Copper Mill lock to Cowley Lock. Grand Union Canal.

 We had a couple of nights moored just below Copper Mill lock, followed by two more just above Denham Deep lock. While we were there Dave added a big relay between the leisure and starter batteries, triggered by the alternator wire. Previously we had a manual link switch; a relay takes one step out of the starting sequence, and removes the unreliable human element from connecting the batteries while we’re moving. It’s going to be a while before Dave stops thinking he’s forgotten something, but it will mean we always get to wherever we’re going with full batteries.

Between the showers we gave our little herb troughs a fresh coat of paint, and went for a welly walk round Denham Country park. Unfortunately, Ann-Marie’s wellies weren’t quite tall enough for some of the flooded paths and she came home with wet socks.

Dave had a run down to Uxbridge and recced the visitor moorings because we needed somewhere we’d be happy to leave the boat for a fortnight while we went away. When he got there he found the entire length of VMs deserted, which looked too good to be true and, under closer inspection turned out to be exactly that. Upcoming towpath improvements had closed not only the VMs, but also the permanent moorings as well. All the permit holders had been temporarily re-located to the unrestricted section further down, so when we brought Legend down we had to go all the way through Uxbridge and almost to Cowley lock before we found a suitable spot.

Despite not being what we’d planned, it turned out to be a winner; we could get the car close enough for trans-shipping holiday bags and it was clear enough for decent solar while we were away.

 Early on Saturday morning we trundled our luggage to the car, leaving Legend locked and securely tied to the rail track bank. (This part of the GU has a long sections where the bank is made of vertical concrete slabs with lengths of old railway line bolted to them. Although most people just bang a pin in, with a bit of jiggery-pokery you can usually find somewhere with a gap behind the track that you can get some blue rope through, making a much more secure anchorage.)

From there we drove through storm Kathleen to Anne & Andy’s in Bristol, stopping in Slough for Upton Park parkrun, where we got soggy socks from running through their newly acquired and unexpected water feature.

Despite our boat being moored under the Heathrow flight-path, we chose to drive all the way down the M4 to Bristol to catch a plane to Türkiye. As usual it was about money; Easyjet from Bristol was half the price of flying from Heathrow, and we could leave our car at Anne & Andy’s instead of paying for airport parking. (We hate having to pay for parking.) And we hadn’t seen Anne & Andy for ages so it was good to be able to go a couple of days early and spend some time with them. After lunch Anne drove us over to see Ben. He and Megan have a lovely flat in Bristol, at the moment they’re busy transforming the garden and doing a terrific job. The next day we all went into the city for a Mystery Trail, looking for clues to solve the puzzle. Really good fun, then into the Cozy Club for lunch.

Our flight was booked for the following afternoon, so we spent the morning doing some last minute shopping, then after lunch had a tour of Keynsham charity shops. (2 Denby plates. Tick!).

At 2:30 on Monday afternoon we were outside A&A’s at the bus stop waiting for the A4 to Bristol Airport. By 2:50 several other buses had gone past, but no A4, so we phoned Anne who kindly jumped in her car and gave us a lift instead. Well at least we tried.

 

Post Card From Türkiye.

 

Monday. Smooth flight to Dalaman, arrived about midnight. Taxi driver holding a board with our names on. Good roads and nice car through Marmaris and Içmeler in the dark, then up and down hairpin bends over the mountain and arrived at Physkos in Turunç 2AM local time. Bob still up, quick coffee and chat before bed.

Tuesday morning. Hello hugs, quick tour and swim in the pool. Oba’s for pm coffee and haggled for a Raybans, Oba’s again for dinner.

Wednesday. Up before seven for walk with Bob to Amos amphitheatre. Hot walk back. Bob made  dinner then we had failed DVD night. Barbie didn’t work! 

Thursday. Dave out early for a run along the seafront, then day on Musti’s boat. Three different bays  paddleboarding, snorkelling and swimming plus barbecue lunch, cocktails, magnums and lemon drizzle cake. Came 3^rd in the quiz in the evening.

