Locking Swans!

The weather' twas a bit grim this morning, but move on we must, at least it is warm rain.

As we had a lot of locks to do today and they were a bit spaced out we broke the trusty treadlie out of the cratch.

Off she goes, it really does speed things up to zoom ahead on the bike to set up the lock.


Just a blur as she overtakes me, I was doing 2.8 knots!

And off she goes ...

Paddles raised, lock filling awaiting the arrival of 20 tons of sardine can ...


We stopped for lunch in Hemel.  I nipped over to B & Q for a few bits and pieces ...


It is such lovely cruising through these parts, although I would have to say that the towpath walkers are not as engaging as their northern counterparts.

Not a great fan of graffiti, but I thought this was pretty cool ..

Lots of Fullers pubs about - this was the Paper Mill, canalside at Hemel.  There were a couple of Aussies in the beer garden who gave us a shout.

Apsley marina looked nice ...

Nice bridge ...

Another lock nearly ready....there were a lot of them, and every one against us!

Faster ...

Very nice wide beam restaurant boat ...

 

Lovely lock setting approaching Kings Langley ...

All this spare wood on the towpath ...

We stopped in Kings Langley as I wanted to go and visit a company called Keypart who are based in Kings Langley.  They are virtually an exact copy of the company I used to work for back in Oz; I used to visit them every November when I was over here attending a marine trade show in Amsterdam.  We used to sell them parts and they would sell us parts depending which way the exchange rate was going.  It was quite funny turning up on my pushbike!


When I got back to the boat Elaine was feeding some locals ...

 

 

 

But as it was a really crappy mooring we decided to drop down a couple more locks so we would be close to The Kings Head pub - well it was Friday after all.

We were in the first lock when a chap approached us, most concerned about a cygnet he had seen below the lock - swimming around and being in a distressed state.  He asked whether we had seen the rest of the family, yep we replied - we had just been feeding them.  We dropped down and exited the lock, and there was the poor little bugger going around in circles calling for his mum ... so, we tied up the boat and ushered the cygnet into the lock - he seemed to know exactly what to do.

There is is gate closed behind him ...

We lifted the paddles slowly and up he went.  Here he is waiting for the gates to open - as soon as they were open he was off up the canal looking for the rest of his tribe.

Altogether now aaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. 

Onward we went under the very busy M25 ...

Some of the flowers that Elaine had borrowed from canalside gardens ...

Nice little lockside cottage ...

How about this...Barnowl narrowboats No 1!  We are No 9.  The lady hanging out the sidehatch reckoned she had met us before, but it must have been Lesley and Joe, the previous owners. 

Diane and Ray from NB Ferndale had hired a car and were in Watford - their boat is currently in the marina back at Stone.  We had a catch up drink in The Kings Head.

A happy smiling Ray ...

Another very very good day.  Hope little swanny found his mum.