  and Kath joined us this afternoon for a while. Being so close to where Christine lives she had to come and say hello. After a cuppa and much talk of the election we decided to stretch our legs and headed for Primrose Hill. So we walked along the towpath and climbed up to road level just before the sharp right hand bend and then walked to the park. The expanse of green stretched up the hill interupted by large trees, London does big trees really quite well. Other people had also had the same idea and the viewing point was quite busy. But wow what a view!

Canary Wharf, the Gherkin, Walkie Talkie, St Pauls, Shard, BT Tower, London Eye, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, London Zoo Aviary and Crystal Palace all in view in one hit. It’s well worth the walk if you are in the area.

We said goodbye to Mick’s sisters at the top of the hill, our time in London is nearly up, so it will be a while before we see them again. They headed off towards Chalk Farm and we walked down towards the zoo and canal. Our walk took us over the canal and onto the Outer Circle which follows the edge of Regents Park and the canal. Peaking in through the fence of London Zoo we could see zebra and giraffes. We’d thought about visiting the zoo but at nearly £30 each, so £30 with the two for one offer it was still quite steep, so we made do with the brief look inside.

Back across the canal we walked on past Oleanna to find the way up the steps at the Pirate Castle and into Morrisons for some cream. Tonight it is just the three of us again. Apart from that nosy neighbour! Climbing all over MY boat!!! Well, and the extra trip boats going by with diners and drinkers noisily floating past.

Three years ago today we started writing the blog of our travels on NB Lillyanne. I have to say ‘we’ as in the beginning Mick would occasionally write some entries, but now it is all my words with occasional comment from Tilly our cat. We first set out with the aim of living afloat for a year, Lillian our second hand yellow boat was to be a bridging boat until we had Oleanna built. This, for various reasons, took longer than expected and we decided that the year afloat should actually start when we moved onto our new boat. Three years later and the clock has been ticking already for two months and we have plans for next summer, so maybe the year has had some elastic added, we’ll see how far it can stretch!

I could do a round up of our miles, locks, tunnels etc for the last three years, but that doesn’t feel right to mix the two boats vital statistics up. Things have changed somewhat over our time afloat, we’ve travelled around 3800 miles and life afloat suits us. A simpler, slower way of life and being closer to nature have replaced our lovely house. Both Lillian and now Oleanna have most definitely become home to us. Our garden changes most weeks, apart from the herbs and beans in the well deck, and our life revolves around the weather and social engagements set out months in advance. We meet new people and make friends as we go, how often do you have a conversation with the person who’s parked their car next to yours in a strange town and end up going for a drink with them? Only a few of the reasons why we love our life afloat.

0 locks, 0 miles, 36 trip boats, 2 cat neighbours, 2 goboats, 2 returning visitors, 1 hill, 10 mile view at least, 2 horses with stripy legwarmers, 2 zebra, 2 giraffes, 1 set blue flashing lights, 1 balcony cow, 1 evening just the three of us, 3 years of being boaters.

Primrose Hill

So we are pottering away the morning, me inside, Mick checking the gear box oil, weedhatch and stern gland when I hear him talking to someone. Not unusual, we often get asked questions about living aboard by passersby. These people had Australian accents and didn’t seem to be asking the normal questions. We are normally friendly in these situations, but today the tone was one far more friendly, infact it was ever so friendly. The penny dropped and I popped my head outside to check that I was correct. Siobhan, Patrick and their son Tom were stood chatting away on the towpath. Patrick and Tom had flown in last week from Newcastle, Australia to join Siobhan. They had thought that we’d be long gone and heading north by now so no chance of meeting up with us. Today they’d decided to have a walk along the towpath up to Little Venice and Warwick Avenue and there we were. Very good to see them and another guided tour, we really should start to charge, might even have made enough by now for a cratch cover!

