The good old southern GU

Rickmansworth tonight. Not far now until we get back home and all day it has felt like we're on home ground. We've been to some fascinating and beautiful places but this part of the Grand Union still looks pretty good to me. And there is a lot less traffic than further north.


Kings Langley is not a romantic sounding place but what's wrong with a lock setting like this?

Or this one near Watford, one of the locks known as Albert's two

There are some pretty lock cottages too like this one at North Grove lock within earshot of the M25 .

These cottages are actually bigger than they look because there is a lower storey hidden from the canal side.

There are virtually no hire boats down this way but any number of social project boats taking groups of disadvantaged kids, or disabled, or old people out. The kids seem to love it, although it can take ages for them to get through a lock.

Speaking of which, Iron Bridge lock in Cassiobury park just gets slower and slower. The rate of leakage through the bottom gates is only marginally less than the pathetic inflow through the top sluices. So it takes half an hour for the lock to fill, and of course it is an absolutely prime spot or gongoozlers, so boaters get a good chance to get over some canal PR when we inevitably get interviewed by interested onlookers. Today we had an audience of at least twenty people and Kath did her usual trick of showing some kids the inside of the boat (with parent's permission of course).It helps to pass the time while the lock is filling anyway.