When I took Macc for a walk yesterday evening we found a lovely recreation ground, so we went there again this morning after he’d had his breakfast. Fortunately this morning was much dryer than yesterday, but still a bit windy to start with. We set off about 9, with me walking up to the lock to set it. One top gate was open, which wasn’t a good sign, and the pound above was a bit low. By the time Adrian arrived with the boat the lock was ready for him.
I set the lock filling and walked up to the next one. This had both top gates open, and I was dismayed to see the pound above was completely empty. And I do mean completely.
I let Adrian know the situation, then closed the gates as best I could. The trouble was that silt had washed onto the cill so the gates wouldn’t close fully. I then walked up the flight opening paddles top and bottom of each lock to run some water down. Fortunately the next couple of locks had new gates last year so don’t leak at all, so there was plenty of water further up the flight. Meanwhile, Adrian rang CRT to let them know, and then a couple of volunteer lock keepers turned up. They walked up the flight opening more paddles, and remarkably quickly the pound was almost full again. I then ran some water down to top up the pound we were about to enter. In less than an hour, we were crossing the pound that had been empty.
Next to this lock is a cottage which the lock keeper said had been for sale for almost a million pounds — and it has no road access.
All the locks were ready for us, as the other lockie had set them as he closed the paddles back up the flight. In the pound below the top lock was a family of very small ducklings.
The top lock has the Bulbourne dry dock alongside it. Above is Bulbourne Junction, and this was also our last uphill lock for a while; it’s all downhill to London now.
We would normally have taken a detour down the Wendover Arm, but it’s in effect closed at the moment. There’s a leak, and stop planks have been put in at a bridge which means you can’t get to the winding hole any more. So we continued along the main line, where a very wide widebeam on the permanent moorings seems well aware of how big it is.
The former waterways yard was converted into housing some years ago. I particularly like the one with a turret.
We went through the bridge and moored on the water point to fill the tank. The long hosepipe was needed, but this time there was enough pressure to force water through. While we were there a motor and butty went by. The motor boat was built in 1972 as a hotel boat, and still says hotel boat on it although I’m not sure it is any more. It’s on the National Historic Ships Register, which seems odd as it’s younger than me.
Much of the Tring Summit is in a cutting, and it seemed particularly gloomy today.
We planned to stop the other side of the cutting, somewhere before Cowroast Marina. There’s some piling work going on which will improve the moorings considerably.
We slotted in just after the work boat moored up ahead. Once we’d moored the weather improved no end, with lots of warm sunshine. After lunch, Adrian noticed that the work boat behind us was across the canal, probably because of people passing it too fast.
We went out and pulled it back in, and the guy from the boat in front of us helped re-tie it. We took Macc for a walk down over the marina entrance to the lock, and then we found a garage on the main road which provided ice creams. Back at the boat we had a visit from a family of very large swans and almost equally large cygnets.
I’ve made and scheduled another podcast this afternoon, while watching the solar recharge the batteries. It’s also been podcast publication day: Harecastle Tunnel is out now, and can be heard here.
4 miles, 6 locks. (69 miles, 74 locks)