DILLIGAF ?

 

We pulled pins from Harefield at 10.15 which was a bit late for us, the reason being that there were a couple of things I wanted to get in the chandlery at the marina. Before long we came across the boat in the picture above. It’s called DILLIGAF . It has to be one of the most bizarre boats we have ever seen.

The back of the boat is just as bizarre as the front and even has a bath. You can clearly see that the owner really doesen’t give a you know what !

Our second lock of the day was Denham deep which at 11 feet and 1 inch is the deepest lock on The Grand Union Canal, it seems that any lock over 10 feet in depth is classed as a deep lock.  Fray's River, an artificial water feeder from the River Colne, runs under the canal here, immediately above Denham deep lock. This is one of the only locks that Carolyn doesen’t like walking over due to the height. I did offer to do it ,but she said she would feel worse on the back of the boat down in the lock.

After dropping down Uxbridge lock we pass the Art Deco looking building on the left. The Paraxel building looks at first glance like 1930s art deco but is actually a 1991 pastiche built for a pharmaceutical testing company based in Boston, Massachusetts.

Looks just like a sunken canoe ,but it is a home to this family of Coots.

We then passed this fine looking Barge which looked like it had been blacked in Uxbridge Boat Centre. Back in the 1880s this was a boatyard belonging to West Bromwich-based Fellows, Morton & Clayton, who became one of the biggest and best-known commercial carriers on the canals. The company continued to build and repair boats here until its liquidation in 1948. After this the yard fell into dereliction until rescued in the 1970s to serve growing leisure traffic.

We are now moored just above Cowley lock at Uxbridge and tomorrow we will have a very early start and make the 6 hour journey in to London and just hope that we can get a mooring in Paddington basin…. Fingers and everything else crossed.

                                                                                                         Happy Days