Dirty Bloody Grub !

Elaine here - not only has Paul entrusted me with steering the boat a lot today but he is now 'allowing' me to be a 'guest' blogger on HIS blog (I ask you ... tickets or wot?!)

We left our mooring at Harefield this morning ... just a little way opposite was this cute old lady feeding the swans and ducks ...lovely :)


I walked the dogs to the first lock where we met a couple of boats just locking down, so we went down after them on our own.  When we got close to the next lock we could see the two boats who had been in front of us waiting ... and waiting ... and waiting.  We hovered just a bit before the locks and tried to see what what going on through our mighty binoculars - but couldn't see any boat going into the lock ... yet !  One of the boaters who was moored up invited us to tie up beside him for a bit, while we waited, which we did.  We waited and eventually saw this widebeam entering the lock and locking up.  When we finally got to the lock and spoke to the two narrowboats in front of us they said they were sorry they had waited - they had seen him approach in the distance but didn't realise how long he would take to get there!

Evidently the boat was going to the IWA festival --- poor thing, he came past us and then a little way up and ... 

promptly ran aground - as it was shallow!  Paul said I should put stuff here about how much he draws or something so I told him to butt out of my blog!

Stuck!  Hope he makes it to the festival!

Anyway, we continued along our merry way - and got to the Denham deep lock - deepest lock on the Grand Union, evidently.  It wasn't that deep really!

 

Here I am posing on the deepest lock ....!

It was a really hot day today - you would never believe the dogs were from Oz - they really don't deal with the sun well at all.   Bombo really didn't know where to put himself !

I put a wet t-shirt on Sam, to cool him down  because he was getting distressed.  He then he came upstairs and decided to lay upside down - so I had to cover his belly up because he gets sunburnt really easily, due to his thin hair - looks cozy though, doesn't he?

This is Bombolicious - looking his usual, adorable self ... (yes, thanks Paul ... I CAN use the new camera!)

We went past this contraption ... bizarre the things you see !

This is Paul's arty shot for the day ... we wonder how many of these boats stay afloat!

When we got to Cowley Lock we stopped for water and to do a deposit, plus get ice creams and chat to the locals !  

When we set off to lock down we had thought we would share with a narrowboat who had just pulled in behind us - but lo and behold, this little 20 footer did a quick u-turn around in front of us and popped in beside us ... talk about little and large!  We were a bit worried when the old chap went to open the top paddles though, instead of the bottom ones !

After that lock, that was IT for locks for a while ... phew - what a few days of constant locking it has been ... quite exhausting, really!

We needed to get some milk and bits so we were looking for a mooring at Bull's Bridge as there is a big Tesco there by the water.  While we were hovering and pondering where to moor, we saw a lad walk down the towpath ... probably about 50m or so and just chucked a bag of rubbish into the water and then walked off - and jumped back into this van.  Herein lies the title of our Blog post today ... what a dirty bloody grub ... what sort of mentality does that?  We were yelling after him but he wouldn't acknowledge us at all.  Paul is just in the process of writing to 'Image 22' - not to good for their image eh?

Here is the bag ... how ironic that it has an eco-message on it!  We were going to try and pull it out but it drifted away around the side of a boat - we just couldn't believe our eyes ... he had gone to all the effort of walking down the path to chuck the bag in the water (in front of a load of boaters and picnicers) - the van itself was literally in a Tesco car park, where I am sure there are bins galore!

Anyway, we were too cranky to stop then - plus we were told that Tesco was about to shut, so we 'turned the corner' and headed along the Paddington Arm ...

There is the turning (and the Tesco) behind Paul ... and this is Paul pretending to be happy even though he was really cranky about our litter-monger ...

A little further along there were loads of swans ... I was steering at this point and told Paul to get a good photo of them .... he obviously hasn't mastered his new camera yet !!!!

I think Paul got fed up with me steering (ie, him having nothing to do) so he chucked me off with Bombo and Sam with the instruction to do 'poo-poos' - the dogs, that is !


We saw these beauties a little further along ... Shags on sticks, as we call them ! 

What a poser ...

We thought we would have another shot at getting to a shop and noticed there was a Sainsbury's at Alperton  with moorings.  When we got there we found the moorings - which were quite 'available' but there were a few drunk men lying, sleeping in the bush with their cans all around them - right by the mooring!

Do you think this sign is a subtle hint that this is perhaps not the best place to moor ?

Hmmmm - we moved along and then noticed another chap chucking a load of food down on the ground by the next available mooring - for the pigeons ...

... then we noticed this sign .... in many languages too !

I don't mind pigeons but after spending an hour scrubbing bird poo off of the roof yesterday, we decided to keep on, keeping on ... 'til we spotted this mooring ...

It is outside a ramshackle pub, which is apparently open only a couple of days a week but does have its own mooring, with a couple of rings - plus it is on the opposite side of the canal to the sleeping drunk men, so all is good!  Tomorrow we will get into London proper - woo hoo !