Onward to Little Venice.

Friday 24th April.

Slough Arm to Little Venice, 17.1 miles.

Over the past couple of days we sat on the Slough Arm mooring, finishing off paintwork and enjoying the peace and quiet. But come mid-afternoon that peace and quiet was broken by the sound of mini motorcycles roaring up and down the towpath, with children riding them, with no helmets on. Now this subject does tend to get peoples blood boiling and that includes mine. If these children are determined to kill themselves that is up to them, but what gets my goat is the fact that they are travelling at such speed, it would be impossible for them to stop if they met an oncoming walker, cyclist or someone out with their dog or children. I see it as a fatal accident waiting to happen. Ok thats my rant over, I will leave it up to you to pass comment. The buck though always stops with the parents, who have bought these items for their children. Whilst I got busy painting the back counter, Keith finished off the Buckby Cans, which look stunning. I then set about rubbing down the front deck, hinges and locker cover, as they all needed refreshing.Ignore the feet in the photo above Lol.
Having done all the paintwork, whilst we sat down to dinner last night we made the decision to move off today as another motorcycle roared past with two children onboard, one was no more than 6 years old and neither had helmets on grrrr.
This morning we left the mooring, firstly heading for the sanitary station to empty the toilet cassette and the rubbish. We stopped at Bulls Bridge to go to the Tesco supermarket and were amazed to find the moorings empty. it seems that these days the moorings are patrolled by the Tesco warden and you can only stay 2 hours, which is plenty for shopping. Whilst I put away the shopping Keith, set off down the Paddington Arm of the GU. We were now heading for Greenford where we hoped we could moor for the weekend, but when we got to the Black Horse Inn moorings there was no room, so it was onward to Alperton, but we decided that we would not bother mooring there as we would be the only boat there, but carried on to Kensal Green. The prospects looked good for a mooring, but it was to shallow on the run into the 14 day moorings, and the moorings themselves were full. Not even after the moorings could we get in. This was not our day.With it being such a gloriously sunny day, the Terrapins were out in force, sunbathing on logs along the canal. This made me giggle. This is taking open air living to the extreme LOL.Having enjoyed a pleasant days cruising, along a beautiful stretch of the canal if you ignore the floating rubbish and the factories. We arrived at Little Venice, passing NB Gerald No13 who was moored on the Terrace moorings, with Keith and Chris onboard NB Crystal Haze and found a mooring just inside the Paddington Basin Arm, which is where we will stay, whilst we help to set up for the Little Venice Cavalcade, which we are really looking forward to. Since being here we have had a visit from Roy on NB Gerald No13 and Wide Beam Minerva has pulled in to moor up in front of us. it has been a wonderful day and we are both pleased to be back in London.