Hanwell to Batchworth – Bonnie in Wonderland

Only 15 miles. For a full 10 hours of sailing.

Double locking

To get out of Hanwell, we doubled up, me and a boat from Penkridge I’d met the previous day queuing up for Teddington Lock.

Probably cut the locking down from 3 hours to 1 hour and 40 minutes. What we basically did was tie the tow boats together. I went and set the locks for the coming boats and another crew member opened the locks to let the boats out. Third crew member was steering the boats.

We all did our jobs impeccably. It led to a lot less effort in me having to climb out of the boat and up the side of the lock ladder each time to help with the locks.

I had to stop for water at the top. I met the same boat later on in Uxbridge where they stopped for the night. I carried on.

It was really slow going on the GU. I’d put that down to the amount of moored boats I had to come past which is at a snails pace, 2mph or less usually.

I managed 15 miles in a day of around 9 hours.

Bonnie in Wonderland

Coming out of Central London certainly was that.

The amount of sunk and abandoned boats was disappointing.

A lot of the time these are unlicensed boats, used for a temporary period. When the costs become to great, or circumstances change, the resident moves out and the boat is left abandoned. A lot of them sink before they are moved by the CRT, leading to the contents, often diesel and other waste, spilling into the canal. A lot of these people have a total disregard for the waterways or anything other than their own wellbeing.

Others, it may be neglect. The last one looks like it was just neglected by the owner and the build up of deposits and weather led to it sinking.

Here’s an abandoned Lime Bike. These have lithium batteries. Underwater, given time, these will seep highly toxic metallic compounds into the canal causing a hazard for birds, fish and any other wildlife. In this canal, you can see the Lime bikes. Most canals, you can’t because they’re too muddy.

It seems the waterways is feeling the effects of London’s housing crisis.

Bulls Bridge no-go area

I used to stop at this mooring myself. It’s right next to a very large Tesco. Pretty convenient. Now, there’s not even room to put one boat.

The area around Bulls Bridge has basically been taken over by gypsies. These are people that don’t care about rules or licences, just the authority’s effectiveness at being able to move them and their unlicensed craft from their illegal mooring spots.

That blue sign in the backgound says ‘1 day mooring’.

The person on the blue boat came out and started shouting at me when he saw me taking pictures. Can in hand, shouting and swearing at 11am in the morning.

There is no-where to stop, even if I’d wanted to. Had I done so, I think I would have put myself in danger. I’m 100% certain, if I’d gone into the shops and left anything on the roof or stern, or even under the cratch cover, it would have been gone by the time I came back.

The people on these boats are degenerate gypsies hiding behind the social conscience of law abiding people to piggy-back like parasites on the boating community of Britains waterways.

There are some nice boats and nice areas on the way down, it’s not all bad.

So. Here’s some nice houses.

They don’t look to bad do they? I’d heard someone say on the radio once that the housing crisis is basically being created by developers to keep the prices of houses high. Like a cartel.

If they really wanted to, and were serious about it, all people could be housed decently, it’s just not in their interests to do so.

Bratchworth

Today, I made it down to Bratchworth close to Rickmansworth.

This is coming out of, but still in, Greater London. There are a hell of a lot of moored boats, both permanently and continuous cruising, so the going is slow.

Once I get beyond the final tube station, I’m hoping this will remedy itself. Open county!

White Bear – Bratchworth

Last night, went for a drink to the White Bear Bratchworth. Pretty good reviews, mostly for food.

Beer was nice. A pint for £5. A few people sat around. A lot were watching the golf, which was The Open, on TV.

Had my pint and left.

Tomorrow I’m off. Hopefully to Tring.