The great old Grand Union - the journey home

So this is the last leg. I'm going home to the marina in West London. I have travelled the whole length of the remaining journey already on the way north in May. Canal wise there isn't that much choice going to and from London (none to be precise). Therefore I won't bore you with as much detail, but cover all of the remaining 89 miles in one post.

In Braunston I picked up my crew Sabine again for the bank holiday weekend. There are some major lock flights on this stretch and also the two big long tunnels, which I definitely like better when I'm not alone. Poor Sabine only ever gets to do big locks with me, never the easy narrow locks.

We set off up the Braunston lock flight on a sunny and warm Saturday morning. I had expected a queue, but actually we were alone initially. However, a boat turned up as we were preparing the first lock so we were able to share all the way up. There were lots of boats coming down so the going was fast.

After the flight it was time for one of the grand tunnels once more. The Braunston tunnel is crooked, so it's impossible to see the end and it's hard to steer without hitting the walls. We met five boats coming towards us, always an interesting experience. I like to go at a normal speed in the tunnels as it's easier to steer, and only slow down when passing a boat. All the boats coming towards us seemed to stop completely when we met. This worked out quite well, as we .... only hit one ... err. I like to think they were too far in the middle for me to avoid.

Sabine at a Braunston lock

In the Braunston flight

Braunston tunnel

Finally into the light

After taking a break we moved on the Buckby lock flight and found the same boat again ready to go into the flight, so we shared this flight with them as well. Strangely in Buckby, there was a queue of several boats in the middle of the flight rather than at the start. Here it really showed that it was a bank holiday weekend. There were lots of hire boats out that were in no hurry to go anywhere. In the end it took us 3.5h to get through the seven locks.

Buckby top lock with New Inn pub

In the Buckby flight

Waiting at Buckby

Due to the queues I had time to buy this extremely useful flower pot

Elderly ducks crossing

The next day we moved on to the Blisworth tunnel. Once more there were lots of boats coming towards us in the tunnel including the trip boat from Stoke Bruerne. The trip boat turned round just before the tunnel south portal as we were approaching it to come out. It was very disorienting as we could only see their headlight all over the place and couldn't work out what they were doing.

Next up was the Stoke Bruerne flight with another seven locks. We did it in less than half the time of Buckby sharing with a couple who were very experienced (hire boaters!) and we developed a good routine to work the locks. It makes such a difference. I like working locks with inexperienced hire boaters too as they are usually in good holiday spirits, but we were on quite a schedule this weekend.

Other notable events outside of the lock flights were Sabine learning to steer very well and taking us under bridges and round bends without bumps, a bloated dead deer in the water (urgh), and a boat ahead of us for a long time that managed to wedge itself sideways and into trees any time another boat approached us causing havoc several times.

Stoke Bruerne top lock

Pile-up ahead (one of several)

We moved on to Milton Keynes on Monday where I stopped over before continuing my journey solo.

Cosgrove aqueduct over the river Ouse

I then made my own way from Milton Keynes to Berkhamsted, where I picked up some friends for day trips the next weekend to help me through the endless string of locks down to London. But there were also quite a few locks in between to do on my own. On the first day I shared a number of locks with a guy who was going back to London as well. It was good going as it always is with other single handers. It seems to be easier to get into a routine this way.

At one lock we encountered a woman with her daughter and daughter's boyfriend who were watching us going through the lock and asking lots of questions. It turned out that mum was handing the boat over to her daughter right there to take the boat to London to live on it as a continuous cruiser. The daughter had never been on the boat before. Well, good luck .... I left the lock and waited for my lock buddy at the next lock but he didn't show up. I met him again two days later and he said that he felt that he had to stay with the girl and her boyfriend as they knew next to nothing about boating. He said when he left them a day later, they were trundling along OK, so hopefully they made it to London.

The canal was extremely shallow in places. I even scraped along the bottom in the middle of the channel, not to mention lock landings. It looked like it was not only silted up but that water levels were actually down by about 10-15cm. On the plus side, I saw three separate sites where the canal was being dredged. They dumped all the dredged muck onto fields on the offside!

Getting grounded

Much needed dredging

The mud is dumped onto the bank

Here are some more impressions from the stretch between Milton Keynes and the last canal summit before London in Tring.

Fuel boats squeezing through a narrow patch

Hire boats at base en masse

Trees full of damsons

Bowl full of damsons

The summit is where the canal crosses the Chilterns in a deep and long cutting at Tring. Before that is the last proper lock flight before London, Marsworth with six locks. I was really lucky to share the locks with a lovely liveaboard couple (Paul and June). We had a good laugh and this was a fun stretch anyway as there were lots of walkers on the towpath including many children, who were keen to help and asked a million questions.

There is a real difference between this area closer to London and further up towards Braunston. Down here most of the people I met were liveaboards. In the Midlands it was mainly holiday owner boats and hire boats.

Chilterns coming into view

My lock buddy at Marsworth

Sharing locks at Marsworth

Bulbourne Junction with a small canal arm after the locks

The cool summit at Tring

This looks different every time I see it

Sunset at Cowroast, the last really rural overnight stop

Reflections at Cowroast

From Cowroast down into Berkhamsted I shared the locks with a lovely liveaboard trader. I bought her own brand all natural hand scrub called Boatzega, which I can highly recommend.

On the next weekend I had two friends as crew on Saturday for 14 locks from Berkhamsted down to Apsley. It was an interesting day as I first steered into a tree losing my chimney hat (fishing with a magnet didn't help), we left a windlass at a lock and had to walk back, I banged hard into a lock gate for the first time in ages and finally I had one of the scariest moments of the whole trip.

The scary moment was getting hung up on a protruding brick in a lock. As I was the only boat in the lock I had a line round a bollard to keep the boat close to one side. The lock wall was quite uneven with bricks missing and others protruding. I must have held the rope too tightly as the boat was close to the wall as we were going down. Suddenly out of nowhere the boat started to tilt to the side and I had no idea what was happening. I shouted to the lock crew to drop the paddles, but they didn't react quickly enough. As the boat kept tilting more and more, I put my back against the lock wall and pushed the boat away hard with my feet. It came loose, splashed back into the water and rocked violently. On the wall there was a spot where I had taken out a piece of the brickwork. All this happened within maybe 5 seconds, but time really slowed down in those few moments. I am sure the boat was by far not at the point of capsizing yet, but it really showed me how things like this can escalate very quickly.

Having company meant not only having pictures shot along the boat for a change.

Leaving Berkhamsted

Winkwell swing bridge opened for us

Beautiful autumn colours

Help in the locks

Sharing locks in Apsley

Art?

The next day I had three other friends over for crew which even allowed for one to go ahead to set the next lock where possible. We managed 16 locks and made it all the way down to Rickmansworth. The weather held with only occasional very slight drizzle almost until we moored up and this time there were no incidents along the way. That was most of the endless and demoralising string of locks done. Brilliant!

Working a lock

Reflection

A little zoo canal side

Lots of help

Now only eight more locks to go to the marina. I did the rest of the trip in one and a half days in an uneventful cruise but with a slightly heavy heart, because the big adventure was now coming to an end.

I don't know what this is, but it's big!

These people were running on the towpath all the way from Birmingham to Paddington in three days. One man in the group had terminal liver cancer. Unbelievable.

Runners from Birmingham to Paddington

Eco camp near Denham Deep Lock

Willum safely back at his mooring in Willowtree Marina

I will write another post with some reflections and stats. Almost four months of cruising made for a lot of impressions and learnings.