Boaters Gold

 

Another early start as we wanted to push on and get a few miles in today . There are a lot of locks on this section and with them being so close together Carolyn usually ends up walking between them with Hamish.

On our way down to London contractors were just setting up to fell this tree at Cassiobury top lock.. We felt sure that by the time we came back this way it would all be gone. But how lucky are we there is some left. Known as Boaters Gold amongst us Liveaboards we just cant pass with out picking some up.

So after pulling in below the lock we get a good haul on the roof, which once cut up should give us some free heat for a week or two. I would have put more on the roof but we already have 8 bags of coal and with coalboat Hyperion on his way South we plan to get some more coal. The problem is that the more weight that goes on the roof the more unstable the boat gets .It becomes a bit like a pendulum and once the boat starts to rock it just keeps going from side to side for ages. Mind you we have seen boats with two or three times as much on their roof as we have on ours. Also its always in the back of your mind if the boat could tip over with all that weight on the top ,although I have never heard of that happening to another boat.

We have seen a few of these very small birds lately . They are a lot smaller than a Duck and originally we thought they were baby Ducks. They seem to be very shy and are not happy having their photo taken. I'm still not sure what they are , but could it be a Little Grebe ? Anyone know for sure.

Pushing on and after going under the M25 and with the rain starting to fall we pass the site old Ovaltine factory at Kings Langley. Its now a rather expensive looking development of apartments.

With the rain getting harder we decided to pick up the closest available mooring which had good TV and Internet signal. They give rain and showers for the next few days ,But with the forecasters changing their minds every few hours we will decide in the morning what to do next when no doubt the forecast will change again.

 

                                                                                                         Happy Days