When we’d pulled up yesterday we’d had to push a traffic cone out of our way so that we could tie up tight, there are numerous trip boats that come along this stretch so tighter ropes are good. Even so we are at a slight angle due to a ledge, so stuff tends to congregate between us and the towpath. Today we have collected a few things, but mainly figs! Birmingham and Leicester it’s coconuts, here in Primrose Hill it’s figs. There were also quite a few balls that had come over the high fence behind the towpath from the school there. We managed with the help of a passerby, who’d been asking questions, to return a tennis ball we’d acquired. Further up the moorings a young girl had rested her foot on a moored boat to be able to reach a floating ball, but the boat was very loosely tied. Her age meant that she was quite supple and doing the splits as the boat drifted out didn’t seem that alarming, luckily someone helped by pulling the boat back in before she toppled into the water to join the football.

A walk around the area was needed, so first we climbed up off the towpath to Gloucester Avenue. My word it’s posh around here! One For Sale sign we went past was for a 2 bed maisonette/apartment, sadly now sold, but on the market for a mere £1,200,000! Another bedroom would bump the price up by another £300,000. Most properties are immaculate and some were having new coats of white painted added as we walked past and not a single Ford Fiesta parked on the street. A few more streets and we walked up Regents Park Road past all the shops and cafes. Now I like to try to support local shops and butchers especially attract me, but the butcher here with it’s chilled display of well aged ribs off beef I suspect would cost nearly as much as out kitchen worktop, so we’ll be heading to Morrisons for a roast this weekend!

We back tracked and walked over the railway, the ‘other side of the tracks’ and soon the whole atmosphere changed to that of Camden. Since I lived in London the whole market here has expanded greatly. I remember having a job once covering polystyrene rocks with sheets of lead for a ballet in one of the arches, it might have been snowing outside/inside at the time. Now all the arches are part of the Horse Hospital and Tunnel Markets a tourist hotspot. It’s a useful place should you want some vintage costumes, if your budget is enough, but the majority is London hippy tat. There are numerous different food stands by the lock, all displaying the dishes on the counter. One certainly didn’t take my fancy, even though the filling of the wrap looked nice from the front the blue paper towel at the back might have been a touch difficult to digest.

Our turn to be gongoozlers, however no boats were going through the lock. Between the two chambers is a finger post pointing towards our next destination in a month or so’s time.

This evening we were met at Oleanna by my friend Nick so that he could check our stern gland and the fit out. He’s a hard customer to please, but seemed to be impressed if not a tad jealous of all our storage which is more than he has in his flat. A walk back through Camden to rendez vous with Kerry and Harry their dog at Tapping the Admiral. The made to order pies will have to wait for another time as there were no tables free, so after a couple of pints we moved on to  The Grafton where a space upstairs meant we could spread out and enjoy their beer, burgers and our conversation. We left shortly after a huge downpour and as the first of the constituency results were being announced.

0 locks, 0 miles, 3 unexpected visitors, 21st, 22nd, 23rd visitors, 2nd visit for Siobhan, 1 unimpressed cat, 3 figs, 1 splits, 3 balls, NO 80 expensive, 1 charity shop, 3 ribs of beef, £20 for eggs benedict! 2 sides of tracks, 2 much tat, 2 many joss sticks, 1 blue roll wrap, 302 miles to go, 1 thumbs up, 2 pubs, 1 long dog, 4 burgers, 16 pints, 1 soggy walk home.

Homerton Road Bridge to Primrose Hill

Time to move on, some water and disposal of rubbish was needed, so we decided to start to move back across London before the next really wet day. The wind was meant to have died down, but it was still really quite strong, just the huge gusts we’d experienced yesterday had gone. So just before 10am we pushed off from our mooring, this took a few attempts as the wind was reluctant to let us go and I just couldn’t manage to push the bow out past the widebeam ahead of us. But we got there in the end and because the navigation was so wide we managed to wind straight away, Mick avoiding using the bow thruster because of all the weed.

We’d heard that the new water point by Here East had good pressure so pulled in behind a boat that was filling. We’d shared Cosgrove Lock with NB Four Seasons and played a bit of leapfrog with them on our way into London. They had come down to catch up with friends and to celebrate Mrs Four Seasons’ 70th birthday. A good time was being had and they liked Hackney Marshes so much that they were going to stay the full fortnight before heading down to Limehouse and going up the Thames next week. They reversed from the water point with the aim of returning to the space they’d left, but rowers, other boats and the wind didn’t help.

