Lock 101

After a summer off from International travel, I journeyed to Orvieto in Italy with my sister Jill last week.  Another yoga retreat beckoned!   It started with a 75 minute security queue at Birmingham airport (at 6am in the morning) and involved a flight, two trains, a rail-replacement bus, funicular railway and local mini-bus before being directed ever so slowly to our rooms in the monastery by some very tiny nuns. Our flight 3 days later had disappeared when we arrived in Rome (apparently, unbeknown to us, it had been moved to the day before) and we arrived in Malta via Sicily, some 5 hours late. Ian’s journey today makes all of this look easy. After a 330am bus from Edinburgh centre to the airport, he is currently transiting Paris after he was refused boarding at CDG (long story) and is now flying from Orly to Malta this evening. 

The relaxed way to travel

All of which takes me back to the glorious simplicity of traveling on our boat in England. It did help enormously that the weather was Mediterranean for the whole summer, and when the raindrops hit the portholes on 2nd September we knew it must be time to go home. In the last blog we left you at Reading just about to set sail down the Thames into London at the start of August. Wide open river vistas, stunning houses and pretty towns awaited.  Our one difficult mooring was Marlow, where I had booked a much needed hair appointment. Searching desperately for somewhere suitable on the bank, we ended up tied to a tree, with a gang plank for access.  But otherwise the Thames was a delight. We stopped on a cut off the river in Windsor town centre, just round the corner from the Castle, right by the gates to Hampton Court Palace for three nights, and then an unexpected two nights in Kingston town centre. 

Our mooring in Kingston

From Hampton Court we were due to make a two day journey into Paddington Basin in London. It required five miles on the tidal Thames, once again necessitating life jackets and having our anchor ready to deploy. We dutifully checked the tide times and phoned ahead to see if we needed to book in. Having been assured that we could undertake the journey to Brentford at any time, and that they were open 24/7, we additionally checked Richmond lock who said it could be bypassed at high tide so no worries there.  On Monday 8th, at 11am, Ian manoeuvred us into Teddington lock which was almost full with boats aiming to catch the high tide of the day.  The cheery lock keeper greeted us and told us to hurry to rope up. “You have booked in at Brentford, haven’t you”, he checked, almost as an afterthought. No we had not - we had been told no booking was needed! A hasty phone call to Brentford, which we hoped would resolve the issue, was short.  “No booking, no passage!” and needless to say no argument, though we tried! Ian manoeuvred even more gracefully out of the lock backwards (not so easy on a narrowboat as you don’t have steering in reverse), and back we went to Kingston for a further two nights on The Thames.  

The good news was that we were moored 5 minutes walk from my favourite John Lewis and opposite Russell Cooke, the only firm where I have loved working so much that I went back 16 years after I first left to do a second stint.  Rather interestingly a number of people have done the same - #Hotel California - you can checkout but you can never leave! To finish the story, when we finally made it to Brentford two days later, there were no other boats in sight, the lock involved at rise of less than 6 inches, and took less than 6 minutes to transit.  As I smiled up at the grumpy keeper, I glimpsed at the lock number, this being the start of our journey up the Grand Union Canal.  Lock 101 - you couldn’t make it up.

Thames Lock Grand Union Canal - Lock 101!

Other than our generally daily exercise just by being on the boat, we went swimming in the Thames on a few occasions and also did some Park Run tourism.  I love this Saturday 5km challenge, where it is more about the middle aged amblers like me trying to break 30 minutes, rather than the elite athletes at the front. Ian continues to beat me, despite training less, but I am ever optimistic that I will break 30 minutes again, as I have done only once this year ….. so far.  At Hampton Court we were next to Bushy Park, which it turns out hosted the inaugural Park Run and we were there for the 888th event. Over 1400 ran that morning (apparently pre-Covid it was more like 2000), and the organisation was superb. I cannot think of a more inclusive sport-for-all activity and every time I do it I marvel at the general camaraderie and supportive atmosphere, not forgetting the enthusiastic volunteers. Across the summer we managed to moor very close to a number of Saturday runs, illustrating how many take place each week. 

Post Park Run 888 in Bushy Park

My other hobby of the summer was Blackberrying, or Brambling (Scottish translation). I collected kilos and kilos along the banks and we had them in smoothies every morning and sometimes for puddings too.  Much as I like mooring up by Tescos, there is something satisfying about picking fresh fruit in the wild. My forays in Edinburgh in September were less successful after I disturbed a wasps mid-pick, and was horribly stung all over my head and some of my body. More pain than I have known for a while but thankfully no anaphylactic shock.  

Moored in Paddington Basin

 

Sisters afloat

Of course we were not always in the wild, and our 6 nights in London were a highlight of the summer. We split our time between Paddington Basin (very trendy) and the canal museum at Kings Cross. We ate out a number of times, most notably at Kricket - an inspired present from Lucy - simple Indian cooking where the owner had spent time honing his skills in Mumbai - well worth a visit.  We also saw “Come From Away” a surprising musical about the 9/11 landings in Newfoundland when thousands of people were diverted to a tiny town called Gander.  Based on true stories it is a great night out and brought back memories of working on the evacuations from Libya in 2011.  And Jill and I channelled our inner Dancing Queen and danced the night away with Issy & Tom with the ABBA avatars! On day two in Paddington we woke up to find we were moored next to a gondola! Enquiries establish that it was being used to promote national Prosecco day (who knew?) to magazine journalists and the organisers very kindly left us a bottle for the morning’s “inconvenience”. 

Dancing Queens!

Ian & Issy

Battlebridge Basin Kings Cross

Our stop in Kings Cross was necessitated by a failing alternator which had reduced our battery power down to 6%.  We crossed London to get access to an onshore power socket at the museum mooring, and waited for two days with no sign of a solution. Eventually Lainy got the engine company to admit that they could not get an engineer to venture into central London! So in the only storm of the summer, we high tailed it out of London (with help from Tom and Mo who worked the locks for us), Tom and Ian getting just a little soaked in the process. Thankfully it all got sorted the next day. Being on the boat makes you very aware of power usage. Of course there is heat and light, but also the water pump, the toilet, not to mention phone and iPad chargers. Normally with the engine charging the batteries and solar top up we are fine, but when the batteries stopped charging it was quite a stressful few days. Of course energy use is currently big news and we may all have to cope with power outages this winter.

Probably the best part of our travels was catching up with so many friends and family throughout August. Many of you joined us on the boat for drinks and meals ranging from breakfast to very late night whiskies some of which turned into sleepovers (!). We also discovered the delights of Linda & Nigel’s pizza oven with a four-course pizza lunch. 

New friends from Pune days

Very old friends, Ian & Julie

Very very old friends Les & Carol

The final few weeks on the Grand Union took us back to the peace of slow days and rural moorings. Dun Eideann will now spend the winter in Crick Marina - ever so pretty, but with the worst connectivity of anywhere we have encountered during our 100 days afloat!  No broadband and virtually no phone signal, makes it almost impossible (for me anyway!) to live onboard in the Marina, so unless the promised imminent upgrading of the Wi-Fi improves things, our time there may be short-lived. First world problems, I know, but one of the morals of the story in Come From Away, was working out that what people crave most when they are far from home. It is not food or shelter or any of the usual necessities but being in touch with the people who matter to them. And of course online bridge in which we either do very well or very badly. Still we have winter in Edinburgh to hone our skills at the bridge club. 

Twilight

Sending all best wishes from us both, until our boating adventures resume next year. You are always welcome - a sofabed and somewhat communal living experience await! Carole & Ian xx