Friday. Up early for walk to Kumlubük beach, then into Turunç to book activity for Saturday. 

Saturday. Picked up at the gate for Jeep Safari Day. Into Marmaris to join 7 more Jeeps then up into the hills for huge off-road water pistol fight before stop at Jesus Beach then nice lunch in the hills and visit to waterfalls with icecreams. Off road logging tracks back over the peninsular to Turunç. Evening Turkish night. Dinner, dancing, wine. Great day & night! 

Sunday. Early start for walk up the mountain towards Içmeler. Managed to get to the pass before turning back. Played Petanque and crazy golf in the afternoon. Hot day, so watched a film with air-con on. Dinner at Pasha.

Monday. Packed our stuff then out to Tea Garden for coffee and back to Oba’s for lovely Turkish Breakfast. B,M&A left at noon for the airport, we went for 2pm water taxi to Marmaris for final 2 days. Short walk from taxi to lovely AirB&B in old town. Wandered round the huge Bazar then back for beer on the balcony.

Tuesday. Walked round the castle & Museum then down to the harbour, followed by Donner kebab for lunch. Walked along the beach but very dirty, so back home for G&T.

Wednesday. Early run round town and along seafront, then packed our stuff and walked round town for a bit. Bought new earrings and sat on the balcony with a beer before going to Spoon Restaurant for slap up dinner. Collected our bags then were met by taxi at 7:30 for trip to the airport. Nice to see the journey in daylight. Flight was a bit lumpy to start with, but then OK. Landed at 2.00am. Uber to A&A’s. Cold and tired into bed @3:30am UK time.

  

It'll take a few days to get used to being back home. It felt like a dream when we arrived in Turkiye and it still feels that way now.

See you soon, Lots of love D&AM xxx

Cassiobury Park to Copper Mill Lock. Grand Union Canal.

Leaving our mooring at Cassiobury Park turned into a bit of a pa-lava. First we had to wait for a pair of community boats full of very enthusiastic scouts to go past us before we could get going, because they didn’t want to be split up going down the locks. Then, at the second lock, they got split up anyway as there was already a boat in it when they got there. Said boat was going down backwards because they’d run out of water and needed to go back to the tap, and the windy ‘ole that they thought they’d be able to use was silted up. So we shared with the second scout boat, which was great, ‘cos they did all the work.

As we passed under the bridge by the car park, Ann-Marie executed a very nimble hop-off and hop-on to pick up our new air fryer. Yes, Dear Reader, we have succumbed. Just like smart phones, it was a case of “No, no. They’re just pointless gimmicks. We’re never going to……Wait,What? Fifteen quid?! Stick it in the trolley!”. It’s a little baby 1.5l thing from Asda and about the size of a large kettle.

Perfect for the two of us and perfect for our tiny life. So now we’re looking forward to a summer of solar powered sausages and fish fingers. We reckon it’ll pay for itself in unused gas in a matter of weeks.

The Scout boats stopped for lunch and some dib-dib-dobbing a bit further on. We carried on down the cut to use the services at Batchworth, then found a gap at Rickmanswoth Aquadrome with the car park just the other side of the hedge. It was a pretty perfect mooring with the car right there, the town centre just a few minutes walk away, and - despite bits of them being underwater most of the time - good tarmac paths all around the lakes.

We stayed there for a fortnight, did plenty of running, got part of the roof prepped for painting and fitted some reversing sensors to the car. (which then didn’t work, but trouble-shooting will have to wait.)

We had a couple of days away, starting with a trip down to Somerset for Ann-Marie's cousin Alan's funeral. We took Mum and Dad with us and - although it was a sad occasion - it was still good to see everyone and to re-connect with people that Ann-Marie hadn’t seen for years.

