A canal journey of two halves...

We had decided to move on a little from our lovely mooring on the Slough Arm at bridge one. Its rare that we find a nice quiet spot, have the solar panels in the sun all day but also have a shaded area on an adequately wide tow path and the bow in the shade during the savage heat of the afternoon. The down side is that there are no roads nearby and Debs mum is driving up for the day on Monday. 

Rather than reverse like the guys from 'Chance' we decided to continue on to the winding point just over a mile away. As soon as you are through bridge two the canal narrows and shallows. Not too bad for a narrowboat but the wide beams must struggle. Passing a couple of other narrowboats saw us both scraping through mud. Whilst the weed has been cleared there was still plenty to foul the prop and at times I couldn't tell whether the weed was slowing us down or the lack of depth. 

The bridge that closed the arm

An hour and a half later we passed Vic and Sue on No Problem (maybe you should have thought of a different name eh guys). Hopefully we will all meet up again in the year for a chill out. 

NP basking in the morning sunshine

The visitor moorings at Cowley were full as were the lock landings which made entry into our first lock since June rather tricky. Luckily only one loiterer on the water point so enough room for us as well. We were getting low on water and high on rubbish, quite literally, last Tuesdays fish heads were developing into new life forms!

First lock for a while

We had a short dash to Uxbridge because Deb had a Sainsbury's voucher to use up (£10 off £50 was too much of a lure). It was touch and go to get there in time as it is the best part of a mile off the cut so Deb cycled off first and I caught up once the boat was all locked up. It was a warm ride across town though at about three o'clock the sun was at its hottest. 

A sensible place for a coot's nest

Passed a few familiar faces

Through Denham deep lock

More summer youngsters

A very pleasant few miles up the nice deep GU has seen us get up to Harefield marina and within no more than a long stroll to the pub car park for Pip's visit tomorrow. Hopefully there won't be too many more boats past tonight, they all seem in rather a hurry!

Outside Harefield marina