We pulled pins untied from the bollards at 08.00 at Paddington basin with friends Rich and Sharon on Nb Oakapple and headed to Little Venice to fill with water and deposit waste. The taps are some of the slowest on the system and after nearly an hour we moved onto Kensal and did a very quick shop in the canal side Sainsbury.
Travelling along The Paddington arm and we couldn’t believe our eyes when we saw five or six very large Carp causing a disturbance by the bank. I would have thought that they were probably mating.
Leaving the Paddington Arm we turned left at Bulls bridge and headed towards Brentford. It wasn’t long before we saw this sad sight of yet another sunken boat.
A little further along and we saw this very unusual boat . I’m not sure if it ever had paddle wheels or not.
Nearly at the end of the Grand Union canal and we came to the Hanwell flight of locks. It was nothing like we thought they would be. We had imagined them to be in a built up are ,but in fact we thought they were one of the best flights we have ever done .The flight passes down past the Ealing hospital with a most impressive brick wall for a lot of the way The present hospital is built on the site of an old hospital which was known as The Hanwell Insane Asylum, and Hanwell Pauper and lunatic asylum, it was built for the pauper insane. Hanwell was the first purpose-built asylum in England and Wales, and it opened in 1831. Some of the original buildings are now part of the headquarters for the West London Mental Health Trust .
We noticed these holes in the wall. They were built in the wall in case of a fire in the Hospital. The fireman would put their hose through the hole and then pump water from the canal to put out the fire.
It was the first time that we have worked locks with Rich and Sharon on Nb Oakapple. But as you can see with myself and Rich entering the lock together and the girls working the locks we were like a team that ran like a well oiled machine.
We picked up this mooring at the bottom of the flight on a river section and will spend the night here before moving onto Brentford in the morning. It was gone four in the afternoon when we did eventually stop ,but it was a most enjoyable cruise.
Happy Days
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