Much cooler today which was a relief, although we’re told we’ll be back to the heatwave very soon. Macc was up quite early again (we think the light mornings aren’t helping with this) so we were setting off from our rather lovely mooring at about 8.30. Just around the corner was Grove Ornamental Bridge, which carries the driveway to The Grove, a mansion that’s now a five star hotel. The undergrowth means you can’t really see it so well any more.
A little further on is a converted mill, which must be a nice place to live.
The first two locks were those at Cassiobury, at the start of the park. The short pound in between the two was very low, but we got through it. Below them, the park moorings were emptier than I’d expected; but below Iron Bridge Lock things were more as anticipated, with lots of boats in various states of repair.
At Cassio Bridge Lock, Adrian was talking to a dad who was there with his young daughter and baby, who seemed fascinated by the process. After the lock there’s a very tall bridge taking the Metropolitan Line to Watford.
There’s a marina here and lots more boats. There was a lovely little ice breaker on the permanent moorings. Baltic was built for the Birmingham Canal Navigations.
We’d planned to do one more lock, Common Moor Lock, and then moor up near some open land for Macc. But it was wall to wall boats, and to be honest we didn’t really like the look of it anyway. This meant we ended up doing Lot Mead Lock too. Just at the end of the lock landing is the sign for the Batchworth Visitor Moorings, and as it was free we jumped into the space.
The bridge just ahead of us carries Ebury Way, a foot and cycle path on the course of an old railway line between Watford and Rickmansworth. I took Macc up there once we’d tied up, and it’s a really nice path, although cyclists mean he can’t really go off the lead. We also found what’s either an art installation or just a collection of junk hanging from a tree.
After lunch, all three of us went for a walk along Ebury Way towards Rickmansworth. It comes out at the canal centre, which is an arm off the main line of the canal used as moorings. In fact there are two lock there, the left hand one up to the arm (which is actually the River Chess) while the right hand one is on the GU.
The Lavender Boat we shared locks with yesterday was going up the GU lock along with the fuel boat we’d seen at Berkhamsted. In the other lock was a boat in Ovaltine livery.
We each had an ice cream from the Rickmansworth Waterways Trust shop, and then came back via the canal towpath. We’d forgotten that this stretch is all permanent moorings, on both sides of the canal. One boat that’s stood the test of time is the one with part of a VW Touran welded onto the front. Or possibly the back, it’s hard to tell.
On the offside moorings was a very smart new houseboat, which turns out to be a prototype.
With all those boats up ahead, it’s just as well we stopped when we did. It’s another spot that’s not great for solar but then it hasn’t been that sunny today anyway. It’s a nice quiet place, although we’ve probably seen more boats going up and down the lock behind us than we’ve seen for days.
4 miles, 6 locks. (85 miles, 110 locks)