Rickmansworth to Langley Wides, near Kings Langley. 7.3 miles and 13 locks.
With the Rickmansworth Festival over with for another year and all the boats gone, it was time for us to leave this morning. We had stayed on for a couple of extra days, as we met up with Keith's sister and brother-in-law for a meal last night at Tang's Chinese Buffet, which was really yummy.
We heard Frank and Sue leave at 8am on NB Lotus and decided we really should get out of bed. Before we could do anything, Paddy had to have his walk and as we left the boat, I was greeted by a Heron no more than eight feet away from me and the boat. It sat on the branch like a grumpy old man. But it certainly did not mind me taking its photograph.
With breakfast done, we slipped our mooring at 9.15 am and entered Batchworth Lock, whilst in the lock, Keith emptied the toilet cassette and I got rid of the rubbish we had collected over the weekend. We crept slowly past the moored boats on the Permit Holder moorings.
When ever we pass this boat it always makes us smile. NB Crinck Cronk is one of the more interesting boats on this section of the Grand Union. Clearly who ever designed this boat, put a lot of work into it, as it really looks the part. What does not however look the part is its well out of date licence of 08/08 for both the standard licence and the mooring licence. Now it may just be that they have the new licence on the towpath side and have left the old ones on the water side to annoy eagle eyed boaters like me, but if that is the case then they are not the only ones. Because this section of the Grand Union is fast becoming a tick-over area only when cruising, because of all the moored up boats with out of date licences or even no licence at all. It was not until we reached Cassiobury Park that we had some clear water. It seems like all these unlicenced boats have come from out of the blue, maybe they have been moved off other moorings and have converged on this section of the GU. Whatever the case it needs sorting out and soon.
We both love the GU and it wide variety of scenery and boats. This meadow at Cassio Bridge lock with its buttercups, would certainly brighten the dullest of days. By the time we reached North Grove Lock we had caught Frank and Sue up on NB Lotus, who had stopped off along the way to take on a gas bottle, they were sharing the locks with NB Vancy. Having enjoyed a pleasant days cruising we decided to stop two locks later on Langley Wides. Once moored up Paddy and Marmite were allowed out to enjoy the afternoon sunshine. Today has been such a contrast to the weekend weather when it was wet at times, windy most of the time and chilly all of the time.
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