Living The Dream: Hemel Hempstead

On the way down to London we cruised past lots of places that we recognised the names of but didn't have time to stop and explore, people we meet had said that there are some really nice towns on the southern GU.

Soon after Watford comes Hemel Hempstead. We were desperate to get some printer ink as we had some important legal docs that needed printing and posting pronto! A little south of the canal was a small industrial estate with a Staples shop so that would do (I would have liked to get a smaller more compact printer but they are expensive and our old one is great for scanning and photocopying as well). North of the canal and only a short peddle away is the town of Hemel Hepmstead. A new town described in our Collins guide as having excellent shops, built around a charming old town with attractive streets' - lying buggers!

It may well have an older high street but it's nearly a mile away from the 'new' town. Oh and this newer town is probably 1960/70's vintage, how long can you go on calling them new towns! It reminds me of Basingstoke in the early 90's (I have experience), Basingstoke was a new town that was blooming 'orrible. The town centre was so bad that about fifteen years ago they knocked it down and started again. Even on a beautiful summers day I am struggling to find the positive to say about HH.

Years ago they said that the downturn of a town started with too many estate agents, then came too many charity shops, then bookies and now pound shops. Every other shop on HH is a pound shop. Some have even closed down, what comes next?

There was one great place though, Mosaic Supermarket at the top of town. Asian market with a Turkish bakery tucked at the back. Loads of fresh fruit and veg at bargain prices, interesting selection of both fresh and frozen items (we bought some really tasty frozen Samoa's).

The Asian lady behind the counter was impressed that I had headed straight for her pile of Turkish Lahmacun, (like a thin pizza with a sprinkling of minced meat over veg rather than tomato sauce, and no cheese - bargain at £1.50 each and always made fresh on the day) but became even more chatty when I said I was going to reheat them over charcoal and fill them with piles of salad, lots of lemon juice and my homemade smoked chilly jam! So far the only place in HH that I would gladly revisit.

And now some excerpts form one of my favorite sites (see previous blog - the back end of nuneaton) 'uncyclopedia'.

Hemel Hempstead is a new town in the south of England, created (in part) to house the homeless people of London after they had lost their homes to bombing raids. The town was also designed to be self sufficient and as an unforeseen effect, no one ever leaves once they arrive. With no one leaving Hemel Hempstead it was ultimately forgotten about by the rest of the world! With the people of Hemel Hempstead (the Hemelites) quickly running out of the essential supplies of food, water, porn, cigars and hospitals. The Hemelites formed into roaming bands of murderous cultists and the shortage of supplies wasn't helping this fact. The town was becoming desperate and ever angrier with each day that pasted without any media attention since the oil storage depot disaster of 2005. You can continue your studies into the Hemelites battle of London here (link)

Next onto Berkhamsted, let's see if there's is a little more decorum in that part of Dacorum!

No pics, the camera plain refused to open its shutter in Hemel Hempstead.

Getting Closer To London...

The weather is declined a little since leaving the Soubury 3 locks but we made good time down through Leighton Buzzard towards the countryside and on to our next stop just outside Ivinghoe. Soon after came Marsworth , the bjunction itself was once a pretty little industrial part of the waterway with traditional working yards, now it's subject to large scale development (see Les and Jaqs' (link) post for loads more info on the area - much better written than I could have done) with only one of the british waterways buildings remaining the rest of this pretty junction is an expanse of rubble. Passing through the junction is a little bit tight with boats breasted up on the towpath side and wide beams moored on the off side. We were quite surprised that the Aylesbury arm had no sign on its entrance saying that it was closed to boating traffic due to the collapsed lock - link - I presume that the further lock gated are locked but the closer ones were open making it look like an inviting wet dock, hmmm maybe getting the paints out on the way back

We paired up with narrowboat inky out on his summer cruise having moored in mercia marina this winter and several previous ones. The passage was tough going in places with insufficient water levels. One particular pound saw me scraping the bottom most of the way and the edge of the towpath side was high and dry, so much so that I couldn't get close enough for Deb to get on after the lock. Luckily she cadged a lift on inky just as it was leaving the lock. The countryside soon opened and we passed by many places that we have read about on other blogs but we just haven't got time to stop on this occasion. The few days it has taken to come down from Milton Keynes will probably take a couple of weeks to go back through and we are looking forward to having a good look around Marsworth Tring Cowroast and Berkhamsted where we moored last night.

Today will be tackling the locks falling away from Berkhamstead. It's an area we feel we know quite well having read several people blogs one of which is Jacquie and Stein's aboard 'like ducks to water'. They've done the London part and are making a hasty retreat back towards the countryside. Having moored only a few hundred yards on front of us Jacq recognized our boat from our blog pics and they knocked on the door and came in for a chin wag sadly we have got to push on on the opposite direction to them today otherwise we would have meet up again and made an evening of it. I'm sure our paths will cross again soon Guys (PS the picture I took of Deb Jacq and Stein was a bit blurred so you've escaped this time)

We are in a bit of an internet hole so unfortunately the pics are in one lump at the end.