Once on the water point and a load of washing nearly finished I hopped in the shower and when I was clean the dish washer went on. There are better pressured taps on the system, but at least this was an improvement to the one by Victoria Park. Once full and everything clean we pushed on, waved at the kids playing at Josh’s school and then turned back onto the Hertford Union. Straight ahead we could see the Gherkin building, so Mick set course and lined the mushroom vents up. With only ground paddles on the locks I thought it would take us sometime to work our way through the three locks, but the force of water coming through them made up for it and we made good progress along Ducketts turning right at the end where two volunteers were glad of something to do.

Rubbish disposed off we were off again. Our musical neighbours had moved and another widebeam had taken their place, but Brian and his dead batteries was still moored on the end of Victoria Park. So far we’d passed several Oleanna sized gaps, we hoped our luck would be in further along as we hoped to find somewhere around Kings Cross or before Paddington. If there were gaps here would that mean that there would be more ahead, or would it be that everyone was at the other end of the Regents Canal and we’d end up finding the first space in Alperton!

At Aston’s Lock we were surprised to see a Lock Keeper, he was with two other chaps who had life jackets on. They were swinging the gates back and forth, should we go in or was there a problem? After a while they waved us in and I hopped off to help wind the paddles. We were ready to fill the lock, but they were holding a bottom gate open, the chap signalled to open up the paddle and kept his weight against the beam for as long as he could. There had been something stuck behind the gate and flushing water through freed it. It turned out the chaps were down from Stanley Ferry where they make lock gates. They were accessing what needed replacing. The leeks on the top gates apparently weren’t a worry as they are metal, but he took photos of them anyway. The next lock up however he said was a bit of a bodge job, the gates had been made too short so had  extra wood added to them to make them meet. Sounds like they might be going to be replaced.

At St Pancras Lock the bottom towpath side gate nearly did for me. It is so heavy to get out of it’s recess, bumping it and leaning with all my great weight didn’t seem like it was going to work. I was so very nearly going to ask Mick to climb the ladder to help when it finally relented and moved just a bit. Not one to give up there was now a centimetre of hope, which became two, then three, then ten until finally I got the b**tard closed. Tomorrow I may have difficulty moving.

Approaching the bottom lock at Camden I could see a group of chaps drinking sitting on the lock beams. A bit of an intimidating sight but one where just a ‘Hello’ would make it better. The lock needed emptying so I set about doing that as the chaps chatted and drank at the top end of the lock. There was a lot of coming and going of people and the air hung heavy with a certain aroma. Once Oleanna was in the lock, roped up and the first paddle lifted I headed over the gates to open the other one. Reaction times were a bit slow from the chaps at my ‘excuse me’ but they moved over asking if they could help with the gate when the lock was ready. Most certainly they could and as they boasted “We’re from Kentish Town!” I left them to close up after us. By the time we were rising in the next lock we were joined by a volunteer who phoned up to the top lock to say we were on our way up and to hold the lock for us.

Camden Top Lock has two chambers, but currently only one is in working order. As Oleanna was rising a fat widebeam came cruising right up to the top gates, totally blocking our way out. I tried signalling to him that with him there nobody would be going anywhere, but he ignored me and preferred to talk to the volunteer. After being told that the second chamber was not in use he was then asked to pull back so that we could exit the lock. “Oh are they coming out?” Yes! The pointy end of our boat was facing him, a bit of a clue and both boats certainly wouldn’t have fitted in the lock. So he reversed back a bit, still not enough space, then a bit more, then he was in the way of the trip boats so had to go even further!

The volunteer had asked where we were heading to today and then imparted local knowledge on mooring. The Camden Visitor Moorings weren’t far, but we’d be lucky to get in there, then Paddington and Little Venice. We were at this time of day expecting to have to breast up, but to our surprise as we came under Gloucester Ave there was a space on the visitor moorings, just our size. We quickly grabbed it before the next boat could arrive. Very lucky indeed.