The next day Dave helped Dad get his Lomax kit car running again. It had been a long time since Dave had tinkered with a Citroen 2cv engine, but just like riding a bike it all came back to him in the end. Dad knew why it had stopped working; the little cam follower on the points had broken off, but when he’d replaced the points with a new set it wouldn’t start. Dave figured out that the condensor that had come with the new points was duff, but luckily Dad had kept the old one, so before long Dave was having fun zipping round the estate roads on a test drive.

That evening we went to Aldershot to see an amazingly good performance of 42^nd Street by the Cody Musical Theatre Company.

 

That was followed by a late drive back to Legend and our lovely electric blanket.

On the following Monday Diane and Richard came for a visit. We had a lovely day with them, walked around the lakes...

...and into the Café in the Park, after which we introduced them to Five Crowns. We told them about our moving plans and, as they have a mobile home on a holiday park near Sherringham, there was a lot of chat about the ups and downs of caravan life. Really good day.

The next morning we were out running again, both of us pushing ourselves a bit further. Dave is up to 7K and aiming for 10. He wants to do something with a medal at the end of it in the summer. In the afternoon we walked into Ricky in the sunshine and had a wander round the delightful community garden.

After a night of rain the next morning dawned bright and sunny. We got the bikes out and cycled the Colne Valley Trail down to Denham Country Park. That took us along the other side of the valley and up and down a big hill; great views, but lots of bike pushing.

The HS2 line crosses the Colne valley on a huge viaduct between Widewater and Denham locks and when we were there the big bridge building machine was spanning the cut as it put the precast concrete sections together like giant Lego pieces.

The viaduct is quite impressive and not at all ugly, so we’re not opposed to it on that front. The justification of the HS2 project as a whole, however.…….

We’d planned to pop into Fran’s tea rooms at Denham lock for breakfast, but it was closed, so we had to make do with the country park visitor centre instead. On the way back we stuck to the towpath with the wind behind us; no hills, but muddier. When we got back Dave sluiced the mud off the bikes and put them away while Ann-Marie nipped into town to post our Easter cards. We got back inside just before the heavens opened again and spent the afternoon planning our moves into and out of London and down onto the Thames. We’ve booked a mooring at Little Venice, near Paddington Basin for a couple of nights at the end of April, and if the flooding is down and the tide is right we’ll be going up from Brentford to Teddington at the beginning of May. We feel a lot happier with a timetable.

On Chloe’s birthday we joined in with a video call with Jan & Paul, Sue & Crispin, Frankie & Harry and Jon & Jo. Really good, one of the better things that Covid gave to the world.

Easter at Ricky was good fun.

On Good Friday Ann-Marie made hot cross buns, but we weren’t sure that our two year old yeast would work, so Dave popped over to Tesco and got some just in case, and of course we ended up with loads. Ann-Marie’s were vastly superior...

 ...and without all the unpronounceable ingredients, but by bed time we’d eaten the lot.

On Easter Saturday we decided to go to a much smaller parkrun in the shape of South Oxhey and, along with 64 other runners, sploshed our way three times round the rather muddy course. It was a really friendly event, most people stayed to chat afterwards, and the core team provided tea, coffee and biscuits.

Despite the mud it was one of our favourites.

In the afternoon we walked into town where we got a free coffee and newspaper from Waitrose then sat and did the puzzles while watching the Metropolitan Line trains going by. Oh, we know how to live.

On the way back we went into Toolstation for some more undercoat for the roof, but found out that the stuff we wanted was cheaper in Screwfix, so almost came away empty handed. However we noticed a bunch of office chairs behind a skip in the car park so we asked if they we up for grabs. Not for the boat, obviously, but we’ll need one in Ireland, so we now have an office chair in the boot of our car. Not quite sure where that’s going to spend the rest of the year but, as always, something will turn up.

After Junior parkrun in Slough, where there were nearly more volunteers than kids, we spent Easter Sunday with Mum & Dad having a very nice Sunday roast in the Flower Pots - one of the pubs they go to with the kit car club - then over to Karen’s for a brew and a HXB. After that we were back round the M25 to Ricky for our last night.

