North on the Grand Union - Uxbridge to Apsley

Friday we reversed off our mooring at 9:30, opening time for the Denham Marina, we were moored across the canal from the entrance. The marina is quite busy; on Friday we saw this boat(s) come out of the lock, call in for fuel at the marina and continue on down the canal, the narrowboat was the only one with power.

Several of our blogging friends had recommended picking up diesel here and the marina didn't disappoint! It's the cheapest diesel we've picked up this cruising season at 0.59ppl. While we stopped we filled with water and had a pump out as well.

The stop at the marina made it a later start than usual but the trip was a nice easy one. We saw a few sights along the way, I guess this boat doesn't move very often it was quite a substantial awning.

This boat had a very professional extension, not sure if he licenses the boat or register the car, since it still had registration plates.

This fellow has been hanging around from the top of this abandoned building for quite a while, I've seen it on a couple of other blogs. He is pretty large and not easily missed.

You don't see many hippos on the canals, first one Rachael and I have seen.

Arriving at Rickmanworth we found it was very popular with the continuous moorers, we seemed to be on tick-over for ages. We dived into a vacant mooring close to Tesco, later that evening we found why it wasn't taken by a continuous moorer with the hull banging against something submerged, too late to move now. I need to get a couple of wheelbarrow wheels for such occasions!

Today we left Kevin and Carol in nb Dunslavin behind at Rickmansworth, Kevin has had a cold for a few days now and it wasn't getting better so they are taking a few rest days. For us, we have a flight to catch in a month or so and we like to have a few days up our sleeve if we find some interesting stops along the way. Not to mention we prefer not to get wet while we cruise, that time is better spent in a pub.

It wasn't long before we picked up some cruising partners or more rightly locking partners, it's always easier sharing the workload of double locks. Enter Ian and Irene, fellow bloggers on nb Freespirit who had passed us late yesterday afternoon, Irene tells me they were in search of a better mooring. We passed them this morning as they fueled up at Bridgewater Boats. We were delayed going into our lock just long enough to see them waving in the distance as we entered the lock. We chatted for quite a time in each of the locks, perhaps we will meet again on a canal or even in Australia as they escape the English winter this year.

Ian and Irene moored up after sharing quite a few locks but it was only at the next lock we met our next locking partners due to being held up by some over zealous young fellows. With the two Casiobury Park Locks only 150 metres apart they decided to fill the lower lock as I saw the rear gates being closed on their boat in the top lock. Rather than empty the half filled lock we waited for what turned out to be quite a while as one boat had broken down and was being towed, side-by-side, bow to stern. We met our new locking partners as we waited for the lock and continued on until they moored at Kings Langley ready to head to the football (soccer) tomorrow. Cruising today we passed by this guy who seemed to watch us all the way.

We continued on, keeping an eye on the weather with rain predicted at 1pm. We arrived in Aspley nice and dry at 4pm mooring up just below Lock 67. There was even time to head across the canal for a drink at The Paper Mill. How odd that the Weather Bureau was wrong!