This evening we were joined by a college friend of mine Mike and his partner Chris for a guided tour. They visited us to do the Stoke Bruerne flight on Lillian a couple of years ago. Both now bearded, Chris must have been growing his for the last two years, It was very lovely seeing them again. Lots to catch up on, a full tour and then we walked back into Camden for a Fish and Chips tea. Being from Scarborough it was nice to be able to have haddock again, but I do miss it being cooked in dripping. Having said that it was very nice, although the chips could have been better. Chris and Tilly got on very well, so hopefully if we manage to time a flight of locks well they will come and join us now that she have given her seal of approval.

11 locks, 7.31 miles, 1 tunnel, 1 full tank, 1 bag of litter forgotten, 1 landmark to navigate by, 1 chap from Copmanthorpe, 2 bodged gates, 1 stupidly heavy gate, 1 fat boat very much in the way, 2 slightly high boaters grins, 59ft gap, 19th 20th visitors, 1 furry chin, 1 cat walk pirate! 1 owl, 12 bongs, 1 more lovely evening.

Homerton Road Bridge

Rain, Rain, Rain and wind was what greeted us this morning. Glad we weren’t having to move anywhere. I’d hoped to have a bit of a smooch around and walk down the towpath, have a look at the new restaurants and maybe explore a bit more of Hackney Wick, but the weather put us off. Instead we had a cooked breakfast. I wasn’t allowed to take a photo of it as it wasn’t up to scratch, we didn’t have the necessary in. But what we had was nice.

We pottered around trying to find things to do inside whilst avoiding getting wet. Tilly didn’t mind the rain and insisted on going out. She keeps rattling the long bolts on the back door. They do something with them and the doors open, it hasn’t worked for me, yet! She’d return to dry off before getting wet again, time after time. This afternoon the wind gusts have however made us keep her inside otherwise she’d get blown away.

The towel and bedding cupboard in the bedroom has been sorted and other things rationalised. A pile of spare bits for our composting toilet are on the hit list for the bin. We are fairly sure we don’t need them due to the way our system is set up, but if you know different please let us know. Mick has looked at the dishwasher as it seems to have been using a lot of rinse aid lately, hopefully it is sorted now.

The first beans from our plants have been picked. I’ve been watching them get bigger over the last week and decided that as they were now about a third of the height of the plants I’d harvest them. There are still more on the way and I’m hoping that they may produce more flowers followed by more beans. I may steam them and then add a bit of lemon juice and pine nuts, similar to how we had beans for Christine’s birthday meal.

Yesterday we’d noticed a C&RT sign next to the new offside moorings. Matchmakers Wharf. It looks like either the moorings have already been taken or that you can’t get one as yet.

Wondering why it was called Matchmakers Wharf I looked into its history, I came across a couple of interesting websites.

First was The Shady Old Lady’s Guide to London. Here I was informed that the sight had for thirty years been the Lesneys Matchbox Toy factory.

An aside, on the side of the page is ‘On this Day in London’, which I found interesting.

1977, Sex Pistols, banned from playing on English soil, play on a Thames cruiser as they drift past the House of Parliament.

1972, Glam rock singer David Bowie releases The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.

1918, Carry On actor Kenneth Connor was born in Islington, London.

1844, Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) forms in London.

This then led me to Matchbox Memories an homage to the die cast models that were designed to fit into a matchbox, so they could be taken into school.

Lesneys was set up in 1947 by Leslie and Rodney Smith (they weren’t related), two young demobbed men from WW2. They took over a disused pub ‘The Rifleman’ and made various bits and bobs for industrial use. Around Christmas, a slack period, they started to make toys to keep them going. They made a large Coronation Coach of which they sold around 30,000 and a miniature version which sold over a million. With capital in their pockets they could expand. There were various sights but in 1952 production started at Matchmakers Wharf. They even had a fleet of buses to transport the workers to the factories.

0 locks, 0 miles, 2 turkey sausages, 2 quorn (they’ve got to be eaten), 2 eggs, 4 slices toast, 1 navigation we hope doesn’t rise with rain, 5 soggy explores, 1 clean pooh box, 1 cupboard sorted, 12 spare bits, 1 insurance claim, 4 turned down to 2, 8 beans, 1 very windy extremely wet day.