In the morning we had a last dash round Tesco, emptied the loo, put a wash load on and set off in the sunshine to Copper Mill lock. Below the lock we snuck in on the water point next to a crew who were pressure washing a wide-beam and commandeered the tap for half an hour, then powered our way across the two river out-flows to moor up just beyond the Coy Carp pub. The River Colne joins the GU between Copper Mill and Black Jack’s lock, so after heavy rain it can get quite lively on that bit.

 

It rained again that afternoon so the washing wasn’t out for long, and we spent a lot of time looking out at the water whizzing by. It’s been a long time since we’ve been moored on moving water, but we’d better get used to it. This summer it will be all rivers.   

We have some big news.

We have some big news.

For quite a while now we’ve been aware that boat life can’t go on forever. We’re both getting older, our lives are becoming full of adorable grandchildren in foreign countries and our priorities are shifting. Boating - although we love it - has become something we fit in between trips away. We’re often asked “What will you do next?” and so far our answer has been “We don’t know, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Something will turn up.”

Well, Dear Reader, the bridge is just round the next bend, and with the perfect serendipitousness that seems to constantly run through our lives, something has turned up. Chloe and Shandy have invited us to live with them in their new house in Randalstown, Co Antrim. When we were over there in February we had lots of discussions about pros and cons and about how it could work, and we have finally come up with a plan.

When we started this Voyage of Adventure, our aim was to explore all the navigable Inland Waterways of England and Wales, with a focus on taking Legend to the limits of navigation whenever we can. We can happily report a resounding success in that department. There are still bits we haven’t got to, notably Godalming at the end of the river Wey (despite trying to get there six years ago), and Anglesey Basin at the end of the Wyrley and Essington canal in Birmingham. Both of these are planned for this year, marking the completion of our mission.

When that’s done we are going to put Legend up for sale and move to Ireland.

Make no mistake, this is a huge decision and one we are not taking lightly. We love this boat; it’s been our home for thirteen years, longer than anywhere else we’ve lived. We’ve had the absolute bestest times of our lives on board and we’re going to miss it like mad. It also means we will be further away from the rest of our family and friends, and that is going to be the hardest thing in the world. Everyone keeps telling us it only takes an hour to fly back, and while that’s true, once you add in all the airport shenanigans it’s really a whole day. Then again, when we were up on the northern canals, it was a day’s travelling to get down to Mum and Dad anyway. You can imagine, Dear Reader, how much discussion has been going on.

So, our plan is this: We’re going to have Chloe and Shandy’s static caravan (which we’re going to radically refurbish with lots of extra insulation and cladding), as a dormitory and hide-away. We’re also going to get a van to move all our stuff and after the move we’ll convert it into a camper, giving us the ability to have weekends away exploring Ireland, longer trips down through Europe, and back over here to visit our friends, family and all the bits of England, Scotland and Wales that a narrowboat can’t get to.

Day to day, we see ourselves doing lots of lovely child care and school runs, plus, when the static and the camper are finished, helping out with gardening and odd-jobs. There's a gymnasium and swimming pool in Antrim that we can go to between school runs, and Randalstown regularly wins Britain in Bloom awards so it would be good to get involved with that too.

So, we have not Become Listless and it doesn’t look like we ever will which, we have come to learn, is a good thing. Having things to do, dreams to fulfil, and distant horizons yet unexplored is what we live for.

The beginning of this blog was all about our transition from one life to another, and as we re-invent ourselves yet again, we’ll keep you - Dear, Faithful Reader - fully informed.

In the meantime, there’s a trip into London, Brentford to Weybridge on the Thames, up the Wey to Godalming, summer on the Thames and the Oxford, and Autumn on the BCN.

Oh, and next week we’re off to Tűrkiye for ten days, we’ll send you a post card.