We dropped down the last three locks into Brentford, the last is a DIY electrically operated double lock, easy peasy as long as you fully read he instructions engraved into the console on the island between the locks.
The whole area is now quite smart, but there is still plenty of character with enough old boats and buildings. The impact of the new offices is softened with landscaped gardens and there is a super sized, Charlie Dimmock type, water feature, sending a cascade of water into the canal, this is actually collaboration between British Waterways and one of the Offices to provide water to be used to cool the building, smart move.
John assured us that Brentford town itself is not worth exploring, so we turned around just before the Thames Tidal Lock and headed back the way we had come, climbing up the eleven locks to stop at Bulls Bridge Junction to take on supplies at the canal side Tesco’s. If only there were more such conveniently placed supermarkets around the canal network it would make shopping so much easier.
As I said earlier the water is so clear, with a lot of green hair like weed growing, but we couldn’t believe the size of the fish that we could see swimming passed our hull, carp that must have been at least two feet long, I have only having fished once in my life before, so I have no need to exaggerate, but they were truly huge.
We had planned to meet this evening with friends, Clive and Cecilia and we thought that the Cowley Peachey Junction, with the almost defunct Slough Arm, would be a good place, we were right. We tucked in immediately behind bridge 190, the other side of which, was the Water’s Edge Pub. Clive, who is a proper sailor, and Cecilia, who the day before had arrived back from Sweden made good time around the North Circular and we spent a very pleasant evening, munching on the pubs yummy Tower Burgers and catching up on news, before C & C had to head for home.
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