Today's Canals : Grand Union Leicester Section
The weather today was slightly better than advertised, with quite a few patches of blue skies and, when it did emerge, the sun was pleasantly warm.
In the past we have noted in our blog that oil seed rape seems to be a popular crop in this area. The fields are often comparatively large as with this one that seems to disappear in the distance.
Underneath the A1e4 road bridge is a substantial recent-looking tag: 808 FUGE. Seems to be quite a prolific graffiti artist in the London area, or it may be a set of such artists. You will understand that this is definitely not our specialist subject!
We noticed that an effort has been made to reconstruct a towpath side hedge that had obviously been neglected and hence overgrown. Much of the growth had become small trees which had to be cut down. The twiggier stuff was partially cut through and laid conventionally but this was not enough to make a stock-proof hedge so spaces had been infilled with cut up lengths of the large branches.
We are often amused, sometimes wryly, with the slogans that folk paint on the sides of their boats- not to mention some of the names! This one definitely amused and we could empathise with the owners.
Yet another yellow field but we were a little surprised by how steep a hill it climbs We wondered how much extra fuel costs are needed when cultivating this crop. We later discovered from the information boards at Welton that this is Downtown Hill where Lord Braye of Stanford Hall planted a rectangular block of 80m trees forming the date 1883, shown on OS maps at the start of the 20C.
Some time in the past there was an interesting project to install 'living mile stones' along the long pound between Watford and Foxton locks. When we came this way last, about 5 years ago, they were showing signs that nothing had been thought about their long term maintenance. Sadly this deterioration has continued and most we failed to spot. The signs blend into their background and the writing is indistinguishable.
When we arrived at the junction with the short Welford Arm it was early enough to reach the end by lunch time - so long as there is mooring space when we get there. In addition, Christine had identified a place to eat out tonight - the Wharfside Inn. Normally we would say that we will report on this in tomorrow's blog but as there is no internet available to us on the moorings at the wharf we may just combine it before we are able to upload!
The arm has a single lock, possible designed to protect the water supply from the local reservoirs from changes in the level of the long summit pound. A single hander had just come down and was moored on the lock landing. He kindly went back to open the gates so that we could cruise straight in. It is not a deep lock so Mike could get onto the lock side from the boat. The lock is not as ergonomically designed as many - there is only one top paddle which is arguably on the 'wrong' side. The only way across the gate is via a large step up onto the top of the balance beam, no foot board to make life easier!
From here it was a short distance to the terminus. After passing the entrance to the small marina we were a little concerned about space: the two in the real end of the original wharf were occupied and several were tied up on the towpath 2 day moorings. It was a relief to find that we could just fit in at almost the last space before we would have had to turn around in the terminal winding hole"!
After lunch, whilst Christine went to check out the pub for tonight Mike had one or two chores to complete (empty elsan and food waste bin). In the process he discovered that one of the spare elsan blue bottles in the bow locker had leaked! It was only at the end of the last trip that we disposed of the previous empty bottle which would have been very handy to decant into.
The Wharf Inn provides good quality pub food - we both opted for braised lamb which was very tasty and thoroughly well cooked. The downside was that the quantity was such that we just could not manage a dessert - shame, as they selection otherwise looked very tempting!
We were not able to post this blog yesterday as there was no mobile signal at Welton Wharf on either of our networks. After mooring at the junction the next day we did manage but it took a while as the signal was still intermittent.
8.8 Miles - 1 Lock
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