On a short, cold wet winter’s day, while out driving, I might have passed only one or two other boats all day. But now the canals are fairly buzzing with narrowboats, swans are busy building nests, families are walking the towpaths and the anglers are back in force (although the spring sun doesn’t seem to have made them any cheerier).
The long evenings really help. I can leave work, travel back to wherever I left the boat, and still have several hours left in which to drive her. So the other evening I set out on a short trip from Uxbridge to Denham; yesterday I travelled to the Coy Carp pub in Harefield; and tonight I ended up in Rickmansworth. And what a great and varied stretch of the Grand Union this is. I’d love to show you just how wonderful the sights are (wide open lakes beside the canal, sunset at Black Jack’s lock, horses bathing in a nearby field, tall reeds growing in a nature reserve, a swan fighting two geese) but unfortunately I dropped my camera in the canal as I moored the boat. Oh well, easy come, easy go.
I considered staying on for the canal festival this weekend in Rickmansworth but I feel those itchy feet are telling me to keep moving on. So off to Brentford I’ll go.
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