Harefield to Watford, 4 miles, 7 locks
Much nicer weather today and I set off feeling very positive. The first couple of locks went well, including Stocker’s Lock, which I had bad recollections about from last time. Next was a stop at Tesco in Rickmansworth. This is another one next to the canal and with lovely moorings that were all empty. It wasn’t until I wandered through the doors that I realised that I was probably shopping through habit rather than actually needing anything, so I treated myself to a couple of non-essentials, like a ready cooked Cumberland Sausage from the rotisserie, which I had for breakfast once back on board Oothoon. I also bought six bottles of Becks Green Lemon, which I’d never heard of, but which I thought might be kind of like Desperados (which it kind of is), since I had the remains of yesterday’s Taco dinner to finish off. (Desperados is lager with tequila and is one of my favourite drinks, surpassed only by Desperados Mas, which is Desperados with built-in lime juice!)
I’d meant to empty the loo at Batchworth lock, but it’s a bit manic as there are actually two locks--one for the canal and another for the River Chess. Worse than that, there were loads of boats around, including trip boats, and there was nowhere to park. But the real problem was that no-one seemed to know where the Elsan disposal was. Next on my agenda was taking on water at Cassio Bridge lock, but there was a queue and once again too many boats and nowhere to park. Next chance to do both is at Apsley locks, but they’re 5 miles and 12 locks away (or about 6 hours in the old money). I’m thinking I might need to start to use my 2nd loo cassette, which I bought specifically for situations like this, but it’s all pristine, clean and virginal at the moment and it seems a shame to mucky it up.
Saw Growltiger just after Iron Bridge lock and noticed that Citizen Matt has a For Sale sign in the window. I stopped in the middle of the canal and asked him about it. Seems that he’s fallen for another boat, so Growltiger would have to go, but he seemed a bit half-hearted about it, which is unsurprising after living on her for 11 years. We chatted a bit and he gave me some hints about places I should not pass through without stopping (Stoke Bruerne and Braunston) and we discussed the Foxton flight that I’m looking forward to doing. Bosun and his sister were both nearby, clearly on Important Dog Business, and it just felt the most natural thing in the world to be miles away from anywhere, leaning on my tiller in the middle of the canal, gossiping with aquaintances.
Tomorrow should be a big day because I’ll finally break free of the tyranny of the M25. Actually it’ll make no difference whatsoever to the journey, but in my head I’ll have left London and that’s quite significant. Of course the cheats way is to go down the Slough Arm which is crossed by the M25 about halfway along, or nicer still to go up the River Lee, but after working in St Albans for over 18 years and having lived in West London for 15 of them, the M25’s north-west quadrant is ‘my’ M25 and the massive M25 viaduct north of Abbots Langley is the canal gateway to the world.
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